PD session on Thai Phonology given by Piboon Sukvijit at GELI

Friday 18-Saturday 19, 2008

Today I woke up quite early to make sure that the house was spic and spin before I returned the key to Rick, the landlord. It’s my last day here in the house and at GELI. Time has flown by very quickly and I just could not believe that I will be leaving Australia for New Zealand very soon. Anyway, as soon as I arrived the office, I went right to my desk and reviewed my PowerPoint presentation for a PD session on Thai Phonology. Then, they had a little farewell for morning tea for me. Annette brought a lemon pie with lots of strawberries on it…It was very touching for me to see them telling how they felt about me fitting in the place real quickly and that I became part of them. I was very proud of myself to represent the University and country to be there and did my very best on getting to know people, the program system, the teaching, and other things that they offered over there. I thought that I did a tremendous job there.

Then, I went to Nathan to meet up with Hilda for a coffee and the graduation for DEPs. The celebration reminded me of my graduation in America and I was very happy for them to see them became successful in the program. Then, I took off to another event, which was the Aboriginal performance. I even danced with them and I got some white dots on my face as part of their culture and the show. I thought it was very cool. There I met with some Thai students who were in the ETP (English for EIALS Test Preparation). The performance was very interesting and we all enjoyed it so much. Other students there had a chance to pain a boomerang in accordance with their year of birth. I was not there, unfortunately, since I had to prepare for the presentation and help with the lunch.

The presentation went great and everyone really admired my delivery so much that some of them came up to me and said very nice thing about my speech and the topic. I started off the project with some background of the Thai Language and I had a VDO clip on from YouTube to show them. After that, I started talking about the difficulties Thai learners, as well as others second learners from Asian countries have. The presentation was very relaxing since I intended to make it that way yet they learned some new thing. By adding a bit of the problems that Vietnamese students have in terms of pronunciation came handy since there are more Vietnamese students than Thai students and many teachers have problems understanding them. Many teachers brought some food to share with others. Joy brought very nice sandwiches with some Kangaroo meat, others brought fruits and rice, and I brought American Pie that I baked the night before. We enjoyed both the PD and the food.

Since I was the one who did all the talking, so I did not have a chance to eat lunch. However, it was a good idea that I did not eat a lot since Judy and her family invited me to a show in Gold Coast called “Outback Spectacular.” Judy and I left early this afternoon, so we could go pick up my belongings from the house. We got to the place half an hour earlier, so we decided to just have something to drink. We ended up at McCafe and had a Latte. We got to the Outback and I did some gift shopping for my brother. The place was packed that night and the atmosphere was just blew me away. We got a cowboy hat each, which was part of the price including a meal. Inside, people sat down in a horseshoe layout. The show was great and really was spectacular just like its name. I enjoyed it big time. During the show, dinner was served to the audience. We had a salad, a Stake with some steam veggies and some bread; we finished off with Pavlova! The food was great and we just loved it. The show was about an hour and a half and by the end of the show, I had to say that I got some goose bumps since there were cowboys and cowgirls riding the horses and were holding Australian flags. It was right there that I felt like I was in Australia. I thought they must be very proud to be Australian which is true that they are very lucky ones!

Tonight I stayed over at Judy’s house since we decided to do things together on Saturday together. We went shopping for things and ingredients for a Thai dinner. I made Massaman Kai (Sweet red curry with drumsticks). It came out quite well. We ended having fried rice and the curry for my course and had ice-cream for dessert. Judy and her family enjoyed the food a lot.

End of term "get-away" excursion to Stradbroke Island with DEPs...Yeah!

Today around 9 am. we had to gather promptly at Nathan to wait for the bus to go the Stradbroke Island. We hit the road and arrived at the seaside suburbs of Cleveland and Redland Bay. We, on the bus, got on a barge to go to Dunwich. The ferries, barges and water taxis from the mainland arrive at Dunwich on the western side of North Stradbroke Island. This old settlement was first established in 1827 as a convict outstation. Today North Stradbroke Island is an island paradise only a few hours from central Brisbane. It is noted for the long, clean white beaches of its eastern coastline, the rich diversity of its flora which includes wild orchids, and its isolation and peacefulness.

