23 August, 2013 Volume 1, Issue 1
DAYEH UNIVERSITY INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGES
Newsletter
Learn English for a Successful Future President Wuu DongSing 武東星 shares some of his English learning experiences
English was an important part of my early university life and study as a young Electrical Engineering major at National Sun YatSen University in Kaohsiung. When I was an undergraduate student, English was important for passing my general English university examinations and talking to visiting students from Western countries such as the USA. By the time I was a graduate student, English was also important to me for reading and writing in scientific and academic journals and for preparing my doctoral dissertation.
After graduating from university, while working in industry, I always used English with international clients when discussing: the implementation of international mergers and acquisitions; technology transfers; technology commercialisation and when introducing advanced technology to develop high-grade, precision and advanced products. Now, while serving as DYU president, I have many chances to meet and receive foreign guests from many different countries such as from France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the UK and the USA. Indeed, English is very helpful, not only at work but also for broadening your social networking circle of acquaintances and friends.
For all these reasons, I would encourage all of you to remember that you are not just learning English for your university examinations but more importantly for your future lives and furthermore, while it is very difficult to predict how and when you might need to use English in the future, one thing is almost certain, you will need to use it in one way or another and that you will be doing yourself a great favor by learning it as well as you possibly can here and now at DYU. Since last Summer, I have invited more native-speaking English teachers to DYU in order to help encourage you all to speak English more regularly in and outside of your English classes while also learning about Western culture.
Kiss and Fly Jonathan Kuo Chia-Chang 郭家彰 (a new ILC English teacher, Office J415) shares some of his travel experiences
You may well think that I must be able to speak many languages such as French, Spanish and Italian since I have travelled around Europe.
Sorry to ruin your fantasy. I can only speak Mandarin Chinese, Taiwanese and English, the same as most of you. I used to be afraid of travelling overseas but then suddenly realised something when I saw a “Kiss and fly” sign in Nice, the fifth most populous city in France.
This sign is not only easy to understand but also seems to tell us a lot about French culture!
Becoming familiar with a variety of native English-speaking accents is also important. I hope this will help enhance the English-speaking environment here at DYU so that more of you will become confident and fluent English speakers. Do make our new nativespeaking English teachers feel welcome here by taking every opportunity to speak English with them. If you do this I am sure your English will improve immensely. _____________________
Since seeing this “Kiss and fly” sign I have always had the selfconfidence to try my best to communicate whenever I travel abroad and perhaps even more importantly I even feel free to use English creatively here in Taiwan.
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DAYEH UNIVERSITY INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGES
Volume 1, Issue 1
Glee and All About Bre
Breanna Alexander (a new ILC English teacher, Office J415) tells us about herself and some of her favorite things
Hi there. My name is Brean-
guages and cultures.
na and I am one of the new English teachers here at DYU. I’m really excited about the new semester and meeting you all.
What do I like to do in my free time? I love to do many different things. I love yoga, reading, watching movies and my favorite TV shows, walking my two dogs, eating (as long as it’s vegetarian), volunteering with charities and animal rescue and traveling.
Let me tell you some interesting things about myself. I’m from the USA but my mom and step dad have lived in the Netherlands since 2001. I love learning about different languages and cultures especially Taiwanese and Taiwan’s indigenous aboriginal lan-
One of my goals for this year (besides being the best teacher ever) is to get together with you all and do some things that not only help you with
your English but also help me understand you, your culture and language. I’m really excited about having weekly “American TV Show Night” or “Movie Night” where we can watch some popular TV shows like Glee or a cool movie. Some of my Taiwanese friends use English speaking TV shows and movies as extra English practice and it works! I have plenty of ideas but if you have an idea, I would love to hear from you.
