1. One new thing that I learned in week 1
in any of my classes at HELP
In the class named TOEFL Grammar, I took Pre-Test. It is the same questions
as Section 2 of TOEFL: Structure and Written Expression. After marking my
answer paper, I noticed that I had made a mistake in the question, “Although a
product of the twentieth century, the work of poet Robert Lowell is inspired by
that those of his nineteenth century predecessor, Edgar Allan Poe”. I had to
find the point that was grammatically wrong, so I thought “Although” was wrong
because there was no clause despite the conjunction. However, the wrong point
is “those”. I could not understand why it is wrong and asked the teacher about
it. She said that the subject and verb could be omitted if the main clause has
the same one. Then she also told me that “that” in the sentence was a pronoun
for restating, so “those” should be removed. That was the most impressive thing
that I learned in week 1.
2. One new thing
that I learned in week 1 outside of my HELP classes
When I hung out with my friend, she told me an interesting subject
about a misunderstanding of English that the Japanese have. We usually use “will”
or “be going to” to express the future tense. In Japan, students learn that
both “will” and “be going to” have same meaning or that “will” is the undetermined
future and “be going to” is the determined future. In fact, I learned it from
teachers like that. However, the definitions are wrong. The two words do not
have the same meaning or such usages. “Will” expresses speakers’ intention, and
it can be used for an immediate decision. Because it shows what the speaker
does from now on, the definition, the undetermined future, is wrong. On the
other hand, “be going to” means the future that has already been determined and
that happens without speakers’ intention. If we misuse the word, the meaning
included in the sentence widely changes. For example, if you answer that you
are going to come when you are invited the party, it implies that you have
already decided to join the party before you are invited. It is quite strange,
isn’t it? We should be careful about the usage because the wrong word choice
can lead serious misunderstanding.
3. What I think
about language learning and other types of learning
I think that language learning is quite different from other types
of learning. First, what students have to remember is much more than other
subjects are. To form sentences, it is essential to grasp the grammatical rules
and to understand the meaning of words and phrases. In addition, students must
keep using them, that is, language learners are not allowed to forget them. Even
if a certain grammatical thing finished in the class, it will be used in the
next chapter. Learners need to keep the knowledge for a long time. Finally,
language study demands many kinds of skill: reading, listening, writing, and
speaking. It is impossible to train the skills at the same time, so school
provides classes on individual skills for students. Language is not just a
study but what is based on the daily life. It natural to take a long time to
acquire language, and language learning should be different from other
subjects.
4. Why do we need
learning strategies?
Without the device to acquire something, our brain simply throws
memories away because the brain judges them worthless to store. So what can we
learn something effectively? Applying the action except studying like singing,
dancing, and so on to language learning is good for learner. Unlike the boring
way, just reading the textbook or cramming words with cards, the action
impresses a brain and makes memories preserve for a long time. The brain straighten
up memories connecting an information with others, so this means to acquire
language is reasonable. That is why learning strategies are significant to make
the brain effectively and to retain memories as long as possible.
