Great inspirations!

Wednesday 25 June 2008.

Another day with Nora, I assisted her in running classroom activities and exercises. Today we had three hours of Integrated Skills, an hour of Reading & Writing, and an hour of SAC (Self Access Centre). We introduced the students a new grammar point-possessive "'s" in those three hours of Integrated Skills. Students were confused with instructions given by the teacher about what they did since the grammatical point was challenging to the students.

What we should have done differently is to write down instructions or examples on the board for them or prepare more exercises. Then, we should have drilled the grammar point by generating communicative activities.

In the afternoon, I had a meeting with Dr. Maria Dobrenov-Major (called as Dr. Maya) about the exchange program. Dr. Maya is a Program Convener for Graduate Certificate in Applied Linguistics, School of Education and Professional Studies, and she has made collaborations with three Vietnamese universities for her program. In the program, her graduate students need to fulfil the course requirement in practical teaching. Instead of having her students complete it in the country, she endeavours to have her students practice teaching abroad. With the needs to improve their students' English competency, three Vietnamese universities are willing to host those graduates. They offer them free accommodation and food as well as English classes for them to teach with the exchange of free teaching. Those students will pay for their own airfares and other expenses with some support from Griffith University. I could not help but thought that it would be ideal with our students if we could involve collaboration with Dr.Maya's program.

Dr. Maya and I chatted for at least two hours about other things and, of course, about Applied Linguistics. I was so much inspired by her to be able to speak many languages. She herself speaks about eight languages fluently since she is European. Beside, I was inspired by her to become a good teacher with endless energy and great spirit!