A Time for Magic I look to these quotes for guidance in life. The first by Goethe is bold. The second, by Genet, acknowledges that one’s journey may at times include despair. Braden Rico (a new ILC English teacher, Research Room J302-04) reflects upon the experience of learning a foreign language
“Whatever a man can dream to do, begin it, boldness has genius, power and magic in it.” - Goethe “A man must dream a long time in order to act with grandeur, and dreaming is nursed in darkness.” - Genet
It intrigues me that both express hope although seeming to contradict each other. I have puzzled over the contradiction, wondering if I should claim the first and reject the second but I can not bring myself to do this. I know that the two maxims in tandem reveal life’s pluralism and the fact that whatever we strive for comes with a price. Both writers honour the reality of a transformative power. Goethe’s approach lifts me up and sets me soaring towards the heavens while Genet’s is a gritty call to action acknowledging that sometimes you need to endure the darkness before you can realize moments of magic.
It is the idea of such moments of magic (or the lack of such moments) in the English-as-aforeign-language classroom that I wish to address here. Although most people do not connect English to magic, many do understand that if education is to be transformational and meaningful it must include some element of inspiration in it. Therefore, obviously, when I refer to ‘magic’ I am not thinking of the wonders performed by a magician or the supernatural incantations of a fictional sorcerer à la Harry Potter. Instead, I am referring to the inspiration that students must conjure up within themselves as they experience communicative language teaching and learning.
Do you find your English lessons dull and meaningless? Are you experiencing more of Genet’s darkness than Goethe’s magic? If so, you haven’t yet connected to the myriad of ways in which English, used as a lingua franca, can be a window to a world of ideas that you can engage with as you communicate to people of different cultures. Just as I have found inspiration in the English translation of non-English writers, you can embrace ideas in English that bring you inspiration. I wish you success this year and hope that your education includes magic time.
DAYEH UNIVERSITY INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGES
Short Story Writing Tip: Throw in an Animal The following short story, although a work of fiction, draws deeply from a well of farm life memories. Set in rural Australia (locale in picture above) at an unspecified time, perhaps in the early 1980s, when small schools with as few as one or two teachers were still quite common. Written circa 2001— 2002 as part of a teacher inservice training workshop at Hong Kong University (香港 大學) it shows one way of adding action to a story by throwing in an animal. JUST ANOTHER DAY AT SCHOOL As a young student, very early in the morning, I can recall leaving the farmhouse: the cows and calves, chooks and chickens, cats and kittens, dogs and pups and the lamb that thought it was a dog
and walking up a hill, along a dusty track, maybe stopping at the top of the hill to hit the ant nest with a stick, so that the ants would “dance” and maybe bite one of my brothers on their way past and hoping that I would not see any red belly black snakes in the long grass. A little bit down the other side of the hill was a much bigger, dustier road. This is where my brothers and I would wait for the postman to take us to school. Everyone: rich and poor, good and bad, clever and stupid, from the farms, villages and town studied together. Some teachers were very young, maybe not much more than nineteen, while other teachers also taught my mother and father long before me! Late morning, about twenty to twelve, at school in class
Volume 1, Issue 1
“Aargh!” screamed Miss Wolford in a highpitched voice as she jumped up onto the teacher’s desk. A wave of pandemonium swept across the room: chairs flying, tables falling, just the usual mayhem, with girls standing on desks screaming and boys chasing a little rodent round and round the room until finally cornering and catching it. Someone started ringing the church school bell, but it was too early for the midday Angelus and it was not in Father Ken’s usual ordered, melodic tones. As the bell pealed frantically, everyone started to run outside but before they could the priest walked up the old wooden steps of the school house and took a peek inside. … END of excerpt from Just Another Day at School written
by 馬丁Martin Murray Editor of this newsletter (Research Office J401-05) E-mail: martin@mail.dyu.edu.tw
Ruby’s TOEIC Test Taking Tips Ruby Chung Ying-Hsien 鍾 穎嫺 (a new ILC English teacher, Office J415) shares her thoughts about preparing for the TOEIC test
Welcome to my newsletter column. Here you will find out about what you will need to learn
and what is expected of you during this semester’s English courses. For starters, all DYU students are required to pass TOEIC. To fulfil this goal, some classes will need to be somewhat testorientated. However, many other classes will be student centred and group work with peers will be another feature of English learning that you will regularly experience here at DYU.