The history of these islands are also interesting. Although the islands (at the time it was just one island) were sighted by both Captain James Cook and Matthew Flinders it wasn't until 1827 that the name Stradbroke, after the then Earl of Stradbroke, was given to the island by his son, Captain H. J. Rous, the commander of the HMS Rainbow.

On the island, there are many attractions such as Blue Lake National Park, Brown Lake, Twenty-Two Mile Beach and Point Lookout. Today, we went to Point Lookout and visited two lookouts. After about a 20 minute walk, I had to say that it was worth it since we saw the most beautiful marine creatures-whales, dolphins and a turtle. I guess they knew we were coming, so they came out to give us a performance (swimming and splashing water in the ocean so fascinatingly and magically.

After all the walking and excitement, we all started to become ravenous. Thus, we hooped on the charter bus to go have lunch on a beach. We had a whole range of international foods from around the world I would say. We all shared and had a great time tasting them all--from Arabic to Australian and American (of course represented by my Apple Pie).

After we decided that we had just enough, we went on the beach. A couple of students and a teacher and I played Frisbee. It was fun...after almost 5 years since I last played it in Philly! Then, I joined the guys in a volleyball game. Later on, a couple and I walked on the beach and talked about their Uni, life since many of them are moving on to doing their Bachelor, Master and Doctorate degrees. I gave them some good advice on how to prepare themselves in a classroom environment as well as overcome obstacles that they might encounter during their studies. I was blessed to be able to share my experiences with them!

We arrived the Uni around 5 pm. and luckily I was dropped off at home to pack my stuff and prepare for a PD session that I am giving on the next day about Thai Phonology. Will be very exciting!

Giving a lesson using "Signs of the Zodiac"

Today I had a new task in the classroom-another challenging one. I was given a topic to generate an activity; the topic was on the zodiac signs in which I had to also introduce the adjective and noun forms. After finished the class yesterday, I spent time on preparing for materials to run an activities. The goal is to have them learn those two forms with the talking and moving in groups. I first had them work individually on finding their own sign. Prior to going right straight to the activity, I talked to them about the birthday party that we had before the lunch break. We celebrated "Turkey's" (one of the students in the classroom) and my birthday in the classroom. The teacher kindly brought in a cake and some ships to share with the students. Thus, I started talking about my sign in a chinese year and in the Zodiac one. The students were curious and enthusiastic to chip in their talks. Then, I gave out sheet of paper with the describtions of people's personalities in accordance to their birth signs. I took out the names of the signs and left only with the describtions of the zodiac signs, had them skim through and choose the one that suited with their personalities. Later on,I brought in another activity. This one was about the collocations they learned from yesterday. In order to divide them into pairs and play another grammar activity, I had prepared strips of papers with a missing half of each collocated phrase, so students had to find their other missing half by saying the word out loud. The objective behind the activity was that (1) they had a chance to review grammar points, and 2) they moved more and stayed alert. Then, I explained the next grammar activity. This time I gave out a sheet with adjectives and nouns and their meanings. What students had to do was to find the missing adjective or noun forms and make a sentence with their partner.

In conclusion, I thought I did all right. I had them talk, walk to find partners, come up to the board (use the room as much as possible).

What I would have done differently was that I should, with the adjective and noun forms, try to ask them questions that were related to situations; for example, What does a nurse have to be?" or What do you think the three things on the list are you?" or "what do the nurse need to have or be?" Then, put the adj and nouns in the sentenece. I could even ask them to write down a sentence using the adj adn the noun. Considering an hour class after lunch and after their listening test, I thought that I did ok.!

After the class ended, I discussed with my co-teacher about the teaching. She really liked the activities that I used with the collocation review in order to pair them up.

Oh dear (s)....!

