2007年11月3日 星期六
Topic 1: About yourself
Please share with is your background and learning experience in EFL writing. What kind of problems do you have? What do you like and dislike about writing? WE will be discussing relevant issues to help you improve your writing skills! Let's explore the writing journey together!
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I personally beleive that EFL writing is the most challenging
part for non-native English speakers because we lack writing experience in English. In my case, I didn't have any chances to polish my writing skill either during my undergradte or graduate years in my home country. Therefore, when it comes to English writing,I am supposed to be stressed out and panic. In terms of writing, I am kind of confident to say that I am really good at that but in my mother language,Mandarin Chinese. Given the importance of English writing for doctoral students,I will face the music to scaffold my EFL writing competencies and make progress.
John, I agree that developing EFL writing skills is a challenging yet time-consuming process. Actually this is my 5th year studying in the US and I have the same feeling as you from time to time. I start Taiwanese and Chinese as my mother tongue, and I totally appreciate the difficulties you encounter concerning the discrepancy of writing convention and genres as well as styles between first and second language. Learning to write well does take a lot of cognitive load and practice. My personal suggestion for you is to keep writing and have people give you feedback in your content, organization, and even grammar. I am sure with passion and enthusiasm things will gradually work out! As said, Rome is not built in a day!
Thanks Marty for giving us a good suggestion. I encountered some/similar problems when I was learning EFL writing. Everytime I read or heard excellent sentence from others, I always think why they can make it so concise and inspired. Yes, practice is always the key, but in the other way, I think learning EFL writing is just the same as we learned writting in chinese when we were young. Starting from stealing/using people's ideas/temple. Finally, developing ourselves and building up personal style. Unfortunately, even now, with slightly improvement, my writing skill is still poor. Haha. In my opinion, reading, momerizing other people's article and practice are the shortcut to polish writting skill.
Here I am. This is Gene. I am a engineering PhD student.
I do not like learning English from childhood. Without saying writing, it is nightmare to me. I have never been good in this. As you know, we engineering students did not really care about writing before we came to US. Or maybe it is just me, I don’t know. But later, I found the poor writing/communication ability really gives me very tough time to survive here. Everyone criticized my writing although I can tradeoff it with my profession a little bit. In order to improve my writing, I took every English writing course from the first year I have been here. However, I have a strong feeling, no matter how hard I am working, I never can write in English as well as I do in Chinese. Fortunately, engineering paper is always boring. So, even I am not doing a good job in English writing, I am still Ok to continue my study. So, that's why I am sitll here..
Li-Chung, I would like to suggest you some concept mapping tools such as Inspiration, Mind Manager, and so on. They can assist you with organizing the ideas and sentences in a systematic fashion. Along with that, it is beneficial for brainstorming and the follow-up drafting. You may also refer to some technology writing reference books for useful essay formats.
Hi, Gene! It's interesting to know how an engineering student perceives writing. I realize the importance of being a critical thinker as well as a proficient writer in the academic circle. Writing in a foreign language seems so challenging for international students that I rarely hear EFL learners who enjoy it. In fact, there are a multitude of factors involving in the development of writing skills and the acquisition of vocabulary. I probably need to read one of your papers in order to diagnose the problems you have. But I am sure a good proofreader is always helpful to report our mistakes/errors.
Hi, it's Jill. I'm now working as a secretary in a trading company in Taiwan.English learning experience - from high schools. EFL writing is always a huge problem since I started to learn English. The reason, I guess part of it comes from I'm never a good writer even in Chinese. It's always a nightmare for me to compose an article. I totally have no idea how to imporve my EFL writing skills. If somehow, I can imporve my skills here, that will be the best learning course I can have. Thanks, Marty.
I am a grade teacher,and I have already acted as the work now .
I have already contacted English since junior middle school .
I do not often understand while listening to English and talking.Though I want to practice English and hear of ability very much. But I am too busy to sustain it.
I have a will that strengthen the hearing of English because I like watching the Hollywood film.
Hi Jill, working in the trading company, wow, you must many opportunities to contact your foreign customers in English, right? I think for business writing there are many formats that we can easily adopt whereas academic writing seems more time-consuming and take lots of effort to tweak the “little monster”. Extensive reading could be a good way to improve writing. Maybe you can try some English magazine from now on and keep journals on blogs. Please let me know how it works!
Hi Ray, so you are a primary school teacher, right? I realize being an elementary teacher in Taiwan is quite demanding due to the nine-year alignment curriculum. I totally appreciate your lack of time for studying English, but I think watching movie is a good way to enhance your listening. Do you have caption while watching a Hollywood movie? It will help your listening comprehension and vocab acquisition, just be aware there are many the slangy words. I remember my Taiwanese grad school classmates at Columbia University used Excel for note taking the sitcom (Friends, Sex and the City, Will and Grace) everyday, and perhaps you can try it as well.
Hi, I am Tingni Shiao. I am twenty-one years old, and studying in Chung Shan Medical University. My teacher, Joni, told me that I can buddy up with new friends by using blogger. Nice to meet u.^^
hi,I am a CHUNG SHAN MEDICAL UNIVERSITY student and may I ask you some questions,how do you make your writing skills as good as you can?
