Of course, every English class must have at least one group project. When it was first announced that ours was coming up, I ended up getting three different invitations to various groups. The next day, we spent the first part of the day listing common issues for people to group themselves around, and I ended up surprising the group I chose to join.
This group was primarily made up of international students (one from Nepal, one from Korea, and two from Indonesia, plus one other native English speaker of Japanese descent) who’d chosen to work on a presentation on how to improve their everyday English skills, and at first it was hard for them to understand why I’d want to be in their group — after all, I was a native speaker, and didn’t seem to struggle with the language terribly often. I assured them that English can be something of a pain in the butt even for those of us that have grown up with it, and that I do occasionally have to work on how to phrase something or what words I want to choose.
I’m not sure they believed me…but the group worked out well anyway. ;)
We ended up crafting a short essay to hand in to JC, a brochure to use as a handout, and did a short (10-minute) presentation in front of the class summarizing the information in the essay. Here’s the brochure (5Mb .pdf), the paper is behind the cut (as usual).
Final score: 4.0.
Michael Hanscom et. al.
JC Clapp
English 101
February 26, 2006
According to the International Student Programs (ISP) office, North Seattle Community College has many international students, mostly from Japan, Indonesia, South Korea and Taiwan. The number of international students at NSCC has been increasing, reaching approximately 450 in the 2004-2005 school year.
In addition to the shock of adjusting to a new country and culture, one large problem for most of international students is communication — navigating the intricacies of the English language. It is often hard to express what we want to say in English and to apply grammar rules to speaking and writing. In class, we are frequently unable to join in fast-moving discussions or understand lectures, which sometimes makes us feel embarrassed or humiliated. Looking for more comfortable situations, we tend to group together with other students who speak our native language, sometimes losing opportunities to practice our English.
What makes English so difficult? One reason is that we rarely practice conversational English: our English education only focused on grammar and reading. Additionally, English learned at school is very different from the “real world” English used every day: people speak a lot faster and use many idioms or slang terms that international students are unfamiliar with: “what’s up,” “kick the bucket,” “shed crocodile tears,” “to go,” and so on.
Techniques for increasing our English skills can be broken down into four basic areas: speaking, listening, reading and writing.
Speaking
One of the most important and effective techniques is also initially one of the most difficult: talk with native English speakers as much as possible, and try to avoid falling into ‘comfort crowds’ with similar culture or linguistic backgrounds. Also, look for situations or locations to practice every day conversational skills. NSCC provides free language tutoring at the Loft Writing Center, and there are many students’ clubs or organizations like Business Club, IT Club, or Golf Club where you can mingle with many Americans.
Listening
Watching television can be a good way to expose yourself to English while relaxing at home. In general, news shows or documentaries, which use flat, generic accents and slower speech, are easier to understand than series, sitcoms or movies, which can have many different accents and dialects. Choose shows that match your interests or familiarity with English, so you don’t get too confused or lose interest in the show entirely. However, keep in mind that the quantity of the time spent on TV does not guarantee the improvement of your listening skills. If you just sit in front of TV and keep watching, that could be a waste of time. Instead, choose one or two favorite TV programs, record them and re-watch them. As you watch a program over again, you should learn the vocabulary which can come up in other TV series.
Reading
To improve reading skills, read a lot of English magazines, papers and novels. Start ‘small’: find something easy, then work your way up and adjust to a comfortable reading level. For beginners, young-adult novels such as the Harry Potter series are good; for more advanced readers, adult novels or best-sellers like The DaVinci Code. Popular works like this allow us to discuss and share our opinions with many Americans because the stories are familiar to them, too. If you are interested in Hollywood gossip, read People Magazine, which has a lot of idioms or slang. Interested in fashion and style? Then read Vogue, Cosmopolitan, and GQ. Even though these magazines often use a lot of slang that you may need to research, if the topic is interesting to you, you will not lose interest easily.
Writing
Writing can be a very strong tool when learning another language, as it prompts you to think more consciously about what you want to say and how you want to say it. Write in English as much as possible. Many people find it helpful to start an online diary or journal using free websites like Blogger or LiveJournal. Scheduling a time to “free write” about anything that comes to mind, either daily or at certain times during the week, can be an excellent self-paced learning aid. In addition, the online nature of such journals can provide another way to connect to and communicate with other friends or even family still living overseas.
We have introduced four areas and a few ideas for techniques to improve your English skills. However, the most important thing to remember is that learning a foreign language is a long term process, which requires your patience and effort. Remember this whenever you get depressed and frustrated. Don’t give up too quickly: new opportunities are all around you.