I think this the right title for today's blog. First thing first, Oh dear...(or should I rephrase, "Oh Koala or Oh Kangaroo!") I turned 28th today. Well, I am obviously one year older and, of course, one year "wiser"! They really made me feel special today. One good thing about it here is that people here make you feel like home and included. They try to support each other--as part of their culture of being very expressive. As soon as I walked in the office, I saw my my name was written on the board saying "Tuesday 15--Tuk's Birthday." They do it with everyone in any occasions. I appreciated everything they did for me. A very nice card signed by teachers was given to me on our lunch for "the birthday girl." We had a great time just talking and expressing about our students, classes and other things. Having the sense of support and inclusion, I gained more strength, energy and the love of my career even more. The first present was given to me from Judy and her family. That was very nice. My impression was that the gifts were nice (actually I really loved it, especially the card!), but the thought that meant a great deal to me!

Back to the class, today we started off with homework checking. Then, I took over the class and ran an activity writing a business letter. Since the students were given a homework in writing the letter of application yesterday, I volunteered to check the answers with them in the classroom. However, after all of the observations and teaching assistance I have done in the last 6 weeks, I have adopted the routine of ESA (engage-study-activate). I prepared some activities to help explained the subject matter rather than jumping right to giving out the answers.

I first divided them into a group of 2 and 3 to put the parts of a letter of application that I had cut into little pieces in order. I explained what they had to do very clearly and slowly, so that they would understand and the activity would run smoothly (since I was not satisfied with my last lesson given out to the EAP class). It did not take long for them to finish the task. Then, I asked each group to tell me the order and I wrote them down on the board. Next, I explained each part a bit more, but focused more in the body part with different paragraphs in it. I explained to them of what information each paragraph normally consists. I wrote them down on the board and asked the students to copy down. Later on, with the same group, I asked them to work on the next task which was to identify the given sentences in the correct paragraph in a letter. Finally, I asked them each group to contribute the answers and finished off with the conclusion of the key elements of writing the business letter. I thought I did a.o.k. with the tasks.

Then, the teacher gave the results of their reading test and went over the answers with them. It seemed to me that the test was perhaps too challenging for them, considering the time constraints they had. Oh dear! There, I could see the disappointment on some of the students' faces. They mentioned about not having enough time, so they could not complete the test and was not happy about the results.

After lunch, the teacher ran the classroom differently (having them move around more and working in groups). I could see more interaction among students with the activities they ran--less teacher teaching time, but more on students talking time and students' involvement in the classroom activities. Here, there were two games that I thought was good.
(1) This game was to help fulfil the exercise in the textbook. This activity was the combination of teaching the steps in a career path and the words combination--"you finish studies", "you apply for a job", "you go for an interview", "you get the job", "you go for a training course", and "you get promoted." Here, the students learned all these phrases practically by playing the game.
This is how they did: The teacher gave out each a card in two colors and those cards included different phrases mentioned early on. The students had to find their own group by color and then discussed the phrases on their cards and put them in a correct order in terms of a career path. Finally, we had two groups standing in lines facing each other and each group read their phrases out loud.

(2)The second activity is a writing activity. The teacher had the students worked in pairs and described the photos given to them. How she did it was preparing some blank papers with a photo on each one of them. Then she asked them to write a sentence using Present Perfect with "just." After that, she rotated the photos and had the students created the second sentence using Present Perfect without "just" in the new photo The same was done with the third sentence, except that the sentence had to be in the form of "has not___yet" and the last sentence was using Past Simple. I thought the activity was good and in fact we can even use the same photos with different tenses. The important point with this activity is to make sure that teachers explain the process clearly and effectively or else students would get confused.

In class with GE2

Monday 14 July 2008

Another classroom assistance with GE2 on my last week here. Time always flies when you are having fun, doesn't? Anyway, this week I am back to rather "passive" classroom dynamics. The reason I refer the class as a "passive" one is that students are not quite fluent in speaking English; therefore, there is less interaction between the teacher and the students. In contrary, the GE 4 students and above (including EAP and DEP)are more fluent in English, and they pretty know what they would like to get out of the classroom. Of course those classes involve more in the academic side.

