WOW ! FANTASTIC !! ^_^

Hey guys of 1c07! Well, that is my feeling after I enjoyed the performance of our class! Yeah, so interesting!@_@. All groups tried their best and performed wonderful role-plays. It seemed that the performance became a comedy show. I laughed a lot and I think I had a great time with my classmates. First of all, I was impressed by the performance of F5, the group of the five pretty girls. It mentioned the life of a family, the problem of most students nowadays: lazy and idolize famous stars. Especially, I find the performance of ongnho4289 very interesting. Their play was well acted with the character "fortune-teller" of Ms Mo (hihi..^@^) . Then, Happy family performed a play referring to the lives of students, which are very familiar with all of us. Vivavn also made a story about the schooling at a high school which has a strange name "Violence". Maybe all of us are able to find the reason why. If you haven't found it yet, you should ask Mr Nhu Anh[hehe]. The next turn was my group, 3snakesand1cat. I myself found out that our group didn't have as excellent performance as other groups but, actually, we tried our best. Following our group was All4one. The story told about a robbery at a bank. Although the content of script was simple, their performance really made me surprised. And the last part of the show was the performance of Born-to-shine. I'm very sorry that I did't catch all the story. Maybe my listening skill isn’t good enough. Thanks to the performance, Ms Hang, a member of Born-to-shine, had a chance to express herself. “Quiet as she was in class, she speaks English quite fluently” , said Mr Binh. As you see, all of these groups used expressions. I think that was a good opportunity for us to review all we’ve learned. Finally, I hope that we all gain good marks in the mid-term test. @*_*@

What I Experience After Nearly A Year In Speaking Class

I'd like to say hello to our 1C's stars and starlets-to-be.

I'm telling you what I feel and think now. You know, 8 months ago I was very eager to wait for the coming of the new school year. My first thought was like: "Whoo, in this university, will I get some unforgettable experience? How are the teachers? And what about my classmates? Ah, right, with my level it's not surprising that my friends will all be my little teachers". And so on, I kept thinking about what was going to happen in here. Then, those first days at 1C came. I was so scared and didn't dare to say anything but just looked at you. I couldn't tell how much I admired you. So, I said to myself that there was going to be a lot to learn from you, and my speaking skill may improve day by day. A few weeks passed, I didn't feel so scared as I was before. And what was going on in class is that Mr. Binh let us practised with the roleplays. You would never know how excited I was when the first time I saw your roleplays. "Gee, where am I?" That was more than what I expected. Although sometimes you made mistakes with the pronunciation, you've shown me how to speak or to express myself. Speaking is not just using some simple sentences but it is to manipulate functions too. Speaking is not speaking only but listening first. Speaking is not minding making mistakes but learn from them. Speaking is using words and also your body language etc. Well, you definitely teach me a lot more than that. From your presentations, roleplays and debates, I learn to be more confident, I learn what I should do when talking in front of a crowd. For example, eye contact is very necessary, not to look down on the floor or look up at the ceiling all the time. And of course, I also learn something not concerning speaking, it's something about how to use ppt file and how to make a blog, moreover something about life, something about how to be a better person, something about teaching career,... I appreciate it so much. And I don't know how to thank you enough for all your helping. You made my progress. Well, lots of things to tell, but I would like to say this one sentence:

I LOVE YOU, MY 1C07!

Some comments about the presentation on Friday.

On Friday, 4 other groups of our class continued presenting (include 3 snakes and 1 cat). I learnt a lot from the presentations of other groups. I think all of us had prepared very well for the mid-term test. Some groups made their presentations very informative and impressive by some ways. For example, F5 and Vivavn have the same method in their presentation. They performed role-plays and asked others some questions about the functions they wanted to mention. This way makes people notice and remember easily. I was very impressive when I watched the clip which Vivavn prepared. Obviously speaking, they had spared no effort to make the clip. Although the sound of the clip was not good, that was so great. Another problem I would like to add here is the skill of using Microsoft Powerpoint. Born to shine used many beautiful pictures in slides and they was very suitable for their presentations. Besides, I also recognized some mistakes in the part of All4one. The fonts of letters (Huyen Trang's part) she used are not clear and the size was too small to see well.

Furthermore, after watching the presentations of all people, I felt that the features and speeches of person who presents are very important. As far as I can remember, some members didn't keep their eye-contact to the audience, they've just looked at the computer. Although Mr. Vinh spoke without looking at the screen, he looked at the floor of the room. I personally think that both of these don't make presentation effective. So, we should keep our eye-contact to everyone when we are speaking. Do you think so? Moreover, a good voice is certain to make audience take notice of your presentation. Some members of our class speak so softly or quickly. That's not good for our presentations. Besides, some of us have still made wrong pronunciation ( include me). A small mistake I would like to mention here is the pronunciation of the sound /t/. I heard Miss Loan pronounced the sound which refers to "ch" instead of /t/.

