Week 8 - Journal 3

Last week was really busy a week. I spent most of my time implementing my plans and doing my homework which is for other classes like sounds, academic reading and writing and human development project. In each of these Homework I found something that related to my plans. For instance, I found many new vocabulary words when I did my human development project, such as cognitive which is related to the mental and linguistic which is related to the language. However, I have done two things this week. Firstly, I have written ten words from what I learned in sentences. For example, I used “custody” in this sentence which is “Children who doesn’t have parents can stay in the custody center to have care”. Also, I practiced a filling gap exercises which is really useful. It was kind of fun and helpful at the same time.

In addition, I have focused more in reading this week. I bought Gulf newspaper to read it and started with headings and the bold titles. Then, I have read the articles which attracted me first. Also, I annotated these articles to make them easier. Then, I felt that was a good method in particular, with reading and I will do this plan next week because it worked with me. Moreover, I wrote three summaries this week. Each one took about 10 minutes. I noticed that I really improved in writing summaries because I didn’t spend much time in. However, I felt that I’m familiar with reading more than before. I changed my view about reading in English because I noticed my improvement. Especially, with skimming skills, putting headings, main ideas and paraphrasing the words. I felt that I’m more curious. For instance, if I see any books or newspaper that written in English, it’s really attracted my attention even if I didn’t understand what the meaning is.

Furthermore, speaking skill is one of the skills that I would like to improve. Last Friday, I stayed with my family after the launch time. Then, I asked them to share our ideas about any topic. My little sister who is in grade five suggested to talk about success. But, I told them that our discussion will be in English and this is our term. However, my father asked me to start talking. I gave them a little introduction about the real meaning of success and what should we do to be a successful people. It was really a great day because it was the first time we stay together and talk about something in English. My little brother said, that was a great idea and he needs to improve his English too. So, he will be the guide of the next Friday’s topic. I did well in last Friday even small errors and short pauses at the beginning persisted. Also, I have tried to use new vocabularies which I learned during the last two weeks. For example, I used “optimistic”, “flexibility” and “challenge” which related to the success. These words took my family’s attention. And I noticed that I can use a strong vocabulary when I speak. So, this activity was working a lot. However, it was a nice week with this great improvement!

Week 7 - Language Learning Journal 2

In this week, I felt better than last week because I understood what should I do and write in the journal. I started by memorizing five words from the Dictionary but in this time I didn’t follow the Alphabetical order. Because I thought about how long I will spend in A’s section which means I will not have various words. However, I had a look in the dictionary and catch the words that I didn’t know before. Then I wrote them in my notebook. Afterwards, I revised the five words that I learned last week and the new words as well. I asked my sister to test my spelling. I’ve got 8 out of 10 in the spelling test and I wrote the wrong words two times to save them in my mind so, I never forget them again. Spelling test inspired me about my true potentials. I realized that I really can memorize a lot of words but I cannot keep them in my mind, especially the spelling of these words. So, I have to make a regular revision each week for all of the words that I learned.

On the other hand, I started to record my voice and I felt that it’s difficult in the first time. It’s reminded me of the IELTS speaking test which was confusing. I have chosen two topics. One is about achieving success and the second one about money problems. I have spoken for 2 minutes only as a beginning but, I still made pauses and the words are coming difficulty. Then, I made another practice and spoke about values of the person, experiences, and hobbies for 6 minutes to increase my ability to speak more. I felt that I need to speak in English daily for at least 30 minutes because I noticed that I need to improve my speaking skill in English because speaking in college only is not enough! Last weekend, I found a friend who is a native speaker. She was so kind and I was interested in speaking with her. I spent 15 minutes chatting with her. After that, I felt that I can improve my speaking skill when I talk with different people about different topics because that will increase my ability to speak without being shy.

Reading skill is taking a part of my studying time. I found out a link that benefits me with skimming skill ( http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/words/reading/techniques/skimming/index.shtml ). I thought that it is difficult skill. But, I had a quiz and I got 6 out 10 in it. I noticed that I can skim easily, get the main ideas very quickly and it helped me to add a few new words to my notebook, such as the meaning of apply is implementing and the meaning of big is huge. So, skimming texts helps me to have new phrases for some words that I know before. Moreover, I will keep up with skimming quizzes to be more than good. Besides, I have read a weekly newspaper which is emirates news. That helped me a lot because I felt that I’m familiar with this kind of reading.. However, I will stay in touch with every thing that I did in this week because it were pretty useful. By the way, it was an interesting week.

Week 6 - Language Learning Journal 1

Last week I was really pressured by a lot of homework and assignments, especially the application of Language Learning Plan which I started to apply. Before that, I thought that I couldn’t start and keep working for my plans. But actually, I have tried to mix between studying and some fun to be interesting and start hardly. I have studied for three skills which are vocabulary development, reading and speaking. I used the Oxford Word power Dictionary to memorize five words by the Alphabetical order with English and Arabic meanings but I skipped some words that I knew before. For example, I learned the word “aback” which means to surprise or shock somebody and I learned “abandon” which means to leave somebody or something that you are responsible for. And I tried to use them in sentences. I thought that I can memorize more words but I just wanted to be careful with these words and concentrated on them. Then, I felt bored when I studied from the Dictionary, so I moved to study from the Internet websites. For instance, I used http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/~alzsh3/acvocab/ which I found a lot of good vocabularies that I can use in speaking and writing. So, by this website I can catch two birds by one stone. In addition, I have practiced on http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/vocabulary which offers good words for special situations like people’s meeting, shopping, weather and personality description. I noticed that I knew a few things but there are extra sentences which are related to these situations that I did not know where I should use them. For example, I did not know the meaning of departure date but now I will try to use it when I speak and not forget. Besides, even I did not like reading but I have to increase my ability to read and the skills that are related to reading. I have read a very exciting novel which is Teacher man by Frank McCount. I wrote a short summary for this story in 20 minutes approximately. Maybe I didn’t spend much time because I like the story and it was really attractive and wonderful. However, I have discussed this novel with my friends who are in B.Ed two and compare between what they understood from the story and what I understood. And I found that we are similar to each other. I liked it because it was talk about teacher’s experience which will help me in my future’s career. However, I noticed that I can improve with memorizing five words every week with their meaning in Arabic and English and I will focus on these words only with having a spelling test for what I learned this week and next week. Also, I will start recording my voice during the speaking practice and I will keep reading the weekly newspaper and borrow a new story to read and write a summary for it. But I will avoid learning new vocabulary from different websites because it took a lot of time.

Ayesha,

Hi EveryBody,

It's a pleasure of me to welcome you to my blog which is will contain my

journals whcih are like a reflectives for my Language Learning Plans.

I hope that you enjoy what I write and thank you for visiting my BLOG.

^_^

Your sister,

Ms.Creative.