The teacher started the class with the same routine of asking questions about their weekend activities and relaxation and explaining the itinerary for the day. The week theme for this week is Jobs and Work and so I was there at the right timing--as the teacher put it "an expert in English Business." I'm not quite sure on that note, but I would not mind taking it as a compliment anyway! Since students are not self sufficient in speaking English; therefore, there is more teacher centered. However, many creative activities are utilized. The teacher wrote down the letters of alphabet on the board and divided students into three groups. Then , she asked all students to come in front of the class, and each group wrote down names for jobs, work or careers starting with the alphabet they were assigned.

Then, students were assigned to ask each other, "What's my job?" and then worked on an exercise about collocated expressions such as in charge of, be responsible for. Then, they asked each other questions about their career dream. Here, I helped in asking questions to students and taught them how to speak English correctly. Before lunch time, students had a listening test and they were not very satisfied with the time limitation. Thus, I could see their disappointment and the tension of the class environment.

In the afternoon, the teacher had them write down some sentences using Past Simple and Present Perfect.

What I learned from this class by observing and helping was that teachers, in general, should speak slowly and less words in a sentence, so that students could grab the information given to them better. Furthermore, as part of learning, providing enough instructions and time limitation to work on any given tasks, as well as getting them to involve in contributing answers to an exercise, are vital. Otherwise, the teacher will be the only one who does all the jobs, but students don't learn anything.

More EAP and Pre-DEP classes and a PD session

Friday 11 July 2008

Since it's my last day at Nathan with EAP classes, I decided to observe more classes from different teachers. I went to another EAP class with a male teacher. I found that students, especially male students, were more relaxed and both teachers and students were relaxed and friendly with each other. It's also because of the fact that he has been teaching them for 10 weeks now. Anyway, the teacher always asked them lots of questions and asked for logical reasons for their answers. This I think the teacher wanted to be certain that they understood. Then, a couple of students had to give a presentation (just like the other EAP class). Here, the teacher wrote down words that the speakers had difficulties with pronouncing them; then, after each speaker finished, he asked the whole class to repeat the words. What I would do further is to perhaps also give some feedback on their presentation skills.

In the afternoon, we had a PD session on Islam in the West: Challenges and Opportunities. I thought the topic was very interesting. The speaker, one of the staff member in Help Program, talked about how we, as teachers and Australian citizens, could do to help make Islamic students, and others in general, feel welcome and be part of the society or be as other human beings. What teachers could do is to understand their culture and be mindful of what we do in and out side the classroom. However, no matter what ethical background all of us have, we should all think about other's first and stay conscious to whatever we do. It's also a two-way thing, as one teacher brought up during the discussion. They also should try to open themselves, learn new cultures and try to get the best out of it while they are studying here without interfering or giving up their own identity.

EAP class with Joy!

Thursday 10 July 2008
I still had the same class, but different teacher today. We had Joy who has been teaching for a couple of years; however, prior to that, she had been working in the field has an advisor. With the Psychology background, there was no doubt in my mind why she had such a great spirit, wonderful attitude, and endless energy! She taught to write a descriptive essay writing today, which I have to say it was very interesting. As Dr. Susan from the VDO program we watched on Tuesday about the brain connection and about teachers having to find ways to help activate their brains and make the students become motivated and interested in learning or to the subject being introduced in the classroom, the teacher explained how to write descriptively by using an object to create a descriptive topic sentence. In the classroom, the teacher drew a pencil on the board and identified the elements that they pencil contains. Then, she asked the students to help generate a specific topic sentence. So, we had a sentence on the board identify a topic sentence, "HP pencil is comprised of three main parts: the rubber, the rounded wooden body, and a tip" (a rough example though). Then, she explained that the topic sentence contains specific parts and general idea. Then, she had them choose their own object to write a topic sentence. There, I helped checking their topic sentences and gave them some ideas o how to write. There was a good trick from the teacher about writing a good topic sentence. Her formula is called "KISS" which referred to "Keep It Simple Stupid!"

