Amy's Blog

In the past 18 weeks, I improve my English skill and enrich my experience. Firstly, when I arrived in Adelaide, I was afraid to talk with English speakers, but now, although when I speak with others, I also have many grammar mistakes. I am happy to chat with others. Secondly, English writing is the most significant thing for me. When I started the PEP course, the 200 words essay is a difficult task for me,and I used the simple words and had grammar mistakes. But now, I can use some academic words and reduce the grammar mistakes. These independent skills are very important to me, when I study in university , I will get benefits from these useful skills.

These three weeks are very busy. I completed the final exposition essay and independent research paper. In particular, that is my first time to complete such a task. During that time, I enriched my experience and obtain benefits.
Firstly, when I researched information, I read a lot books and remembered amount of academic vocabulary. These vocabulary is invaluable when I start my courses in university.
Secondly, during last several weeks, I completed my first English paper. When I researched my topic, I wrote down a lot of analysis and useful document. This is a good practice for my note taking.

Next 2 weeks, I will have two exams. I prepare to do some practice for my exposition essay and note taking.
Firstly, I will review the last two essay, and find out my weakness, and practice on it.
Secondly, I am going to read some articles and take notes. This practice will focus on my reading speed. When I read the artical, I will write down the key words and sentences.

I hope my classmates and I will have a good results in these exams

Last five weeks, I followed Dave’s suggestions, and my writing had progress. After class, I did some exercise in writing, note-taking and listening. Next 5 weeks are the most important period for me, I have many significant tasks to do, at the same time, I must do more and more practice on my writing.

Therefore, I have a plan for next 5 weeks.
First, writing essay is a major task, I am going to write the essay in time, then I will ask my teacher and friends to give me some suggestions, these suggestions will help me to correct my essay. In addition, when I finish my essay, I will go to state library and ask the tutor to correct some grammar mistakes for me. I think, the best way for my writing is practice ,and to find some people to correct it.

Secondly, I should pay more attention to IRP, this task is different from others. Collecting useful information is significant thing for IRP, I should select information which is reliable. Therefore, database and journals are major resources for it. Meanwhile, taking notes is necessary, when I read an academic article, sometimes topic sentence is very crucial, I should writie down key words and topic sentences.

Finally, I am going to prepare for last exam. Everyday, I will give 1 hour to listening practice, and two hours to writing. Listenging will focus on some long lectures, writing will foucs on correct grammar mistakes and logical structure.

My classmates, if you have any suggestion, please tell me, thanks!!

In these 5 weeks, the majorty tasks are essay and IRP. So writing will paly a key role in these tasks. In these two weeks, I focus more attention to my writing. Meanwhile, I also do practice in my English listening and reading.

Firstly, I continue to focus on grammar, because it is the foundation of writing. I had many grammar mistakes in English writing. I download some practice items which are about correct writing mistakes. These practice could help me understand some grammar deeply. I think this is a effective method.

Secondly, sometimes when I talk with others, I often miss some information, and could not totally understand their talking. So I do some dictation practice in my spare time. I found some long lectures, every lecture is about 30 minutes. when I listen to lecture,I not only wrote down the key words, but also the whole lecture. This practice might help me to catch some main points when I listen to others.

Next week, I must organise my time effectively, because there will be a lot of assignment.
First, I write down the most important things in a paper and put it on my desk. Then, I will write every assignment in timetable and organise time reasonable. Finally, if there will have change, I will give adjustment to my timetable quickly.

If I have any new problem, I will change this plan.

Last week, I had a bad news from my essay feedback. In my essay the structure is not clearly, and had a lot of mistakes. Next 10 weeks I am going to foucs on my English writing. I have a new plan.

Firstly, I think feel for English is necessary. I downloaded about 40 short articles, and reading these articles quickly and loudly. This process would not take long time, about 30 minutes per day.

Secondly, Dave recommended some useful websites which are useful for writing and vocabulary.http://www.uefap.com/writing/writfram.htm this website is good for academic writing and for identifying weakness in my grammar. http://www.uefap.com/vocab/vocfram.htm This website is for vocabulary, and I can find lists of words for academic English.

Thirly, I borrowed a grammar book from my friend. This book is able to improve my English grammar. But it is not enough, I am going to practice my writing skill and ask a local to proofread for me. I think practice again and again is the best way for writing.

I need your help, my classmates. If you have some effective strategies, please tell me.

In these weeks, essay was a new task for me. I worked hard for my essay and found some weakness of myself.

First, when I read the documents, I always use Eng-Chinese dictionary to check the new words. This is a bad situation for a student who sutdy in English. If this situation will continue, my english could not have a progress. Therefore, I have to change my bad habit. The Eng-Eng dictionary is necessary for me, when I read a new word, I should use english to explain it, and Myuni is the other useful tool, if I cannot understand the meaning of new words, I will use the website in Myuni to find out the correct usage of the word.

Second, I am worried about my note-taking. When I read the essay’s documents, I always forgot the previous sentence, and sometimes I forgot to take notes. This is a very important skill for study, and could save a lot of time. So I will adjust my plan, I used BBC 6min English, I think it is too short for practice my note-taking. I found a new website, in this website, there have many famous English lectures, and have script of every lectures. I am going to listen to these lectures and take notes. If the lecture is too long for me, I will divided it in two parts. Every part I am going to listen 3 times, and write the main points. At the end of listening, I will check my notes use the script.

