WEEK 5 ;Learning Journal

Q1. what is learning.

According to the online Oxford dictionaries, “learning” is to gaining, acquiring knowledge by study, experience or being taught. And I think these three points- study, experience and being taught- are very important to learn something.

First of all, I believe that “studying ” is learning something by myself. For instance, setting your definite goal of TOEFL, it is better to make study plan to get higher score. After that, you can buy some TOEFL text books and learn some strategies and skills from them. Additionally, in the case of the HELP program, I believe  that ”studying ” includes homework, because reviewing the classes every day is very important to learn new things next. Thus, studying is the first step to learn what you want effectively.

As the second step, I believe that “experience” is very practical element in learning something. It is because you can know what to do next to improve their abilities from the experience. For instance, to improve TOEFL score, I think it is significant to take TOEFL test as well as studying the TOEFL by yourself, because the result of the test can tell you what your weakness and strongest points in the TOEFL is. Accordingly, you can know what to study next. So, the experience is one of the important elements to learn.

     Finally, being taught is needed to learn something effectively. I believe it is very hard to study alone all the time, because you come to have some questions as studying. For example, even though you study hard to get higher TOEFL score, you may not succeed in that easily. Then, I believe it is better to ask your teachers what and how to study by myself. You can tell your own way studying and  show your current TOEFL score to your teachers to get something advises. Thus, I think that the teachers help you to study more effectively and it is one of the most important to learn.

     In conclusion, I believe learning includes the three important points as said the above.

Q.2 Strategies and Skills
     According to the online Oxford dictionaries, the meaning of “strategy” is a plan of action or policy designed to achieve a major aim, on the other hand, the definition of “skill” is the ability to do something well. Based on the meanings, I try to write my own idea what they are and the similarities and differences.

First, considering what these words mean in learning something, I think that the skill is knowledge, information or technique to learn something effectively. On the other hand, the strategy is a kind of study plan designed to achieve your own goal.

As for the differences, the meaning of the words is one of the different points. For example of the TOEFL, I believe the strategy include the purpose and plan studying it. Usually, the TOEFL taker has to consider why he studies the TOEFL and what his main goal is. After considering that, skill is needed to study the TOEFL, to achieve your goal, you have to learn how to solve questions and what the patterns of the questions are.

As for the similarities, the both of the strategy and skill are needed to learn something effectively. To achieve your goal, these two things are very important thing.

In conclusion, I believe the skill is likely included in the strategies, even though there are some differences. To success in what you want, these two things are fundamental points.


Q3. Presentation for the GOs
1. GOs for the TOEFL iBT.
I would like to focus on the TOEFL iBT( listening, reading, writing and speaking) to present how ro use GOs.

2. GOs for the research.
In my research in another class, I compare Japanese women with Korean ones  in university education. Thus, I am concerned with the using GOs to compare the education between the two different countries.

3. GOs for reading books
I am interested in how to create GOs in reading books.

Week3 Learning Journal Q4

Q.4
     Although the authors in this paper mentioned that GOs have several positive effects on reader's overall comprehensive abilities, they argued several questions on GOs's effectiveness. For example,  researchers discussed over whether the GO's effectiveness are sufficiently supported by evidences based on the practical experiences, because the research on GOs has produced incoherent findings. Also, the various interpretations of the GOs is another issue, because GOs user usually refer to very different visual formats when recommending to use it. Moreover, research on GOs apparently lack of the evidence on the effectiveness of the learners of English as a second or foreign language. Finally, the training to master GOs is limited in most research studies. The limited training of GOs less improved the readers' abilities.
     To the contrast, the authors mentioned some advantages of GOs. First of all, a large number of researchers stated that the reading materials including organizational patterns are easier to understand and remember than texts which do not have. Furthermore, it is said that the recognition of the text structure have positive effects on the development of the reading comprehensive skills.
     In conclusion, although the research on GOs have some argued problems, it can be revealed the positive effects.

Third week. Learning Journal

Question1. 
    The new thing I learnt inside the HELP program is how to write research paper at the writing class. My research theme is about women's higher education, comparing Japan and Korea and, especially I focus on their problems to go to the  universities. And, I have to interview some Japanese American students as one of the important research skills. But, it is very hard for me to do that. Firstly, it is because I have to make some questions for interview. The questions should not be too general and too specific and I should make questions to make interviewee comfortable to answers. Since I never have tried interview in my university, I found it is very hard to do research thorough communicating persons. Secondly, It is lots of trouble to find resource such as books, magazines and websites for research. In particular, since education is broad theme, I made effort to find the books related to my research. For these reasons, it is very hard but very useful for me to learn how to write research paper. Also, it is new thing to learn in the third week in the classes.

Question.2.
      Since I came to this program, I met many people and learned lots of things from them. Especially, in this week, I learned that I have to know about my country. This Friday, I talked with some UH students at the language exchange meeting. Although I did not sign up it(Sorry! Cynthia.) , I could talk with one UH student well at the class. We tried to speak their learning language and talked about our each culture. In particular, it is very interesting to hear about thanksgiving. Although I watched this event in the American TV dramas,  I did not know what it is actually. At the same time, I learned I have to know my country's culture more to explan other people. Outside the HELP program, some students often ask me about Japanese culture, literature, history and language. In particular, explaining about Japanese literature is very hard, because I did not study that well at school. Also, some of my freinds at UH likes Murakami Haruki, but I never read his book. Thus, I always feel I should learn  about my country and it is very important to know other poeple. This is the new thing oI learned outside the program.

