週11リーポスト- ECA (Reading) II (Super A): January book report presentations

Hello reading students,

Happy New Year! How are you? How was your new year's celebrations? 

This is a repost of the information which I gave you before the holiday about your book report presentations for January. Take a look at this post again.

Points to follow

I would like you to bring together the points of a book report with the points of a presentation. You will write about the book you are reading outside of class, but with a difference - you can show pictures about the story as part of your presentation. 

This is one basic example of a poster layout. It should be on A3 paper or larger, like poster paper you can get at a place like Loft. 

You should have 3-4 pictures on it showing different points about the book you read. At the top you should have the title of the book you have read. Each picture should show these points: 

Story outline (あらすじ)

Main characters (主人公）
Plot (プロット)
Plus - your own review of the story (what you thought of it, who your favorite character was, what the bigger theme of the story was)

You can write this by hand, or write it on a computer and cut and paste it out onto your poster paper. 

*Special note
If you want to do a Power Point presentation, that would be okay - but come and see me about it!

Prepare a talk for around 8-10 minutes or so. 

I will give you a bit more information about this in the Eigokisohyougen class.

See you next class!

週11 - ECA (Reading) II (Super A): January book report presentations

Hello reading students,

Image "Pile Of Books On A Black Background" courtesy of Danilo Rizzuti/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

How are you? In this post I will give you some information about your book report presentations for January. 

Points to follow

I would like you to bring together the points of a book report with the points of a presentation. You will write about the book you are reading outside of class, but with a difference - you can show pictures about the story as part of your presentation. 

This is one basic example of a poster layout. It should be on A3 paper or larger, like poster paper you can get at a place like Loft. 

You should have 3-4 pictures on it showing different points about the book you read. At the top you should have the title of the book you have read. Each picture should show these points: 

Story outline (あらすじ)

Main characters (主人公）
Plot (プロット)
Plus - your own review of the story (what you thought of it, who your favorite character was, what the bigger theme of the story was)

You can write this by hand, or write it on a computer and cut and paste it out onto your poster paper. 

*Special note
If you want to do a Power Point presentation, that would be okay - but come and see me about it!

Prepare a talk for around 8-10 minutes or so. 

I will give you a bit more information about this in the Eigokisohyougen class.

See you next class!

週10 - ECA (Reading) II (Super A): ヴォキャブラーリ、文法のゲームズ、レビュー

Hello to all my reading students,

How are you? Today I'd like to show you a useful website I found with links to vocabulary and grammar games and review. You can use these to gather more word-learning techniques, and review grammar too!

First, click on this link here to go to the front page of these games and review. 

Then, click on these links here, here, and here to try them out! 

Try these and tell me what you think of them. 

See you next class!

週8 - ECA (Reading) II (Super A): Unique communities around the world

Hello to my reading students,

Image "Buddhist Prayer Flags" courtesy of Rawich/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

How are you? While we have been reading and discussing what we have read for some time, this is the first project I will give all of you for our reading class. 

The picture above is of Buddhist prayer flags. Many religions have formed unique communities around the world, and for your homework, you read about the Amish in your textbook and discussed it today. The Amish are an example of a religious community. But there are also many unique communities in many countries around the world based on other things - such as language, or ethnic identity. 

Homework activity

Research about a unique community in a different country and design and present a small poster about it on A4 paper. The community can be based on religion, ethnic identity, language, or another unique point you find. Here are some examples of unique communities around the world for you to choose from:

the Ainu (Japan)
the Irish travelers (Ireland)
the Bretons (northeastern France)
Swedish-speaking Finns (Finland)
the Basques (southwestern France & northeastern Spain) 
Russian Jews of the Jewish Autonomous Oblast (Siberia, Russia) 
French-Canadians (Quebec, Canada, and other parts of eastern Canada and the northeastern U.S.)
the Lumbees (North Carolina, the U.S.)
the Sikhs (India) 
the Falashas (Ethiopia, Eritrea, Israel)

- or - another community you can find out about.