These are my new problems in these weeks. My plan may be have some shortage. I am finding a new improvement strategy.

This new week, we started to learn how to write essay. This is a new challenge for me.

Yesterday teacher gave us a task, the task was read the article, our group had to read about 7 pages. Last night, I read our part, and I found it difficult for me to understand the whole article. Sometimes I felt tired and puzzle. I think if I could not understand the article, I would not complete my essay. So that I must adjust my learning plan, the next week I will focus on my reading. Firstly, I am going to read the documents carefully, and focus on the details, it will take me about 2 days. I am going to read the fourth part more carefully, because I think it is the most important part for my essay. Secondly, last week I paid more attention to my listening practice, I am going to give more time to practice my reading. The ‘Times’ newspaper is my documents about practice, next week I will pick two news to read from the newspaper everyday, and use word to save the news, if I have new words, I will use red color as mark.

The other challenge for me is write essay. First, tomorrow I am going to print the introduction about essay from myuni, and read it. Second, I need to find some excellent essay to read and learn from them. But I do not know where I could find some useful essay as example, my classmates, could you give me some useful informations about it? So that I would make my plan in detail. Thanks my classmates!!

First,I am very glad to receive a lot of advices from my classmates, I have benefits from these advices.

Second, in this week, I felt tired but happy. From last weekend, my partners and I began our group work togeher. Everyday after the PEP class,we gathered to discuss our assignment in BSL, sometimes I wanted to sleep, but when I saw my partners worked hard, I sobered up. I have excellent partners this week. They gave me a lot of help. Thanks my partners!

We will finish our first 5 weeks in the PEP course, Next 5 weeks I am going to have a new plan to improve my English skills. The significant skills for me are listening and writing, this week I try my plan and will give some adjustments for it. Firstly, listening BBC learning English, it is about 6 min English speaking. When I listen to it, I take notes quickly and write down some key words, every part I will give myself two times to listen.When I finish listening part, I write down the summary about this topic, and follow the text to find the new words and memorize them. This process may take me about 45 min. Secondly, reading Times newspaper on website, everyday I choose an interesting news from this website and copy it to word, and read this news carefully, select some useful words from it.

I think improve my English skills is a difficult but happy way, in this way, I will have many experiences for my future study. If any guys have better advices for me, I will glad to accept it. Thanks again.^^

This week my partner and I finished our academic poster.Maybe it is not perfect,but this is a experience for us.
Now,I would talk about my progress in these 4 weeks.Before I arrived in Adelaide,I was afraid to talk with foreigners.I think my English speaking is very poor,nobody could understand what I said.In China,I never talk with English speakers except IELTS examiner.But when I studying in Adelaide,I must study in English and the first thing is talk with other students in English,in this case,I started to speak English use simple words.I find this is a effective way to improve my speaking,because when I talk with others,I can learn some new sentences and then I would use it.Now I can chat with my Arabian classmates,maybe sometimes I must explain myself use a lot of words,but most of time they understand my idea.

In these 4 weeks,I strongly worry about my vocabulary.My speaking,writing,reading have many problems,if I have enough vocabulary,maybe I could solve these problms.I am very good at Chinese writing and speaking, why I can do it better than other students,because I read a lot of books and I am very interest in it.In my opinion,the studying way of every language is similar.Firstly,I must have interest in this language.Secondly,if I want to use this language expertly,I must read a lot of books and learn from others,so that I would have enough experiences in my study.

The next week,I am going to follow my plan and I hope my classmates will have great progress in the PEP course.

When I began to study English, I found writing was the biggest problem for me,and I paid less attention to my writing skill. In the University, the English lesson is not important for our class, so I gave it up.

But now, I must study in English,and writing is one of the most useful skills for me. Smoetimes I cannot express my opinion clearly and always use some simple words in my writing practice. Gradually, I lose confidence in my writing….I use worng words,wrong grammar,wrong punctuation all the time. I feel so sad.

When I began my PEP course, I started to find effective strategies to improve writing skill. Fristly, I bought a vocabulary book, and prepare to remember more and more academic words. Sencondly, I found some newspapers’ websit, everyday I read a report and try to remember some useful words. Thirdly, I plan to practice my writing every three days and ask for my friend check it for me.

I wish to have improvement when I finish my PEP course and I must try my best!!!!

On Friday, my friends and i went to the hahndorf. It is a peacaful town. and has many shops and restaurants.

I found a good way to improve my english speaking and i can remember some useful words. One day, i wanted to drink some juice, in boost, i asked the servers:” Can you tell me which is the best one in your shop.” The servers answered:” The most popular is mango banana….” and then, i knew if i wanted to choose a best one in their shop , i could say:”which is the most popular….”

In the hahndorf, when i came to a small shop, the host was very friendly. She said:”….gorgeous day….” i forget what she said,but i caught this word,and i said:”sorry?” Then the host smiled and changed a word,she said:”….wonderful day….” So i thought the “gorgeous” maybe had the same meaning with “wonderful”.When i got back home i looked this word up in dictionary,and i remembered this new one.

Maybe next time, you could use this way. I think it is a good way^^

In the PEP week 2, i had a puzzle. How do you finish your ‘culture info report’? Use google or go to the library to find some useful informations? Sometimes i use google, but i think it is not enough academic. Guys, do you have some good ways to select the useful information for yourselves?

PS:we took these pictures in hahndorf