Moreover, student centred group work is a way of learning that will be used in all classes from those with students of lower to higher levels of English language proficiency. Oral English presentations and group discussions will also be included in your English classes not only for the purposes of evaluation but also in order to help strengthen cooperation amongst students
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Bradley’s advice for overcoming shyness
Bradley Stephens, (a new ILC English teacher, Office J324-09) shares the first of his ideas for overcoming shyness in English class
Look confident. When people see you looking confident they will assume you are confident. Forget about how you look. Forget that you didn’t have time in the morning to perfect your hair, put on nice clothes or apply makeup before your 8am class. As long as you carry yourself with confidence you shouldn’t feel shy. Put your shoulders back. Hold your head high. Look the teacher in the eye. If you try to hide, the teacher will definitely call on you to answer questions.
Call for newsletter contributions from DYU students and staff Submissions should be original, include a photograph and be e-mailed to the editor before 8am 9 September, 2013 for possible publication and in order to help you develop your negotiating skills. Overall, it is the aim of all English teachers to create a fun, low anxiety learning environment. Learning English need not be a boring or painful experience. This semester let’s all work together, helping each other, happily preparing for TOEIC test success.
International Language Centre
Room J314, Foreign Languages Building, DaYeh University, 168 University Road, Dacun, Changhua, 51591, TAIWAN (R.O.C.) Phone: +886-4-8511888 Fax: +886-4-8511666
http://langcntr.dyu.edu.tw/ e-index.html
Thousands of books and articles focus on how to be a good teacher but very few discuss how to be a good student. Whether you are a freshman at DYU or a returning student, September is a good time to think about what it means to be a good student. I am both a DYU teacher and a Feng-Chia University (逢甲大學) graduate student, so I take a personal interest in this question and I would like to share with you what I have learned.
Let’s talk about the teacherstudent relationship. Some of your professors will amaze you with their teaching and research abilities. Be inspired She teaches internation- by these “star teachers” but al business management don’t be intimidated. Even within DYU’s school of the most accomplished professors were once beginners. management (Office They had to learn, just as you J424-15) and shares some of her ideas about are learning. If you work hard and learn from these being a good student
How to be a good student
Carol Troy
super achievers, maybe someday you will walk in their shoes. Even if you personally like your teachers, some may disappoint you in the classroom. When this happens, don’t be discouraged. Remember, every teacher is unique, just as every person is unique. Look for your teacher’s good qualities, and try to learn as much as possible. (Later in life, you will have to deal with imperfect bosses, too!) As one student in a class of 20 or 30, you may not have the power to change the teacher’s habits. However, you can change your own. Being a good student means more than earning high exam scores. It means developing ambitions that will serve you for a lifetime. There are no good teachers, only good students.
Living in Britain Many people in Taiwan do
Philip Sced 李鈞皓 born and raised in Edinburgh, Scotland, (Office J415) talks about life in Britain
not actually know where Scotland is. You may be surprised to learn that Scotland is a part of Britain (also known as the United Kingdom, or UK) The Island of Britain (the larger of the two islands in the map) includes England, Scotland and Wales. Northern Ireland and Britain together make up a country whose official name is “the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland”. When you go to Britain, it’s important to get the names correct – the Scots, the Welsh and the people of Northern Ireland will be deeply insulted if you tell them how much you like being “here in England” when you are in their part of the UK.
The official language of these countries is, of course, English, although the English spoken in Scotland is quite different from that spoken in England, or Wales, or Ireland. The people of Wales even have their own language – Welsh. It is totally different from English and no, I can’t speak even a world of it. This semester I will be teaching high-intermediate and advanced level courses in reading and writing as well as listening and speaking at the ILC (International Language Centre). In addition to helping you improve your language ability, I will try to help my students understand Western culture. I am particularly interested in the differences between Eastern and Western cultures.
Map of UK