Chienshiu Liu
Hi,Marty. My name is Carol. I'm 18 years old.
My hobbies are watching movies and listening to music.
In my free time, I enjoy reading and playing volleyball.
My personality is outgoing,so I usually get along well with my friends and classmates.
Nice to meet you.
Hi Tingni,Welcome to this blog! I am sure it will be fun to talk to bloggers from this online community. Just get a kick out of it. Cheers!
Hi 芊秀, nice to hear from you. As I have mentioned, EFL writing is a long way to go given the discrepancy between first and second language. I would like to encourage you to write on a regular basis and do some self-monitoring about your writing processes and styles. You’ll find some ways for improvement through this small experiment. I am sure the technology tools and online resources can help to some extent (please check skill writer and Ohio ESL). Of course, you also need extensive reading as an underpinning support for your writing.
Hi Carol, thank you for the self-intro and welcome to my blog. I also like to play volleyball, but now I am stuck with my paper and have little time for this entertainment! At any rate, I am sure we will all learn from each other via exchanging our opinions in this online world.
Hello, my name is Chingju Lai, I’m a student of Chung Shan Medical University, and this is my first time to make friends by blogger. Nice to meet you, I hope my writing skill can as good as you. ^^
Hi Chingju, welcome to my blog. I will be looking forward to your idea sharing. Feel free to try the tools and give your feedback! Okey-dokey-:)
Hi, I am also a student of CSMU. I feel really happy to visit your blog. Actually, I think I have to improve my writing skills during the courses, however, it seems really difficult for me.
I am Miya. I have studied EFL for more than ten years. But about writing ability, I think it is not good for me. After entered college, I started to focus on writing. But I still feel it is very difficult. I need to practice more.
Hi, Howdy, I'm a student of CSMU, my name is Evelyn. It's nice to visit your blog.
When I studied in senior high, I seldom wrote EFL writing. I felt it was so hard to express my ideas thruogh words smoothly. As an English major student, I hope I can learn more about EFL writing.
Hi, Marty. I am a Chung Shan Medical University student. My name is Emma. Nice to meet you! When watching your blog, it's really useful to me. I knew many web tools that I haven't seen before except Youtube. They are really interesting. I will try to use them.
Hi, I am a junior in CSMU. Actually,I don't have faced with big problems about English until entering college because I found that my words are not enough to write a good essay, I always use the same words to write an essay.
Hello! My name is Katie! I also a student of CSMU. It's so happy that I can watch your blog. And I agree that I can know you. I like singing, ballroom dancing, and drawing picture. Nice to meet you! I hope we can be good friends.
Hi, Emma,Yiwen and Katie, Nice to hear from you. I remember when I was in college, we usually used very traditional ways for online communication such as BBS, email. With the wide spread of the Internet and technology to date, we get so many choices and I am sure we can all learn to utilize the tools and benefit more or less from each of them.
Hi, I am a college student. For me, I still feel that writing is pretty hard. I can't write a long and great composition in a short time.
Hellow, my name is Rachel. Nice to meet you. I am a Chung Shan Medical University student. Your blog is very helpful to me. I like to surf your blog when I have free time. I hope we can be good friends.
Hi, Vulcanelf and Rachel, Nice to hear from you. Hope we all will have a fruitful discussion on line!
Hello, I am Sherry. This is my first time come to your blog. I learn a lot how to use online resources to edit essay. However, I am bad at using computer's information to search good website. For example, I have some problem to set up audio program on my blog. I don't know what is RSS. Hope you can fix out my question. Thanks a lot. By Sherry
Hi, Sherry
I am glad to see you in this writing community. I will teach and show what RSS is soon in class.
Joni Chao
Hi, Marty. This is Gary, your senior high classmate. As a civil engineering PhD candidate, English writing ability always play an important part during my researching process. As you know, two accepted journal papers are required for PhD degree. Somehow, I always fall into grammar confusion while writing article. I'm always used to put many thinkings into a long delicate sentence, which make me feel it's a pretty sentence. (Look...I did it again) Apparently, complicated writing confused me and reviewers as well.
Some told me not to focus too much on grammar. Use easy words and easy sentence to make it more readable. Well, it did work that way. Since a papers was pubilshed in Greece last year, I got more trick in writing English article. So now I realize...simple sentence makes article easy to read.
Hi Gary, Nice to hear from you. I totally agree a good article should be easy to understand by readers, given you may want to demonstrate your writing skills by using some flamboyant vocab and complicated sentence patterns. I can see you have accomplished a lot for your candidacy. I still have a long way to go :P You know what, if you are planning to do your post doc at UIUC, Gene is the right person to talk to. He is also in Civil engineering. Go get him on my blog and stay cool! And don’t forget to show me your masterpiece next time~
Hello,I am Ellsie.
My teacher, Joni show me your blog.
I think I will learn a lot from your blog and I will discuss issues that you type in your blog with you.
Nice to meet you ^^
I am Wheat.