Then, a couple of students gave presentations on their Newspaper reading. The program here encourages their students to practice their speaking skills by giving a presentation (I thought it's good to make it as part of the curriculum since students will not only practice their speaking skills, but also they practice their reading and writing skills as well). I gave out my opinions on their presentations since I teach the course at SPU. The students were very organized and did very well.Part of it was because the teacher had assigned them the task ahead of time by having them fill in their name on the date they liked. Then, the teacher keep the original paper with her and stuck the copy on the wall, so they were all aware of it.

After that we all moved to SAC (Self Access Centre), the teacher and I offered a free tutorial in there. We talked to several students-mostly the teacher gave help on their writing. I, on the other hand, interviewed some students about their satisfaction with the program. After talking to a couple of Islamic female students, they said that their English had improved a lot with all the activities they did--SAC, English Lab, Computer Lab, and the teaching. The class, they said, is well balanced since there are two teachers with different teaching styles and characters. One is very strick, yet very knowledgeable and insightful. The other one is more lively, energetic and fun. "They never waste their time teaching, there're always activities and assignments to help us to improve our English, " one student said. One Asian student, on the other hand, found that having a serious teacher is good in terms of discipline; however, it sounded like he felt more comfortable with the teacher who is active and fun in order to wake him up (since he works part time at night). He mentioned about preferring younger teachers since they gave him more freedom and so that he feels more confident and could approach him or her easily. Overall, he said he would like a teacher who recognizes students' weaknesses and tries to help them eradicate those weaknesses by giving out support and pay attention to each one of them. Another good thing he said, and I thought was good, "I want teacher to enjoy their career and make students feel comfortable!"

In the afternoon, I took over the whole class and did some activities with them. Since I had discussed with the teacher about reviewing a grammar point, I decided to make it fun and came up an activity that I had learned from other classes. First, I gave out a grammar exercise on Past Perfect and Past Simple. After they finished, I asked them to check the answers with their partner by reading it out loud. Next, I explained the grammar points to them on a HOP (I was going to gave out the answers, then I changed my mind in order to give a second thought on their answers after the explanation) and explained the answers to them. Finally, we played a game called "word building" (my own version). I prepared two sets of words on the list that was given out and taught in the classroom, I separated them into two groups, and had them picked out the words. A person from each group will have different word that was the same as the other member from the opposite side. Then, I called on the word and the players who had the word had to come out and generate a sentence using the given word in Past Perfect. Here, I killed two birds with one stone. My teaching was o.k. I was not totally satisfied with it. However, the students learned it and enjoyed it a bit.

Great Day at Work with Robynne and a PD session!

Tuesday 8 July 2008

It was very interesting to experience another dynamics of this group of students in an upper level. I learned that teachers' characters play such a big role in the class dynamics and atmosphere, which sometimes does not have much impact on students' motivation and learning achievement.

This class had two different teachers: Robynne (a teacher on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday) and Joy (a teacher on Wednesday and Friday). These two teachers have different characters, which was claimed by many students that it was a good balance.

Robynne is a traditional kind of teacher, who is strict and serious, yet she is very in depth with insightful details when it comes to explaining any subject matters being taught in the classroom. Many students who seek for improvement in English really like her. Today, she started off the class with a grammar exercise since she learned that there would be latecomers. Giving out the exercise as a revision certainly benefit both who show up in class on time and late. This way it would be fair for both side including the teacher since she won't have to repeat the new materials. The exercise was on mixed verb form based on compositions written by students who were members of a multicultural class, which is perfect for the students. While they were working on the exercise, the teacher called on some students with their writing assignment. She pointed out their errors in order for them to be aware and try not to make the same errors again. I quite like the method and would adopt it to my class, so I won't waste any second in the classroom. Moreover, I would try to find an answer to their question as much as I could at once, so I won't leave them hanging with the misery of the untold answers to the questions they have. However, if the situation gets too carried away and they would always rely on you to correct their mistakes, I might have to ask them to try to go back to their past mistakes and learn from them independently.