In conclusion, this was the first time we make presentation in mid-term. Sth is good, we should learn and develop. Sth must be repaired to make us improve. Some problems I've mentioned may be so direct or not right. Pls give me your ideas...**^^**

About Functions Summary Presentations

Wow, honestly speaking, all you have shown me the best. But still, there are some very small mistakes I'd like to share with you.

First, f51c07. I want you to know that your preliminary roleplay surprise me a lot (especially when Nhu said the name "Tu"). And you're picking the stamp doing this. It helps to learn functions more effectively than just sitting there and learn by heart, to tell you the truth. Also, beside the functions, I learn a wonderful way to help others study them. So, that's the good point. However, did you notice that one or two members in your group unintentionally pronounce some words uncorrectly? So, please pay more attention to your pronunciation, ok?

Now, ongnho4289. Hey, I was very proud to be in your photo, to be an axample, I don't know, at least, it's something to help. But, please, next time, don't just cover my back. I would be appreciate if you focus a little more on my face. I never imagine that: "Wow, Ailing the reporter! Welcome to 1c07." Does it sound great? Ok, you don't know how curious I was when I saw the picture of Miss Huyen. You know, I saw nothing but the "huge, cute" mouth of her. It's the funniest picture I've ever seen. And I wonder would you show me how you could do that? Don't tell me it's just by chance or some good luck, I don't believe. It was so interesting but one thing. Did you ask for permission before you take others' photos and put them into your file? No? I remember Mr. Binh already reminded us about that, right? So, that's that.

And next, happyfamily1c. I might say everything was on their ways. And hopefully, everyone noticed that you had put lots of energy into the project. Well done! If I were Mr. Binh, you could get bonus marks. Unfortunately, I'm not. So now, is Nguyen Thao reading my entry? Sorry to interrupt, Thao, but would you agree that you have a very nice accent and your English was unimaginably fluent? Uhm... but one thing that made me feel a little sorry is the absence of Thanh. Send her my regards, will you? Oh, and one more thing, your presentation sure was attractive, but if you asked me, it was a bit too long.

Now, in brief, you guys brought us a lovely, exciting atmosphere. So, keep on the right track. And finally, don't forget to give a feedback after our group's performance. Thank you.

A GOOD LISTENER, EASY OR DIFFICULT???

Have you ever wondered why the person you are talking to doesn't seem to pay attention to what you've said. Actually, it occurs to my mind more than once. How about you? To me, the solution to this is quite simple. The reason is that if you would like to be listened by the person you are talking to, you, at first, have to show that you are a good listener. I've considered it one of my English troubles before. But now it is not my trouble any more!! @_@ One good way of letting a person know that you are listening attentively to him/her is to use some phrases to identify with the speaker - not necessarily to agree with the speaker, but to try to show that you are interested in what he/she is saying by responding. For example: Uh-huh, Mm-hmm,.../Mm-hmm.How come? Yeah,.../Oh, yeah. Good! Ok./That's Ok! Right./That's right! Oh, sure! Well, let see. Wow! Oh, great! That's it! Oh, no! All right! .... Especially, when someone tells you about their troubles or complaints, you should use some following phrases to share your feeling with them: Oh, don't you hate that? I can imagine. Yeah, I can relate. I see, I see. I know the feeling. Tell me about it. I know what you mean. ... Oh, yeah!!! Now practise confidently to show that you are a perfect listener! GOOD LUCK!!! KIM NGAN /

IMPROVE MY SPEAKING!!!

In speaking class, we usually use some words or phrases similarly. It's very natural. The reason is that we are Vietnamese. When we talk, we have ideas in our minds in Vietnamese and translate them into English directly also in our minds. We don't have much time to think how to use another words or phrases for our speaking. So, our speech is not various. Honestly speaking, although I'm a student majoring in English,I'm not goot at speaking at all. The reason for this may be the fact that I didn't have much chance to practise speaking when I'm in secondary school and high school. When I speak, I usually make some mistakes that I use the same word over and over again. For example, when I am asked a question beginning with "Why", I start my answer with "Because..." all the time. Or when asked for giving opinion, I always reply with the beginning "I think...". But now I think my speaking has gradually been improved. After several weeks of practising speaking and acting, I've mastered some other ways to reply intead of "because" such as BECAUSE OF..., DUE TO..., IT IS DUE TO THE FACT THAT..., THE REASON FOR THAT IS..., NOW THAT..., OWNING TO etc. Last Wednesday, I learnt some function about giving opinion, agreeing and disagreeing, discussing. I find it quite interesting. Now when I would like to show my opinion, I am supposed to use some expressions such as IN MY VIEWPOINT..., TO ME..., AS FAR AS I KNOW..., PERSONALLY (GENERALLY, HONESTLY, FRANKLY...) SPEAKING, AS I SEE IT..., THE POINT IS etc. Hey guys, let's enjoy and share with me your ideas!!<^_^> KIM NGAN

DIARY

(from www.coventrygangshow.co.uk)

A diary is a record (originally in written book format) with discrete entries arranged by date reporting on what has happened over the course of a day or other period. Diaries undertaken for institutional purposes play a role in many aspects of human civilization, including government records (e.g. Hansard), business ledgers, and military records. Schools or parents may teach or require diary-keeping. (From Wikipedia)

So, have you ever been writing a diary of yourself? If yes, you must have been improving your ability of writing(especially in English, if your diary has been written in English). Do you think so?

