 ◆
Honorable tutors, and my fellow monitors,
Good evening.
The arrival of the new semester in the spring
of the year 2004 has brought with it a perfect opportunity
to take a look back at the past few years, assess our successes
and failures, and look forward with our predictions of the
fourth year of Beiwaionline education. Already this evening
you've heard many assessments and you've heard a variety of
predictions.
I was made monitor of my class at the very beginning of my
college life and got my name registered at BeiwaiOnline monitor
system at the end of last year. My fellow classmates and schoolmates
in my local learning center trust me and take my suggestions
seriously. They also encountered confusions towards online
education and doubted whether they could have a guaranteed
future after learning the courses. Hence I fulfilled my tasks
in terms of weighing every single activity with thoroughness
and care.
◆ Off-line Activities: Oral English
Salon
I'm now learning "Active English", and for my
fellow classmates and I who are full-time students, it's easier
to organize off-line activities. I launched an oral English
salon, in which all my classmates join, and discussed one
specific topic every Wednesday evening in English in a casual
way.
Indeed, having an effective topic is of vital importance,
and my way of choosing topics depends on the stage we are
at:
1. Before we learn a new unit--choose the topic with flexibility
I lay emphasis on the title of each unit, which expresses
its main idea, and on what we can handle or do some further
studies after learning the unit. For instance, I'm going to
learn Comprehensive English Band 3 next semester, and the
first unit is entitled "Efficient Study". After
previewing the entire unit and bearing the objects in mind,
I decide to narrow the first topic of our oral English salon
to one manageable topic--"How should we read in this
semester?" I抣l do some interviews while conducting the
salon discussions by using questions related to the text so
as to keep the discussion lively. In the end, I shall make
a conclusion. With these efforts, I'm sure the coming new
unit will be much easier to be understood and all of us will
be motivated to learn it well.
2. While learning the unit--combine what we've learned
and practice them in a specific topic
Courses at BA level should be studied sequentially, whereas
the three courses of "Active English" must be studied
in parallel. Thus, while learning a new unit, I often plan
to list the related parts of every three units and select
a topic to discuss. Take unit 4 of Active English for example,
in CE it is entitled "An Unusual Job", and in ER
and IE the respective titles are "The Silver Screen"
and "Let's Go to a Movie". I remember our topic
for the salon discussion of unit 4 was "Movie Show".
Many of my classmates acted as the stars in their favorite
movies and tried to use the sentence patterns covered in the
texts. We had a wonderful time that night and shared knowledge
about movie stars as well. In my opinion, that's the best
way of achieving a better understanding of our text.
3. After learning the unit--search online first and then
have a free talk on what you have got online
I'm afraid I have to mention one online activity here because
it's a part of the salon discussion. I encourage my fellow
classmates to make full use of the time online and search
more information on the topic of each unit and take notes.
It is a process to validate whether what we learned in the
textbooks is genuine understanding. What's more, it is a process
to enrich our knowledge on the topic and, especially, achieve
a better understanding of the western culture! In such discussions,
my classmates presented their talent show. They made excellent
speeches based on the information got online, and fascinated
others with their unique ideas. I love such free talks!
◆ Online Activity: Writing on the
forum
I wrote one essay and analyzed how I have made progress through
writing in English, and you may see it via www.beiwaionline.com/vob/lc.doc.
So in my class, all my classmates hold a belief that if Li
Chen is able to make progress through writing, so can they.
Regarding me as their model, they started to write something.
To make such writing practice more effective, I set up my
own BBS under www.towasoft.com/bfsu (I'm known as "stevenlee"
there and am the administrator of the English Faculty &
Online Institute) and asked not only my classmates, but also
tutors to participate in it. This method is remarkable, because
my classmates have received revised version of their essays
and have made tremendous progress afterwards.
◆ My plan for next semester: continue
and polish the way of conducting oral English salon and make
full use of my personal computer
The method I mentioned above proved to be effective to
my classmates and I shall continue with it and keep improving
it. I got my laptop computer during this Spring Festival and
tried to download lots of listening materials and videos.
My local learning center provides each class with a set of
equipment for movies and filmstrips. So I shall take advantage
of it and make the activities much more colorful.
◆ Moreover, I want to tell you my
ideas to be a monitor?
Responsibility (do act as a bridge between the Beijing
HQ and your fellow classmates), a spirit of sacrifice (spend
more leisure time on getting the news from BeiwaiOnline and
get your classmates informed about them), no reservation (if
you are able to put forward a new method of improving your
English, please share it with your classmates without reservations,
you may find they can enlighten your thoughts and all of you
can make progress together).
Thank you!
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