You can use Internet articles and download pictures too from English, Japanese and other sources (Chinese and Thai are okay). But you must write on the posters, and present, in English.

As a sample of the kind of research you can do, check out this article here about the Swedish-speaking Finns. 

Here's an example of a poster you can design (this one is A3 size - but you only have to do A4!)

Have fun with this - and good luck! Please remember - this is for next week. So get to work! 

See you next class!

週3 - ECA (英語基礎表現) II & (Reading) II (Super A): ヴォキャブラーリの覚える

Hello to all my Super A students,

Image "A Lot Of Pink Brown And Orange Dry Leaves Lying On The Ground" courtesy of sritangphoto/FreeDigitalImages.com

How are you? On Monday I showed all of you in the reading class about collocations (コロケーション). Today I have a video for you about some other basic ideas on how to learn new words. Watch this as many times as you want or need. It has a lot of useful ideas about learning words. It's a long video - but a very good one.

Video from YouTube. I do not own the rights to this video. It has been uploaded strictly for educational use.

Also start trying some of these ideas out in your notebook with words from your textbook! 

In another blogpost soon, I will show you another new technique you can also try out.

See you next time!

週3 - ECA (Reading) II & (英語基礎表現) II (Super A)：コロケーション

Hello to my Super A reading and Eigokisohyougen students,

Image "Buy Tickets Words with fireworks" courtesy of Stuart Miles/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net

How are you? Here is a word learning technique for you. I posted this last semester, but I am reposting it again.

Look at the picture above - buy tickets. "Buy" and "tickets" come together so often that we can think of them as a unit. This kind of unit is called a collocation (コロケーション) - a word combination where one word comes with another word in a natural pattern.

Some word combinations you have seen so far in your textbooks - for example, amazing person, sensitive person, young people, difficult life - are examples of collocations. These cases are examples of adjective (形容詞) + noun (名詞) combinations. 

Let's look at the example in the picture at the top. Ticket is a noun (名詞). So let's look at some more examples with ticket:

Verb (動詞) + a ticket 

sell a ticket

lose a ticket

punch a ticket

give away a ticket

purchase a ticket

(purchase = 購入する)

Adjective (形容詞) + ticket(s) 

cheap ticket(s)

expensive ticket(s)

affordable ticket(s)

discounted ticket(s)

reasonably-priced ticket(s)
hard-to-get ticket(s)

Other noun used as an adjective + ticket(s)

Movie ticket(s)

Concert ticket(s)

Parking ticket(s)

Train ticket(s)
Subway ticket(s)

Dry cleaning ticket(s)

Ticket used as an adjective + other noun
Ticket price

Ticket gate

Ticket sales

Ticket taker

Ticket collection

Homework
Look at the unit you have read (Unit 10). On page 82 & 83, there is a section called "Looking at Words that Go Together." Do this section in your textbook, then try to think of other words that go with these words. You can use a dictionary if you have to. Write them in your notebooks. Make a list of these word combinations. 

This is something you can use in both your reading and writing. 

See you next time!

週7 - ECA (Reading) I (Super A) - コロケーション

Hello to all my Super A reading students,

Image "Buy Tickets Words with fireworks" courtesy of Stuart Miles/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net

How are you? Here is another word learning technique for you - seeing collocations.

Look at the picture above - buy tickets. "Buy" and "tickets" come together so often that we can think of them as a unit. This kind of unit is called a collocation - a word combination where one word often comes with another word in a pattern.

Ticket is a noun (名詞). Let's look at some more examples with ticket:

VERB [動詞] + ticket 

sell a ticket

lose a ticket

punch a ticket

give away a ticket

purchase a ticket

(purchase = 購入する)

ADJECTIVE [形容詞] + ticket 

cheap ticket(s)

expensive ticket(s)

affordable ticket(s)

discounted tickets

reasonably-priced ticket(s)
hard-to-get ticket(s)

Other NOUN + ticket

Movie ticket

Concert ticket

Parking ticket

Train (Subway) ticket

Dry cleaning ticket

Ticket + other NOUN
Ticket price

Ticket gate

Ticket sales

Ticket taker

Ticket collection

HOMEWORK ACTIVITY

Now look for collocations from the reading about acupuncture. Look for verbs (動詞), adjectives (形容詞), and other nouns (名詞) before or after these words in your reading: 

infection
acupuncture
needle(s)
treatment(s)

Make a list of them for yourself in your notes, and share in the class next week.