After the students completed the exercise, the teacher answered the questions and explained each answer with insightful details. As I could tell, students learned a lot from her explanations. Then, this is awesome, she had her students read the exercise with the correct answers out loud. She said, "Make as much noise as you can!" How great is that to have a noisy classroom! The teacher said this was the way to improve their English--learning how to speak English or write English grammatically correct by sound. As many native speakers always say when they correct try to understand something, "That sound good/sound right to me"

Then, students practiced their note taking and summary skills by watching a VDO program on Baroness and the Brain. Here what I did was preparing and setting the VDO program for the teacher. The topic per se was very interesting, so it kind of captivated students’ attention. While watching, the teacher stopped once every often to pinpoint and write down some keywords and expressions on the board, so students understood the program better and be able to take notes and write a summary. About the program, it was very intriguing to know that we can actually improve our brain connection by using our imagination or just by thinking. This means that if we want to be able to play piano, we can literally learn the theory of how to work out our fingers and then just practice it by using an imagination. It is about using positive thinking to succeed in doing something. This is a study of Baroness Professor Susan Greenfield. Her research showed that people can think themselves to better brains! The research was initiated by her concern of children being very passive nowadays—consuming too much animated media and living in such animated lifestyle, which deprive them from activating their brain. Watching TV too much or doing something too much with technology seems to destroy their brain connections. Thus, as teachers, they need to learn how to put students’ ideas to practice. In other words, they need to learn how to teach students to improve or stimulate their brain connections.

After students finished taking notes, they had to write a summary and shared it with their partner by reading it out loud to each other and constructive criticized each other’s work. Meanwhile, the teacher and I walked around to help out and guide them on their summaries.

After lunch, we had a learning vocabulary hour. The book we used was Focus on Vocabulary (mastering the academic word list) by Diane Schmitt and Norbert Schmitt. The teacher discussed the words with students.Here, she came up with a game to help practice the grammar points that they were weak at. The game was called Word/Sentence Game. We divided them into two groups. The teacher wrote down a word (learned in the classroom from the VDO program they had watched) on a board on both sides each round and had them one-by-one build a sentence around the given words. The last person had to finish and correct the sentences. Then, they had to switch the players and started with the second student first for a new round with a new word.

At the end of the day, I was so thankful to help the teacher and observe the teaching simultaneously as I learned a whole lot of good activities to be used in a writing course. Not only does the teacher teach grammar to the students, but she also teaches them how to think and organise their thought through integrated skills--by using games to improve their sentence structures, by having them watch VDO programs as a tool to improve their note taking and summarizing, by having them read articles as a tool to better their skimming and scanning skills. They learn more than just writing in this course; actually, they are able to employ and practice all their 4 skills.

Also, I have gathered good traits of teachers in general. 1) have good general knowledge on different areas or else they have to prepare material and find more infor about the subject matters ahead of time. 2) recognise students' problems and find ways to go circumvent them. For example, we could help late comers by starting the class with a warm-up activity.

Extra activity: PD at lunch time on Dictogloss by the department member Jacqie from MEAP (Mixed English for Academic Program). This is a grammar activity which is suitable for any levels. Teachers just have to adjust the means of doing it or they can cover tenses or whatever grammar points that have been taught in class. The aims of dictogloss are (1) to provide an opportunity for students to put their grammar knowledge into practice, (2) it encourages students to find out what they do and do not know about English grammar, and (3) it upgrades and refines the learner's use of the language through a thorough analysis of grammar and language choices. In short, dictogloss is divided in to stages: (1) the teacher prepares the students for what is to come, (2) the teacher reads or plays a tape of a short passage, (3)the passage is read at the speed of a newsreader, (4) The students write down what they can--usually content words, (5) students then reconstruct the text by pooling their notes, and (6) at the end, the text is analysed carefully.

Fulfill Students' Needs...

