footsteps in my daily life
After lunch and before I got down to do some reading assignments, I just felt like revising my website. And then, I decided to add two contents to the TESOL section: (a) Learning English as a second/ foreign language, and (b) Essays on learning/ teaching English as a second/ foreign language. The former one is further divided into three more sub-contents at the moment..., and one of which is "Tips & tricks of learning English - How did/ do people learn English -".
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In that sub-section, I'd like to provide various ways of learning English based on my own experience as well as on many other people's experiences. Just like there is not only one single appropriate method in teaching English, there will not be only one single right way of lerning English. So, the more variety of ways to learn English I provide, the more useful it would be for English learners: they can try one or the other ways presented there and will surely find the better ways for them. So, I'm thinking of trying to give questionnaire to those who are/have been learning English as a second/ foreign language one of these days. I have to make out some questions first!
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It started to snow again in the early afternoon...
In the class on Teaching Reading in a Second Language, we reviewed an article that thoroughly examined the past studies of L2 reading, the findings of which were opposed to each other. Two primary questions were posed with respect to L2 reading: (1) Are reading problems in L2 due to poor reading ability in L1?, and (2) Is poor reading in L2 due to inadequate knowledge of the target language? Some studies found evidences supporting (1), while the other studies showed favorable evidences to (2)... But it seems to be plausible to conclude that L2 knowledge plays more critical roles than L1 reading ability in L2 reading. Thus, as Language Threshold Hypothesis states, one needs to acquire at least threshold knowledge of L2 in order to make better use of L1 reading strategies and skills to comprehend the L2 text.
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One of the dilemmas for L2 reading is to build a large recognition vocabulary. To show how immense the semantic network of English words is, Dr. A gave us a couple of basic words (eg. book, station, deal etc.) and let us think of how those words can be used. It was fun and aroused my intellectual curiosity. I learned how derivatives are semantically related to one another through the activity.
I cannot get rid of my cold yet... still suffering from typical symtoms such as running nose, obstinate phlegm, sore throat etc... I just didn't feel like doing anything, and kept sleeping almost all day long...
I felt a little better than yesterday, so I went out to have some nutritious food with J-san. As J-san suggested, I went to a grocery store to get another kind of medicine after dinner. I do hope the new medince works!
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I've learned from the news on TV that the US and the UK are enhancing the security against the terror attack by al Qaida. The US goverment was reported to have raised the level of the security alert to the second highest one, Orange Level... The US Capital police seemed to have been told to carry gas masks at all times! Out of the threat of the attack, many people seem to have stockpiled daily necessaries and equipments... Alas, when will the ultimate peace come to us?
Since I took enough rest for the past two days, I was almost on recovery from my cold. So I could take K-san to STL airport: he took a couple of days off to see his uncle in Colorado. I simply imagined how nice it would be to have relatives in the US... After I saw K-san off at the airport, C-san and I went to a mall. We then went to a Japanese restaurant for lunch. After lunch we just had a look in at the Korean supermarket nearby. On the way back to C'dale, we stopped by the Cathedral Basilica of STL, where we also visited the affiliated mosaic museum. I hope C-san had a good time with me...
I went to school after lunch to join in the bake sale for fund-raising that LSA had been carrying on since yesterday. When I went there, only several biscuits and cakes were left to sell. And by 2pm. all the items were sold out! I heard from P-san that we could successfully raise as much money as we expected. I thank J-san, a Queen of fund-raising by P-san, for her idea and contribution, and all those who participated in the event for their cooperation.
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I heard from C-san that her grandma had been suffering from lung cancer... I wish that her grandma's pain, even a little of it, can be eased. I'll pray for her in the faith that what God does to us is always good for us..
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I learned from C-san about the Cathedral Basilica of Wanchin in Taiwan. I was so moved by the history of the church and people in Wanchin... I hope to visit the Basilica someday in the future...
I went to Longbrunch to study with J-san and A-sans. While I was doing my reading assignment, I learned from J-san an unfamiliar word in English, "octogenarian", which means a person who is between 80 and 89 years old. I'd never heard of that word until then. We then simply wondered if there was a word that means a person who is between 70 and 79 years old, and tried to find the word in the dictionary. Since "octo-" is a prefix indicating eight, we just assumed that the word might begin with a prefix something like "sept-", which indicates seven. Then, tried to look up the word like "septogenarian" in the dictionary, and in the end we found out that there was a word spelled as follows: "septaugenerian". Our guess was not exactly correct, but close enough for us to find the word! Are there any word that means a person who is between 60 and 69 years old??? Our search never ends... (^.^;