Discussion Board

RE: Why English is the lingua franca in our time

Author:

Tran Mai Khanh HOANG

Posted Date:

Monday, January 24, 2011 3:37:42 PM EST

Edited Date:

Monday, January 24, 2011 3:37:42 PM EST

 

In any event, English is used by more than 800 million multilingual in Asia alone (Bolton 2008). English is now an Asian language; it is commonly used as a lingua franca throughout Asia by so-called non-native speakers in order to communicate with other non-native speakers. Because of the popular English, many children have to learn English when they just study at primary school. In general, I think the primary school should focus on local languages; children need linguistic confidence and a sense of identity.

TED - An useful website for English listening

TED is one of my favorite websites when I begin to study E7 level. From this website, I have watched a lot of useful oral presentations or lectures such as:"What's wrong with what we eat" (Mark Bittman on), "Environment: John Kasaona - How Poachers became Caretakers" (John Kasaona). It help me improve my English listening skill and oral presentation as well. When I listen to a speaker from this website, I recognize which things will make a successful presentation. Additionally, I can not only listen but also can take notes when I do listening and check tape script after completing. Interestingly, almost all websites have English subtitles and Vietnamese subtitles which help me follow easily the presentation. 

http://www.ted.com/ 

Learning journal in the third week

I have gone a half of E7 routine so it is not extraordinary to me. I understood the basic of a critical response essay and I had a writing test this week. I am waiting the result which will be noticed on next Monday. I have known some new vocabularies on critical essay such as "vested interests", "coherent" and so on. And now I am preparing to practise to analyse two articles to evaluate them. It seems not to be so difficult but it makes me confused about choosing an appropriate essay structure. In addition, I need to learn some comparative languages to support my writing because we have to compare the arguments of two articles. I finished an essay to critically respond the article of Carnegie and the article of Croydon and I am looking for the feedback from Sara and Rosie.

This week, I have searched some journals and images to prepare my oral presentation. I will make and design the content of presentation at this weekend. I have to spend more time to finish it next week because the final exam is coming. I practised some listening tests in class with a variety of topics; therefore, I could identify some signal languages and key information. However, I have not answered over a half of total questions; I should do more listening tests to achieve the good result at the end. We also read many articles to do short answer questions and sentence completion. I can identify where the answers are in the reading text but it is difficult to paraphrase them. The requirement is short answer but my answer is sometimes too long. It is necessary to review the grammar points to absolutely correct the sentence completion part.

The final test is coming so I need to study harder in the next week. Try my best! E7I, we will pass...

Second critique from Discussion Board

The impact of Business English on the economy

 It is the same situation with Vietnam. The English business was affected by English. Many English schools have established in th recent year such as the language school, from the international primary to the international university. A lot of Vietnamese want to study English. The parents also encourage their children learning Enlish when they were kindergarten. As a result, there are many language school and it is difficult to choose a good school to the learners. Although there is the development of number of schools, it is not easy to know and control their teaching quality.
Mary

Critique from Discussion Board

Why we should learn English

Learning English is very necessary to students like me. I want to study the Master level, I have to be good at English to read the materials and understand the lecturers. There are many books and journals are not translated to my own language so English is a tool which help you access the knowledge. Moreover, because I need to have a good job with high salary in the future, I must use English fluently. Using English, I can work in a multinational corporation and will be promoted in a high position. From that, I can satisfy some main demand of myself such as supporting my parents and helping the poor people in my country.

VOA Learning English

The Voice of America (VOA) is one of the world's most trusted sources for news and information from the United States and around the world. On the other hand, it is also a helpful website for students who are learning English. It has a core vocabulary of 1500 words.  Most are simple words that describe objects, actions or emotions.  Some words are more difficult.  They are used for reporting world events and describing discoveries in medicine and science. Special English broadcasters read at a slower pace, about two-thirds the speed of standard English.  This helps people learning English hear each word clearly. Therefore, I can enlarge my vocabulary and improve my listening skill.

http://www.voanews.com/learningenglish/home/ 

Be better in the second week

The first week has gone with many extraordinary things in new module. However I felt better after our teachers had guided us about the assessment a lot. Therefore, I had a little confidence to begin week two.
Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
In writing, I practiced one critical response essay and Rosie gave me the feedback. It was probably better than last one. I have known how to write a completely critical essay and I have understood about the used language in a critical writing. I also have known what the difference between the bias, tone and language is and how to identify and evaluate the author's arguments. Nevertheless, I have not explained  clearly the reason why I give my responses. I have to improve my writing more next week.
In reading, our teachers gave us some reading tests. They are not so difficult but it is not easy to answer the question correctly. I need to read more carefully and choose the best answers. I learned some new academic vocabularies and I believe that they are very useful for my study.
In listening, we practiced two listening tests in class and I realised I had improvement in the second test. That is the result of my practice in ILC. I often listen news and take notes in the break time. Although I improved my listening skill a little, I think it is not enough to pass E7. Thus, I know that I will have to learn and practise more next week.
In speaking, I have chosen a topic for my oral presentation after a long time of searching references. My topic is "The difficulties of Vietnamese students in learning English" and I focus on the English pronunciation. I think it is an interesting topic because I can describe something about my own language - Vietnamese.

My learning journal may be better and I hope I will ameliorate in next weeks.

And now! Do homework and enjoy the weekend.... hip, hip, hurray!