Wednesday 9 July 2008

The first thing we did today was reviewing the tenses on the present time tenses and subject verb agreement. The students were given a sheet of a grammar exercise and a limited time to work on it. Here, she emphasized the students to read out loud after they had finished the exercise because they could pick up the errors better when they read out loud. There, I walked around to help answer questions and explain tenses. After they finished, the teacher pointed out their mistakes repeatedly so that they would not repeat making the same mistakes.

Then, the teacher gave them another exercise that was requested by the students. Good thing that they really knew what their weaknesses were and keen to improve them.
Then she ran an activity called "a talking exercise" She gave out a set of verbs and adjectives, had them work with their partner to create a sentence, and then discussed with each other. Meanwhile, the teacher and I monitored the class and helped answer questions. Before lunch time, we went to Language Lab. The students worked on a program called Issues in English while the teacher checking their written papers and I monitored them.

After lunch continued on talking about Adjective + Prepostion Combination. It was good that the teacher asked the students the verbs they had difficulties with making a sentence. She gave out a list of those words and asked the students to look for words that they most uncomfortable with. Then, she wrote them down on the board and gave them examples and explained them in depth.

New Week with New Class-EAP

Monday 7 July 2008

This whole week I requested to be with EAP (English for Academic Purposes).The EAPs is located at Nathan Campus, thus I will be based here for the whole week. The office is smaller than the one at Mt.Gravatt and has less staff. As soon as I stepped into the office, I saw this great pigeon holes for teachers to pick up important information such as announcement, personal notice and other things. Every morning, the teachers need to check if they have received anything. I thought it was a very good idea in terms of communication among teachers and administrators. We can perhaps adopt this means to our faculty, so that we would have better communication and to keep the teachers updated to things. They actually have the pigeon whole over at Mt.Gravatt as well. Another thing, they regularly display a subscribed magazine or academic article reviews for teachers to read.

Anyway, English for Academic Purposes (EAP) is geared towards those who are interested in developing their English academic skills in order to help them prepare for courses in the university. There are many different areas that they can take such as business or academic skills. This particular class I am having this week focuses on Academic Writing. The teachers are Robynne and Joy. The class contains about 16 students with the Arabic dominance; however, they tend to speak more English in the classroom.

I had to get to the Mt Gravatt campus early this morning to catch an inter-campus bus to the Nathan campus by 8:15 when morning classes usually start. I was introduced to the teacher whom I would be helping in the classroom. Once we started to roll to the classroom which was a bit far from the office, I offered the teacher a hand to help with her stuff to take to the class. Here I could not help but felt amazed with how prepared she was. She had a trolley full with teaching materials in it. Very cute, I thought. Today we had Academic Reading, Project, Writing and Computer. Another productive and beneficial classroom management that I found here is that they utilize the computer lab for writing purposes. Normally what they do is to have students work on their essay writing in the computer lab hour with the supervision of the teacher. This way, students could practice their typing and at the same time it is good the teacher to check over their papers.

I visited and helped out in a Pre-EAP class for about two hours (just to get the feel of it). The teacher is Joy, who just filled in for another teacher for two days. I noticed that she likes to write down the class' activities on the board, reinforces students to employ English-English dictionary, explains instructions repeatedly, and asks for indication for students' understanding (this is something new for me). Right in the beginning of the class, she wrote down the itinerary on the board,so students knew ahead of time about the activities they would be doing. After introducing herself to the class, she introduced vocabulary and a reading exercise before the read or today's topic. She gave out a vocabulary worksheet with a mixed set of word meanings in strips of paper so students could work in pairs to match them up. Another thing, I thought was different, she asked students to give her indications on how well they understood the tasks and her instructions. By showing their fingers to her, she was able to identify if they understood without their friends noticing it. This way students would not feel embarrassed or feel like they were dragging the class if the teacher had to repeat the task or instruction again. This is what happens to my students back at Sripatum University, which stops them from asking questions in the classroom. One more thing, I admired her with the fact that she did not mind giving apologies to the students when she confused them or made mistakes. I found that this eliminates the tension in the classroom.

