Last week I really got my English learning going. I really put some effort into the academic reading and writing, and I can see where I need to focus on now. I wrote this bit in my drafts last week, and I will post it as it is because it gives a pretty good impression of the actual process of learning at that time.
“This week I have really started strong with the ALMS. I am taking part in both academic writing and reading groups, and they both seem to offer a great deal of possibilities for learning. I have been reading academic articles to try to reach a faster and a more efficient technique in reading them, so to say I’m learning skimming and scanning. There is also the bit about vocabulary which really does have the potential of giving a learner a tough time, since it can slow down reading a lot. What it does is turn away my attention from the entirety of the text and it’s subject to focusing on single phrases and words which I might struggle to understand in depth. This is a major thing for me, as I in general tend to have difficulties in switching my focus from a small perspective into a larger one and getting stuck in details.
Training the academic vocabulary is necessary, and through the support group I’ve found a great website to do it in, it’s called eapfoundation.com. There are lists of words, quizzes, idioms, phrases and even a highlight-function which shows you the general academic words (or whatever you are looking for) in a text. A picture of how the highlight tool works (picture 1). The most used words are highlighted with grey, less common with orange and so on until very uncommon word would be highlighted with red. Below the highlight it also gives you a word list based on your text and from there you can look for the meanings of these words. I am in love with this tool.”
A screen capture of the academic highlighter tool.
Last week I also finished my argumentative essay and turned it in, but I have to say it wasn’t very good. I had struggles with it, and I couldn’t really get the structure right. I put plenty of hours in it and into the research for it as I read through a few different scientific articles on the subject. I got some feedback of it already and I am prepared to work on the essay this week according to the feedback. It is difficult, but that is what gives me motivation to do it, since difficulties are an almost certain way to learning something new.
Until next time!