See you next time!

週5 - ECA (Reading) I (Super A) - 意味ネットワーク

Hello to all my Super A reading students,

How are you? I will show you a word learning technique called semantic networking (意味ネットワーク). This is a useful method for you to make your own meaning of words in another way without a dictionary. 

Here's an example. Look at the five words in the picture above - cat, pet, fish, food, & people.

These words are not all connected, but some of the words have a kind of connection.

Now I found one connection, and wrote a simple sentence - cats like fish.

Now I found two more connections - cats make good pets, and fish make good pets.

Now I found two more connections to that - people like fish, and people keep pets. 

There are more connections - can you make them yourself? You can try this out with any group of words - so try this with some vocabulary from the next story we'll read in the textbook. 

Homework (for 5/20)

1. Read the next story in our textbook outside of class.

2. Select 5-7 words from the story. Choose words that are a little difficult for you. On a piece of notebook paper, write them in a pattern like in the example pictures. Then try to find connections with them and make your own sentences using them. 

Look at this blogpost as many times as you want to help yourself. Try it out - see how it works for you.

See you next time!

星薬科大学・special posting for Hoshi ESS & Tuesday 1st & 2nd period Pharm Eng I students for 5/21

Hello to the Hoshi ESS and my Pharm Eng I students,

This is a special posting for the Hoshi ESS plus all my Pharm Eng I students on Tuesdays. Hope all of you are doing well in your studies.

I said at the beginning of the year that I would try to post videos, pictures and other things for all of you around the classes through the year. I think it might be easier for me, and maybe for all of you, if I post for the whole class and the Hoshi ESS. All of you are free to check these things out. Doing this as a separate post from the posts about the lesson plans might be easier for me too.

For the ESS, ERI MURAI (Tuesday 2nd period), YUTAKA AKI (Tuesday 1st period), and TOMOKO EHARA (Tuesday 1st period) - and also all of you in my Tuesday classes too!

First - Eri Murai - you said on her pre-teaching survey that you would like to learn daily conversation in English. Here's some advice for you - but this is good advice for all of you in the classes, and for all the ESS members too!      

THE KEY POINT IS - TALK ABOUT YOU AND YOUR INTERESTS!

Before any English class starts, and right after the class finishes, volunteer to come to the teacher and share what you did over the weekend, or what you are doing in classes. It does not have to be a difficult topic - easier is best! But the most important thing is to speak on something of your interest. Try it! Don't worry about grammar or vocabulary. The more you use your English - the more you will be relaxed with it. YOU CAN DO THIS WITH ME! 

Next - for Yutaka Aki - you said you wanted to read more books easily in English. Here's what you - and everyone in our classes and the ESS interested in reading more in English can do. (Yutaka - this is the same advice I gave your classmate Asuka - I'll give it to you too!)

THE KEY POINT FOR READING IN ENGLISH IS - RELAX!

If you want to read for relaxation in English, choose a Japanese book you already know with a good English translation. Read it for pleasure - don't translate any sentences or even vocabulary. Read it the same way you would read it in Japanese. If you can't find an English translation of a book you like - then find a story in English that is similar to a story you like in Japanese. The more you take English with relaxation and pleasure - the more comfortable you will be with it, and the better your reading skill will get. Try it!

Finally - for Tomoko Ehara - you said on your pre-teaching survey that you're in the music club, and that you like to play guitar. For you, all your classmates and friends in the Tuesday classes, and the ESS - here's a video of an incredible guitar player from the U.S. named Stanley Jordan.