In this class, I helped students in the group discussion of modern medical science. I pretty much worked as a devil's advocate, throwing questions based on the week theme provided in "Cutting Edge" for upper intermediate. We had quite productive criticism and discussion on different issues: "Will we be able to live forever one day?" "Will we ever eliminate disease?" "Will it be possible to clone human beings?" and "Will we be able to buy the perfect body?" Other than that I helped explain vocabulary.

Before the morning break, I had a class with Robynne, who teaches an EAP class, whom I will be working with for the most part. The core course focuses mostly on academic writing; therefore, the class dynamics are a bit different from the two levels that I had in the past couple of weeks. The students in this class are more independent and having a plan to continue university degrees; hence, they are more anxious to learn and willing to master their English skills.

Today the class focused on essay writing, particularly on general statements (thesis statement)and concluding sentences. "Introduction on Academic Writing" by Alice Oshima and Ann Hogue. The classroom started off with a reading activity. The teacher gave out a set of two different reading articles. After the read, the students worked in pairs and told each other's story. In the next hour, they were assigned to write a two-paragraph essay based on their chosen article. Here, they typed as they think in Computer Lab (this I think is good for a writing course to have them work on the computer, so they can practice their typing skills as well as computer skills. Perhaps we have our students work in Computer Lab for the writing course over at SPU). In the afternoon, the students practiced their note taking skills by watching a VDO about bedbugs. While watching the program, the program wrote key words, especially idioms and expressions, down on the board and discussed them with the students. After watching the program, they had a discussion about the program. What I did in the classroom on my first day with them was observing to get the feel of the environment, the teaching style and the class dynamics. Also, I learned that there are many other ways to make writing courses fun and more creative and productive. We can easily adopt the teaching styles and activities to our teaching and use them with students. We can set up a theme for each week and integrate other skills in the lesson; for instance, we could have them watch a VDO program, talk about it with their partner and write about it accordingly. Here, they are able to practice their listening, speaking and writing skills. Also, the classroom environment is good. There are posters or students written materials stuck on the walls even some worksheets from the previous days always available for those who might have missed classes. The students are encouraged to use English-English dictionary in the classroom, so that they would think in English. How GREAT!

Magnificant Views at Mt. Coot-tha and a Coffee with Great Company at Brisbane Botanic Gardens

Sunday 6 July 2008

Working half a day on keeping up on my blog (I intend to finish writing a report and summary on teaching practices, teaching materials, and activities conducted in the classes during my visit before I return home). Then, Judy called up and invited me to go out. We then ended up going to Mt.Coot-tha and Brisbane Botanic Gardens. The two places are breathlessly exquisite, even better with the wonderful company! Before they arrived my place, I went groceries shopping and got some snack for all of us. This snack has been very popular here in my area. It's called Crispy Pancake. It comes in different fillings such as taro, chocolate, red beans, vanilla, peanuts, coconut and much more. They are not "copy righted" just yet, so I guess I could perhaps tell my friend, a snack vendor's owner, to sell them in our canteen at SPU!They would certainly become a hit!!!

We drove through "The Sand-Stone University" or University of Qeensland. I could not help, but jumped off the car to take the photos of the campus. The buildings are extremely beautiful. It seemed as if I had been in English or in some European country somewhere. I like the campus big time. UQ is one of the top three universies in Australia. There are many Thai students here as well. The campus is huge and very impressive!

We stayed at the hilltop for a while then we hit the road to the gardens. The gardens are just absolutely beautiful. There are a big variety of trees and flowers. They even still have a tree that nearly becomes extinct . It looks like a pine tree that could be seen back in the dinosour era. How amazing! Too bad, though, I forgot to take a photo of it in a cage. We saw a married couple having wedding photos taken there as well. I could not help but thought how strange it was to see the wedding dresses of the bridesmates and groommen were in all black! Very different indeed. Anyway, there in the park, we walked for a while before we decided to sit down and had a cup of coffee and a talk.I think I became Australianized by just drinking coffee (being addicted to it).

It was a another great weekend! I'm loving it!