The first thing I recommend you should write your diary is that you can relax yourself when you write. All things, all people you meet in a day may let you be under stress. And when you can write all your secret, your thinking, you can recognize some thing wrong with you or happiness. Is it right? Besides, you can also remember what you learned on that day. It is very useful for your study.

The second thing is that your writing is improved. Write, write, and write everyday will help you practise some skills of writing and learn more vocabularies. But if you write without correcting your mistakes, you will not get any improment. Let's write to learn, not only write to remember.

(By 3snakesand1cat)

March 8th is International Women?s Day, a day commemorated at and appointed by the United Nations and recognized internationally for the purpose of taking time to remember and celebrate the many milestones marked by women?s achievements around the world, especially in the advancement of equality, justice and peace. This day is basically a celebration of womanhood- the privilege of being a woman. When women on all continents, divided by national boundaries and by ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic and political differences, assemble to celebrate their Day, they can look back to a tradition that represents decades of struggle for equality, justice, peace and development. ( from Internet)

On Woman's day, we hope all women in the world will be happy and beautiful.

HAVE YOU EVER ............???

In class, there are some good students who can master what teachers say immediately and respond well. And some teachers consider that all members of class are the same as them. So, teachers often explain something new quickly without taking notice of others who haven't understood yet. This is the drawback that many teachers haven't recognised. Moreover, many students dare not tell teachers their trouble. The more they keep silent, the worse their study becomes.

Why?

You know, everyone is afraid of the fact that people know their weakness. So, little by little, they become timid. We think they should ask teachers what they don't understand completely. Besides, they should also suggest that their teachers explain more clearly and slowly. The neccessary solution is that students had better prepare the lesson at home and study by themselves more.

How about the teachers? If their students don't tell anything about their problem, how can teachers recognise that?

IN THE FUTURE, YOU WILL BECOME A TEACHER, WHAT SHOULD YOU DO????

^^^^^^@^-^@^^^^^^

Read, Read, Read!!!

(from www.danong.com/)

There are few things that we can do that are more important than to instill a love of reading in our children. Reading is a lifelong gilf. If you read, you can always educate yourself.

It does not matter if you are reading from a computer screen, a paperback or from a leather-bound classic. Rather than getting upset as life's delays, A-B-A-B (Always Bring A Book) and put this time to profitable use.

Set the reading example in your home. Children only read when they see their parents reading. Keep plenty of books, magazines and newspapers in the house for everyone to read and discuss.

Set family reading goals and provide children with incentives for reading. Set aside a time each week for reading aloud as a family. Take regular family trips to bookstores and libraries. Make sure children are involved in a summer reading program. Encourage all family members to give books as presents.

( From Sunflower )

We hope this post help you improve your habit of reading. Good-----^ _ ^-----luck!!!!!!!!

INTONATION & STRESS

All of you can speak English. But are you sure you have manipulated intonation and stress in your speaking? The following informations will help you to practise speaking skills effectively!

Say this sentence aloud and count how many seconds it takes. The beautiful Mountain appeared transfixed in the distance. Time required? Probably about 5 seconds. Now, try speaking this sentence aloud. He can come on Sundays as long as he doesn't have to do any homework in the evening. Time required? Probably about 5 seconds. Wait a minute the first sentence is much shorter than the second sentence! The beautiful Mountain appeared transfixed in the distance He can come on Sundays as long as he doesn't have to do any homework in the evening You are only partially right!

This simple exercise makes a very important point about how we speak and use English. Namely, English is considered a stressed language while many other languages are considered syllabic. What does that mean? It means that, in English, we give stress to certain words while other words are quickly spoken (some students say eaten!).

English however, spends more time on specific stressed words while quickly gliding over the other, less important, words. Let's look at a simple example: the modal verb "can". When we use the positive form of "can" we quickly glide over the can and it is hardly pronounced.

They can come on Friday . (stressed words underlined)

On the other hand, when we use the negative form "can't" we tend to stress the fact that it is the negative form by also stressing "can't". They can't come on Friday . As you can see from the above example the sentence, "They can't come on Friday" is longer than "They can come on Friday" because both the modal "can't" and the verb "come" are stressed. So, what does this mean for my speaking skills? Well, first of all, you need to understand which words we generally stress and which we do not stress.