Hello,I am JohnnyQ,nice to meet you!My Chinese name is Chen chung hsieng.I am in Providence University,I major in English.
Nice to meet you. My name is Wen, and I come from Yilan.
My name is Erin~
Nice to meet you~!!
I love MCFLY!!
Hello~
I am Jessica!!
I like your blog, it helps us learn how to write more~
I am Cleveland, nice to meet you.
I like basketball very much.
And you? Do you like any sports?
I am Kitty.So glad to see your article.
I like hello kitty,and you?
I'm Daisy
I love listning to music and sing a song.
I love learning all the time.
Today is sunny day
Hi, Ellsie, Wheat, JohnnyQ, Wen, Erin, Jessica, Cleveland, Kitty, Daisy, Nice to hear form you all. I used to an adjunct lecturer at Providence University. I was teaching senior English there before I came to UT-Austin for my PhD study! Here, I usually do swimming, hiking, jogging and table tennis. If you are into knowing how technologies can help language teaching and learning more, you are welcome to visit my Web 2.0 blog. http://chungkaii.blogspot.com/
I agree what John said. It is diffucult for us to write as well as those native speakers. For me, I think the best way to improve my writing ability is asking native speakers to correct my writing because they know the lanugage they use. I've asked my classmate, and he suggested that I should choose the right word to use at right time. However, I do not have this kind of sense, so I need some help or i will never write as fluently as those native speakers. Therefore, I think "word usage" is an improtant issue for EFL writing.
Hi Yeh, I ask my American friends to proofread my paper as well. You know what, if they are not trained ESL teachers, they sometimes don't know how to explain certain word usage or grammar for me. Their meta-linguistic awareness comes from their intuition as native speakers of English, like we use Chinese and Taiwanese so fluently without thinking too much of the sentence structures and syntax.
hi there marty, this is Josette. I am currently a PhD student in Amsterdam. Nice blog, very informative!!
Teaching English in the senior high school for several years and having taking English teaching courses benefit my understanding for the essense of English teaching. Also, I am still trying hard to figure out some ways to guide and assist students to learn English efficiently.
To Josette and Laura, welcome to my blog. How's everything going? I am very delighted to see both of you online!
Hi, I think the first step to talk about self is importent becouse it is a new way let others kown about us .
It's so glad to meet your blog again. This year I am taking CALL course in Providence University, my teacher Joni recommend us to see your blog.
I like English, but I hate writing. I think most of EFL students don't like. For me, I don't know how to use words to express my thought and how to compose a "good" writing. After seeing your blog and another people's comment, maybe using English to reply people's topic is my first step to improve my English writing. I seldom use English after class, or it can say I seldom typing words in English except homework. Let's cheer for my first step and hope I could keep it go on.
Hi howdy
I come from Hsinchu, teaching in a primary school,and I'm also a student of Professor Joni Chuan. For me to say, writing is a hard work. I lack of a great input,so the output is poor. I also worry about my grammar. Professor Joni Chuan said that we could write chinese to you,but in order to make progress in writing, I tried to write in English,although it spent much time.
I am a Ph D student in Texas as well. May I suggest your creating a topic "ESL/EFL Writing and Second Life" on your blog? Thank you very much. Sandra
Hi, I am Fran. The hardest part for me about English writing is, I can not cast the chinese thinking or chinese grammar in the English writing. I feel it is very bothersome.
It's quite normal that the native/first language interferes with the EFL/ESL writing as well as speaking. I heard an ABC child said "今天下雨下得好用力." Similarly, her Chinese is affected by her native language - English. It takes 5-7 years to get the academic writing proficiency. So, no short cut, jsut write and write and ask native speakers to correct the writing.
Hello!I am happy to watch your blog,because I can learn a lot from there.I am undergraduate and major in English.I learn English for a long time,but I am not good at communication.I do not have enough confidence to my speaking skills, especially teacher want me to speak my own opinion and speech in English right away, because I would be nervous and afraid of making stupid mistakes in front of people.I am annoyed at my advancement of English speaking skills.Could you give me some suggesstion?Thanks a lot!
My background is that I am the student of university whose major is English. My learning experience of writing is we have many writing courses and teachers always ask us to write composition. I am impressed fo the writing class that the teacher teach us to use Myacess. My problem in writing is that I will have some mistakes in grammar or semantics. I like writing because I can express my thinking and let people know my thinking.
Hi, I am Susan. I love writting, but seldom writting in English. For me, writting in EFL is a challenge during my learning process. I think I will try to write in ease and relax place and practice many times as I can.
My name is Chiara. Actually, I've learned English for over ten years. However, I started to have an composition class and learn to write an completed English article when I was a freshman. At the very beginning of the class, I concerned the English writing skills as the same as the Chinese writing skills. But, I was totally wrong!
Engish emphasizes on the main or obvious idea. The foreigners would like to get the point immediately. Differ from the Chinese writing, people like to use lots of words to express or explain for just one specific point.
I was confused at that time, but now, after practicing writing and revising many times, I can recognize the way or the skills which can help me to write better.
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