selfstudy on 26

We heard a lecture to practice how to take note today. The lecture was about globalization, the topic which we are going to write the essay. A lot of note-taking strategy was concluded in today’s lesson as follow:
-list
-title/section
-short form
-symbol
-make notes to check later
All these strategies were used during the lecture. I want to say it is really helpful for me to pick up the main ideal of the lecture. During the self study after class, I easily got the overview of the essay. And each sub-heading seems clear to me. Though I couldn’t catch some details at the same time, I was succeeded in grasping the emphases of the lecture.

Overview of the first week

We have two classes every. First one is language workshop taught by Robin (a very humorous gentleman), and the class is mainly focus on our oral language and grammar. In the previous week, we learnt using modal verb to express our speculation systematically, and also to support an argument. Such useful sentence like:
·sb might/ought to/have to do sth
·it is surely/certainly/definitely/undoubtedly/realistically that
·sb tends /has a tendency to do
The other class is aimed to teach us how to get with the study in Britain, and also about self-study and essay writing. Our tutor Susannah is very nice and patient to us. She scans our blog to check our self-study. Thorough this week, we gain an over view of an essay. Susannah also provide many ways to gather information for of an essay.

first week in london

Well,time flies. I have already finish my first week in the language course. I made many new friends during the study. Although i cann't pronunce their names correctly sometimes. But it doesn't matter. Gerendally, my first week is nice.

But in the other, I also met some problems. Unfortunately, i was given a visa of only 3 month, and it will expire on 31/10/08. Therefore I have to renew it. So at the period many difficulties appears, such as opening a bank account. Most banks need a visa of 6 months. But the student service said they won't give me the certification which i need to renew the visa until I finish the language course. Oh, my god!!! Finally, I apply an account in Abbey. Hope it will be successful. Otherwise my cash will run up.

self-study on 21/8

Today we dicuss about the introduction which is the first part of the essay. From the workshop we learnt that instroduction is made up by different parts such as overview of the essay, transition from general topic to specific focus, statement about the topic generally, thesis statement and so on.
Fourthermore, we concluded that an introduction should make clear the writer's main viewpoint on the eassy question in a "eassy statement", and the introduction should give some idea of the content and organisation of the eassay.
Then i write introductions of 2 topics as anexcercise as follow:
1."The death penalty should be used to deal with murderers."To what extend do you agree with this statement?
Some people consider that those who commited murder should be treat to death penalty, while others consider it is cruel to the people though they have commited it. The controversy has been
lasted for hundreds of years. As a result some countries don't have death penalty in their law. For me, i strongly support the view to use the death penalty.

2."fast food should be banned in all school canteens." To what extend do you agree with this statement?
A common viewpoint is that fast food is a kind of junk food which is high in fat, sugar and salt, and low in fibre and vitamins. So it does no good to people especilly to adults. But in the other side fast food really improve our pace of lives. It is really convenient to have fast food when we don't have enough time.And some fast food has also been proved to be nutrient. We don't have to ban the fast food totally in all schools.

My plan

First, I don’t think I will meet large difficulties in reading and writing. And for grammar and vocabulary it is also a piece of cake for us Chinese students. Because we always do grammar and vocabulary exams when we study English. The only problem is that I haven’t touched English for more than 1 year since I finished my English course in university. Therefore I will try my best these days to be in myself in study English. Finally, I will talk about my weakness in English. I don’t do well in speaking and pronunciation. As a result, I got the lowest grade in speaking in my IELTS test. Usually I can’t express my ideas with accurate words. Beside that, my tongue always knots when I communicate to others. Furthermore, I think my pronunciation is a bit awful. So for all the reasons above I decide to have an pre-language course here. In order to make my oral English better, I plan to make effords in those areas as follow: Speak English as often as possible, though many of my classmates are from China—the same country as me. Listen to the radios such as BBC Go to the conversation club to practice speaking English

My Introduction

My name is YULIN QI from China. I majored in herbal medicinal science. It is the 4th year of bachelor course which will be finished in London Metropolitan University. And prior to this, I choose a pre-sessional language course for 1 month. Although my IELS grade is enough for me to enter the academic course directly. It is because I am eager to improve my oral English.
So in the latter part of the article, I will list my merits and dismerits. Then we can conclude in which area I should focus on in this month.