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goodbye and good luck

This will porbably be the last post at Toeflblog. Thank you every one for participating. I'm sorry if I haven't replied to everyone who has left comments but there have been a few technical issues to work out.

I hope this has been a useful part of the course for you,

goodbye and good luck!

michael

Online writing assignment 2

Online writing assignment 2

This week I'd like you to read this article
and write your reaction to it in the comments section. Your reply doesn't have to be a toefl-style essay. You should use the same thinking process though. I'm interested in whether you agree or disagree and why or why not? Remember to put your name and email address in your post.

Thanks
Michael

Studying is bad, Learning is good

Someone made this comment


" MY FATHER TOLD ME THAT I NEED TO STUDY ENGLISH 7-8 HOURS A DAY .DO U THINK THAT IS GOOD FOR ME ?"


If you're asking the question, maybe you think that it's not good for you.

Ask yourself how many things you can do for eight hours a day.


Is studying one of them?

It's not on my list.

Reading is, though.
So is, surfing the internet.
So is riding my bicycle.

What's the difference between studying and learning?


Studying English doesn't have to mean working with a grammar book
all day or trying to memorize all the question types on the TOEFL or copying words from the dictionary or anything that you think is "studying".

Read a book or magazine or newspaper in English. Watch a DVD. Listen to music. Write a diary. Start a blog. Play a game.

Research your hobbies on the internet. Whatever you're interested in. Just do it in English.

I love learning but I hate studying.

Spend 8 hours a day learning if you can. If you can't, spend five minutes. quality is more important than quantity.

The most important thing is that you should enjoy it.

As usual, I'll be interested in any comments you have on this.


Michael

If you're really interested, read this.

AGAINST SCHOOL

How public education cripples

our kids, and why

By John Taylor Gatto

John Taylor Gatto is a former New York State and New York City Teacher of the

Year and the author, most recently, of The Underground History of American

Education. He was a participant in the Harper's Magazine forum "School on a Hill,"

which appeared in the September 2001 issue.

I taught for thirty years in some of the worst schools in Manhattan, and in some of the best, and during that time I became an expert in boredom. Boredom was everywhere in my world, and if you asked the kids, as I often did, why they felt so bored, they always gave the same answers: They said the work was stupid, that it made no sense, that they already knew it. They said they wanted to be doing something real, not just sitting around. They said teachers didn't seem to know much about their subjects and clearly weren't interested in learning more. And the kids were right: their teachers were every bit as bored as they were.

Online Writing Assignment

Once a week for the rest of the course, I'll be posting a topic here for you to write about. the topics will be similar to those you will see in the TOEFL and your response should be similar to what you would do on the test.

Make sure you give your opinion and support it with examples, reasons or evidence. 
Please write your response in the comments section. Include your name and your email address at the end.
This week's topic is:
Technology or Tradition, Which is more important and why? 
Please post your reply before Monday, August 2nd.
Thanks,
 Michael

Listening

Many of you made comments about wanting to improve your listening skills , so here is some advice:


Although it can be difficult to find things in English to listen to in Vietnam, it's not impossible. There are a number of things to do. There are pros and cons to each one

radio
A small shortwave or world band radio is an inexpensive way to listen to programmes from all over the world. The most useful are BBC World Service and Voice of America. Other countries also have international broadcasters as well. These are an excellent source of live, natural English 24 hours a day, seven days a week. There are a few disadvantages with short wave, though. It can be difficult to listen to because the signal strength is variable at different days and times. Because of the nature of the atmosphere, shortwave broadcasters put their signals on different frequencies at different times of day. It can be annoying to chase a signal all over your radio dial. There is an element of serendipity though and occasionally you hear things you weren't expecting to find. I enjoy listening to shortwave in English and Russian and try to spend a few minutes every day listening to the news.

cable tv
Another way to practice listening is watching TV. If you have cable tv at home, programmes on Discovery Channel are interesting and informative. You can also watch National Geographic Channel or any of the (movie channels or even MTV for exposure to natural dialogue. Remember that you don't have to understand every word. Listen for main ideas, supporting ideas and opinions. The drawbacks to tv are that you have to subscribe(pay for the service) and sometimes there's just nothing on. With any kind of listening you should try and find subjects you are interested in.

video
Video cassettes and DVDs of English language films are easy to find. Many of them have subtitles in English but these are often indecipherable because of poor grammar or vocabulary. You can turn that to an advantage by deciding how to correct the mistake or covering the bottom of your screen so you don't see them.


internet
Many of the radio stations I mentioned earlier can also be heard over the internet.
You need a computer with a sound card, speakers and some software like winamp or real audio . These are free to download. The disadvantage is that unless you have a high bandwidth(ADSL) internet connection, it can be difficult to listen to long programmes. You can do it in the ILA ILC which does have ADSL.


lab
The ILA Independent Learning Centre has a collection of practice tests for TOEFL. These include listening modules which you can do on your own.

These are suggestions that I think can help anyone who wants to improve their listening skills. None of them are very easy but I don't know of any that are. If you have something useful that I haven't mentioned, post it to the list.

Happy listening,

Michael

Questions and answers and more questions

Thank you, every one, for your comments and questions. I can't answer all of them in one post. I'll try to answer most of them here over the next few days.
I think most of you can answer your questions yourselves. You just need to do some serious thinking.

A couple of people asked about where to study.
The simple answer is "I don't know" It really depends on you.

There are advantages and disadvantages to different places.

• The first step is to think about what you want to study and why.

What are you interested in? What do you enjoy doing? What do you want to learn more about? What kind of job do you think would suit you? What kind of person are you?


You don't have to make a precise decision about one job but at least have an idea about which fields of study you're interested in.

• When you have some ideas about what to study, think about where.

Find some people who have studied abroad: friends, relatives, classmates. Ask them about their experiences.

• Ask yourself:

Which countries would you like to go to? Which ones are possible for you? You may not have enough money to go to Europe or North America.
You may not like the culture or climate of other countries.

• You can start your research on Australia or Canada( You can click on the words to open new pages.

Which institutions offer programs that you're interested in?

We can talk about this endlessly, but ...

Only you can decide the best place to study for you.

Michael