1. One new thing that I learned in week 3
in any of my classes at HELP
My grammar class focused on the verb this week. First, I studied
tense: simple present, present continuous, present, perfect, present perfect
continuous, simple past, past continuous, past perfect, past perfect
continuous, simple future, and future continuous. I knew most of the usage
because I had already learned it in high school, but it was hard to explain the
usage. In particular, the past perfect was the most difficult one. It means
what had already been continued, experienced, or finished in the past. If it
were not for a handout with illustrations of a time current, I could not
understand its definition. Then, I studied the passive voice. In a TOEFL exam, distinguishing
between the active and passive voice is one of the most important skills. The
passive voice usually does not have an object, and the preposition comes after the
verb; however, the verbs that have an indirect object like “give”, “show”, and “provide”
are exceptions. Finally, what I studied in this class is the usage of
infinitive and gerunds. They can be a direct object of verbs and change the
meaning. For example, “He stopped smoking” means that he does not smoke
anymore, but “He stopped to smoke” means that he stops there and starts smoking.
Thus, it is important to understand the role of infinitive and gerunds. The
verb is the most fundamental factor to English grammar; accordingly, I have to
grasp it correctly.
2. One new thing
that I learned in week 2 outside of my HELP classes
This Tuesday, November 6th, was Election Day. It is the
day when an election for the President, the Vice-President, and members of
Congress is held, and Hawaii State provides that Election Day is a holyday to
let people go for a vote. The Presidential election was held this year, and 44th
president Barack Obama was reelected. Obama has some good records during his
first term. For example, he had passed the Act of reformation in medical
insurance to introduce the system of the public health insurance for the whole
nation. In addition, he converted the policy of security from a hard line
against hostile countries such as Iran and North Korea to dialogue with them;
on the other hand, he carried out the operation that killed Osama Bin Laden,
the leader of the international terrorist group named Al-Qaeda and a ringleader
of the simultaneous multiple terrorist attacks on September 11th
2001. Obama accomplished his reelection, but he still has several problems. I
expect him to lead the U.S. well because the U.S. is influential for the whole
countries including my homeland, Japan.
3. Steps of
creating GO
First, I read the sentence from the beginning to the end once and
distinguish what type of sentence it is. I have to change the way of writing GO
depending on the type. For example, I itemize every keyword when it is “listing”,
and I write a chart when it is comparison or contrast. To discern what type it
is, I have to find a main idea. It is usually in the end of an introduction
paragraph, and it is an important process for creating GO. Then, I decide how I
write GO. I create it as visually as I can with using some signs and pictures.
I draw two circles overlapping each other as compare/contrast GO, and I use
arrows to show sequence or cause and effect. After that, I find keywords to
fill in the chart. They are often after the signal words. In a contrasting
sentence, there are keywords after the words like “but”, “however”, “on the
other hand”, and “while”. Finally, I fill in the chart. When I do this step, I
never copy the sentence completely but summarize or paraphrase it. That is how
my GO is up at last.
4.
According to Jiang and Grabe, how writing is organized is
significant for readers’ understanding skills. A recent study shows that GOs
are helpful because they can explain the key points and their relations at a
glance. However, there are questions whether some studies help GOs’ advantages,
which form the most effective GO is, whether GOs are useful for L2 learners,
and whether short-term study is enough for learners to acquire GOs.
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