Here's a little extra homework for you, Tomoko: Watch this - and tell me what you think of it. Post a comment to the blog or tell me in class. (Any of you who want to comment - post a comment on the blog!)

See you in class Tuesday!

星薬科大学薬学英語Ｉ・5月15日・lesson plan & helpful hints

Hello to all my Pharm Eng I students,

Here is the lesson plan for 5/15:

Here are the board notes for the comprehension (understanding questions):

Here also are the board notes for the idea questions:

As you see in the lesson plan and the idea questions notes, I am asking you all to do a lot of homework over the next two weeks. Let's review the homework:

For next week (5/21): textbook page 12 (parts of the brain picture), and scanning Unit 3 vocabulary: choose 6-8 nouns (名詞) from the unit and try your own semantic network with them (if you were not in class on 5/15 - find out what a semantic network is - click here)

For 5/28 - choose 2 out of 3 of the idea questions and write thinking responses to the questions showing your ideas to questions #1 or #2. Question #3 is a little different question: It's in the textbook - but you have to read well to find it!

I think all of you are good students and because of this, I am challenging all of you! Try your best - I will support your effort!

Today, I would like to post something extra for two students - two helpful hints for ASUKA TAKANOHASHI and HARUKA TSUCHIYA - and share with the Hoshi ESS (English Speaking Society) too!

I don't have any video for the both of you today, but I have advice for you I hope will help you.

ASUKA - on your pre-teaching survey, you said you enjoy reading novels, and that you want to read them in English. Here's what you can do:

If you like famous Japanese writers such as, for example, Haruki Murakami, find an English translation of one of their novels that you like, and that you can get easily. It's best to start out with a book you already know. Read it in English the same way you would in Japanese - don't look up any words in the dictionary (though you could make a semantic network if you like, or a word list, as you go along). Don't try to translate - read for pleasure. Since you will know the story already, the meaning will be the same - the only difference is the language. Take your time to read - don't struggle with it. You don't have to understand every word - so long as you get the main ideas, you're okay.

For a book you like that you can't get an English translation for - try to find a similar kind of story in English. Don't try a difficult book - try for something that you believe you can read at a level that is a little lower than what you can read easily in Japanese. The most important thing is also to get a book that you don't struggle with, and that you can read for pleasure. And when you read, do the same thing as I said above - don't try to translate - read only for pleasure. If you struggle with it, it will not be fun.

HARUKA - on your survey, one thing you said is that you like to learn more medical terms in English. Here's what you can do:

This is something I will show the class as another word-learning technique - but I'll share it with you first.

Many English medical terms come from Greek and Latin root words. So take a prefix (the 1st part of a word) that you can make as many words you can from. Make a word list or semantic network with them. If you know the prefix, you will know the basic meaning already.

In your textbook, go to the back of the book - pages 156-161. In them, there is a long list of these root words, with examples and Japanese meanings. Take a look at them. Some of them match in meaning with the Japanese words - especially with the kanji. If you can also connect the kanji with the root meanings, you will be able to guess the meanings of many medical terms.

Hope this helps you.

See all of you next week!

星薬科大学薬学英語Ｉ・Unit 2 intro lesson plan ・ヴィデオ・ウエブサイトのリンク

Hello Pharm Eng I students,

Here is today's lesson plan (5/8):

We had no time to do the word networking activity today. So we will do this as our warmer next week (5/15). I will show all of you what word networking means. It is another useful technique you can use when gathering and learning new words.

For today, here is a video for CHIAKI UEHARA (1st period). You said you work in an ice cream shop. Have you ever wanted to make your own ice cream? Here is a video recipe for you: Indian mango ice cream. Watch this and tell me what you think.

For RYUZO ARAI (2nd period): You said in your pre-teaching survey that you feel it is important to read English every day. So let me show you a website I have a link to on the side of my blog. It's called Breaking News English. You can access it here.

It's free and on it, you can find many short articles on many topics in English. It has vocabulary and sentence-making activities, and an interactive feature you can use on a computer. Check it out and tell me what you think!