footsteps in my daily life
I saw lots of students carrying their stuffs into the dorms on campus. This is a very typical scene found everywhere before each semester begins... I also saw some students hugging one another on the street sharing the pleasure of meeting again after a long while... What a heart-warming scene it is! Finally, the Spring semester, my last semester at SIUC, starts tomorrow! Determination and Perseverance...
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I took K-san to several places around the town since he was running out of some daily necessaries: he still looked a little sick, but seemed to be gradually getting better...
It was the first day of the Spring semester! The class I've registered for is on Teaching Reading in a Second Language. I expected a small class with 10 students at most; however, there were as many as 16 students! In this course, we are expected to explore the issues on L2 reading from various perspectives; from psycholinguistic point of view; in comparison between L1 and L2 reading; from researching as well as pedagogical point of view etc... The process of reading is so complex and dynamic as to reveal how amazing human's cognitive ability is... It's kind of exciting to study reading.
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Action research... Both scientific and pedagogical perspectives are important in language teaching...
I had lunch with C-san: he treated me to lunch to celebrate my graduation 4 months in advance!!! What a nice of him! It's been a quite while since I last saw him, thus we had lots of things to talk over meal. Afterward, we stopped by a couple of places like the post office, a bookstore, and the Ling. Department etc... Later on I went out with J-san and A-san to have dinner.
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It was very cold today. According to the weather forecast, it will start to snow tomorrow late at night... I've got to go to STL tomorrow, so hopefully I can get back to C'dale before it starts to snow...
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Hideki Matsui, a new baseball player of Yankees, made his appearance on TV shows today: even on Late Show with David Letterman! An ABC News anchor ironically commented that Irabu, a last Japanese player of Yankees, was harshly nicknamed as a "fat toad", and that Matsui is just a "bigger reptile" since he's nicknamed as Gozzira...
I went to STL with C-san. On the way to Wespine, where I met M-san and P-san, we stopped by Galleria and enjoyed shopping: a clearance sale was still running at some shops! Then on the way back to C'dale, C-san and I stopped by a pasta shop to have dinner: since we ordered large size, ice cream came along with the pasta for free! The pasta I ordered was so substantial that I couldn't finish it up.
It was so delicious! On the way to and from STL, C-san and I talked a lot about teaching English, education in general, and lots of others... I could reform or develop some of my own ideas about those issues through conversation with him. It was a fruitful discussion to me...
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Arguments over racial discrimination and diversity in higher education in the US, which originated in an American student's complaint against criteria for admission in U. of Micihgan, are prevailing nationwide.
I went out to have lunch with J-san. I then went to the resource room in the Ling Department to find some materials for a text-evaluation assignment in Ling 587. Later on I drove M-san to the Health Center on campus. Speaking of medical service in the US, a patient is to talk with a nurse first before seeing a doctor: the nurse gets as much information about the patient as possible including current condition, past medical history, and even those information of other members of his/her family. The separation of roles between nurses and doctors is quite obvious.
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After dinner, I went to the Recreation Center with T-san to play tennis. I could not move freely since there was not enough space behind the line due to the net hanging from the ceiling... Nevertheless, I could have fun playing tennis... At the Recreation Center I happened to see O-san. I was glad to be able to say hello to her before she would leave C'dale for California. I wish that new life brings on her joy and bright future.
I got my hair cut today. After that I went to the Rec Center to work out: it was the first time in four weeks!, so I had to start over again lifting weights with lighter one... The loss of strength over the past four weeks was obvious... I'm convinced that continuation does indeed count! After the weight training, I played badminton with T-san, A-san and others. I made up my mind to join the practice of badminton every Tuesdays and Fridays.
I took a group of Korean students to several places in the town. They are exchange students learning English at the language center in SIUC. Many of them are very active and outgoing, which I believe is one of the critical attitudes in a second language learning. The textbooks of SLA usually deal with the topic of personality factors or the affective domain. Language teachers should be more aware of the significance of the psychological aspects of SLA, and try to educe those positive attitudes from students through activities or tasks.