Question.3
     There are several important steps to create GOs. The first step is reading fast without stopping, but to find signal words is also very important. For example,  at the GOs class, I learned some important signal words such as "both","different"and "similarity". It is very useful to find whether the reading construction is comparison or construction. Also, to create the GOs, understanding the reading construction is very crucial, because I should recognize and  divide the differences and similarities in the sentences. Secondly, as mentioned already, I have to divide the differences and similarities of some topics. For example, if the reading article focuses on doctor's work between Japan and America, you have to find the differences or similarities of their working way. Finally, when creating GOs, It is better to use two circles to reveal the differences and similarities. In that, writing some words and phrases simply is key point.

2 week 3rd question

3.Are there any reading strategies in reading in your L1
     In my first language, Japanese, it is very different from English in writing ways. Although it is not  strategy, I think it is key point between two languages. For instance, in Japanese writing, we usually write introduction, development, turn and conclusion in order and we do not write main idea or controlling idea first, because we focus on the process to make conclution. On the other hand, English writing focuses on the main idea first. So, when I read a essay or book in English, I should learn compotision of those. Even though it is very hard, it is interesting point in reading.

Week2 Learning Journal

1. One New thing that you learnt from any of your HELP classes.
     I learned several things from some classes at HELP. Especially, I would like to tell you one of them here. One of them is how to explain English sentences in English. Even though it sound weird, it is one of the hardest things but very useful for me. For instance, at GOs class, I should explain why some conjunctions are used in the sentences. To describe it, I need to consider about the word's definition and context between the sentences. The reason why it is hard to do this is that I usually explain such a thing in my brain in Japanese. Also, I did not have chance to to practice to explain English sentences in English  at high school.  At the same time, I can say that when I study grammar. For instance, it hard for me to describe why the answer is correct or not in the TOEFL questions in English. Even though it is basic thing, it is one of the hard practices for me and important thing I learned at HELP.

2.One New thing that you learnt from outside of HELP classes.
     There are lots of things to learn from freinds and others. In particular, I learned how to make relationship and the way using time from local people. In Hawaii, I think some people are so friendly that they often enjoy talking each other, even though they meet first. For instance, I was surprised at the situation people who first meet talked at the bus station. Since I do not like waiting for buses, I am always irritated at when they does not come on time. However, even though not all people, many people here does not look like being irritated at the buses. And they often begin to talk each other. For instance, during my first week in Hawaii, I met one college student at the bus station and we talked about our school, religeous and culture. And I felt the time had gone fast and I forgot to wait for bus.  From the experience, I leared that it is up to me whether I spend time for fun or not and to enjoy my stay in hawaii, it is key point to to be freindly when I meet people.


4.Do you have any questions about creating GOs so far? Anything you would like yo know at this point?
     I think it sounds difficult to create GOs, because I have to show some ideas logically and clearly to let people understand them. But it is very helpful to make presentation or show some ideas toward people in short time. In this week, I learned how to show the similarities/ differences and cause/ effect. Since it is sometimes hard to let people understand my ideas in the presentation, I found that the visual expression is very helpful to show some ideas in short time. And to understand the skills, I would like to know more about the sequence,because it sounds difficult to use it . For instance, I would like to learn how to compare intricate information such as law in chronological order. When doing presentation, I often try to include many information in one sheet as possible I can. But, as I learned from the GOs class, it is not good graphic. Thus, at GOs class, I would like to learn the sequence .






    

1 week 10/27

Question1
      I feel time has gone by faster this week, because it was the first week I took new classes this term. Honestly, I was excited but a little nervous to take the  new classes. It remainded me of the first day I came to the program. However, on the first day, in some classes, It was fun to introduce myself to the classmates through the activities and they drived me to learn English more. Before coming here, I used to research my theme alone in the university. Although there were some students in the same research room, I did not learn something together nor took the same classes with them. So, now, at the program, I feel the classmates seemingly have the same goal to study such as improving English or going to university in the U.S.. So, I am learning the way learning together or helping to learn each other. And this is one of the things I learned and recognized again at the classes in the 1st week.

Question 2
     Outside of the classes, I went to the restaurant with some freinds this Thursday. I met them at the coffee hour which is good oppotunity to talk with people outside the program, and they have different background. For example, among the freinds, one girl who is from Hawaii is studying Korean and Japanese as well as business. Also, another girl who is from Korea is studying Police Administration as an exchange student now and studied Japanese before. So, everyone is studying different kinds of things. Also they always try to learn new things. For example, they often try to speak the language studying and help each other to study. So, such a strong motivation inspired me to learn new things, especially their language and culture. In addition, they taught me that learning their language is good opportunity to know each other. Although I am learning English now, I am really interested in other language and cultures. Thus, this is the thing I learned this week.

Question3
     I think that  language learning and other types of learning has different points in several ways. For example, if you study English and math, you will have to learn some rules to master them in the both subjects. However, as for English, you will probably learn other than rules in dialogue. You need some freinds or teachers to talk to improve English more. This is why many people like going to English conversation school in some countries. For example, in Japan, despite of the high cost, the private English school has been very popular among old and young people. Moreover, it is the reasons why many people try to go abroad to study language, though some people go abroad to study specific area such as politics or science. Thus, I think that language learning is very fun but very hard and has some different points from other types of learning.

Question4
     There are several kinds of strategies such as TOEFL, TOEIC and IELT. And there are some reasons why we need to learn the strategies. First, strategies make us solve questions effectively. In the case of  TOEFL test, we need to learn some skills to solve many questions in short time. For example, in reading section, teachers usually instruct us to solve one question in less than one minute. Of course, it is very hard but necessary to get higher scores.So, we need  some skills to achieve it. In addition, the strategies help us study something basically. For instance, in the grammar section, I think that understanding the part of speech is really helpful to solve the questions,because it helps us find what the wrong sentence or phrases are in the questions. Thus, strategies are necessary and helpful to learn something.