Basically, stress words are considered CONTENT WORDSsuch as Nouns e.g. kitchen, Peter (most) principal verbs e.g. visit, construct Adjectives e.g. beautiful, interesting Adverbs e.g. often, carefully Non-stressed words are considered FUNCTION WORDSsuch as Determiners e.g. the, a, some, a few Auxiliary verbs e.g. don't, am, can, were Prepositions e.g. before, next to, opposite Conjunctions e.g. but, while, as Pronouns e.g. they, she, us Let's return to the beginning example to demonstrate how this affects speech. The beautifu l Mountain appeared transfixe d in the distance . (14 syllables) He can come on Sunday s as long as he doesn't have to do any homework in the evening . (22 syllables)

Even though the second sentence is approximately 30% longer than the first, the sentences take the same time to speak. This is because there are 5 stressedwords in each sentence. From this example, you can see that you needn't worry about pronouncing every word clearly to be understood (we native speakers certainly don't). You should however, concentrate on pronouncing the stressed words clearly. Now, do some listening comprehension or go speak to your native English speaking friends and listen to how we concentrate on the stressed words rather than giving importance to each syllable. You will soon find that you can understand and communicate more because you begin to listen for (and use in speaking) stressed words. All those words that you thought you didn't understand are really not crucial for understanding the sense or making yourself understood. Stressed words are the key to excellent pronunciation and understanding of English. I hope this short introduction to the importance of stress in English will help you to improve your understanding and speaking skills.

( From esl.about.com )

PUNCTUATION IS USED TO CREATE SENSE, CLARITY AND STRESS IN SENTENCES

You use punctuation marks to structure and organise your writing. The most common of these are the period (or full stop in British English), the comma, the exclamation mark, the question mark, the colon and semi-colon, the quote, the apostrophe, the hyphen and dash, and parentheses and brackets. Capital letters are also used to help us organise meaning and to structure the sense of our writing.

You can quickly see why punctuation is important if you try and read this sentence which has no punctuation at all:

Perhaps,you dont always need to use commas periods colons etc to make sentences clear when i am in a hurry tired cold lazy or angry i sometimes leave out punctuation marks grammar is stupid i can write without it and dont need it my uncle Harry once said he was not very clever and i never understood a word he wrote to me i think ill learn some punctuation not too much enough to write to Uncle Harry he needs some help.

let's see if punctuation it makes a difference!

Perhaps you don't always need to use commas, periods, colons etc. to make sentences clear. When I am in a hurry, tired, cold, lazy, or angry I sometimes leave out punctuation marks. "Grammar is stupid! I can write without it and don't need it." my uncle Harry once said. He was not very clever and I never understood a word he wrote to me. I think I'll learn some punctuation - not too much, enough to write to Uncle Harry. He needs some help! Use the punctuation section to learn how to make your English clearer and better organised.

( From English4today )

Group work

Entering a university requires us to work in group and study by ourselves. We think they are very useful for any students. Especially, working in group helps us to improve our collaborative skills. Besides, one of your groupmates may have picked up something you missed of vice versa. However, if you only work in the same group for a long time, do you think that is a drawback? First of all, that seems to be good. Because when we collaborate with each other for a long time, we can understand the viewpoints of the partners easily. But when something changes such as members, we can't adapt to new circumstances. Sometimes you can't even understand your partners as well as you can't make yourself understood. Therefore, when you still study in the university, you should practise the way we have just mentioned. That means in each topic, you had better work with diffirent partners. The main purpose of this article is encourage our class to apply this studying method. We hope that all of you will study effectively with it! Please give us some comments on that! Thanks!!!^-^

HELLO EVERYBODY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is the first time our group has designed a blog. So, we encounter many difficulties. This photo was taken at our university: HoChiMinh city University of Education. We come from 1C07, department of English.

The first member we want to introduce to you is a Vietnam-born Chinese girl. She is Huỳnh Ái Linh ( in the midle of the photo). Do you think she is pretty nice?(^_^)!!!!hihihi

The first one from right is Phan Trúc Lâm. She comes from Tien Giang province, which has very peaceful rivers . To compare with the others in our group, she has an ideal height (about 1.6m).^^

The one with white glasses is Khuât Kim Ngân. Do you think she looks prettier in glasses? And she is very proud that she was born in Cu Chi, the historical place. She is willing to be a tourist guide for you if you would like to explore Cu Chi Tunnel. @--@hehehe

The last member is Lê Thi Bích Trâm. She comes from Dong Nai province. And she really loves her hometown. It is very beautiful and peaceful. She is very sensible and active. Do you think so?

INTRODUCTION!

I'm Ngan,hi everybody of class 1C07.Welcome to our group's blog.Please comment on our blog