English blog by Grethe

Here we go again.… I think.

2010-03-03T15:28:00.004+01:00

I am sorry that my blog not has been prioritised lately. But now we have to blog in English didactics and I am glad I got the opportunity to learn more both about writing English correctly, how to teach English and the theories behind it.

Last lesson we saw two clips from different classrooms. I will try to connect what we saw there, to the theories. And try to find what is typical for the different theories.

The first one

http://www.skoleipraksis.no/fremmedsprak-og-engelsk/filmar/veiledet-lesing/

was station teaching for 2. to 4. grade. If I got it right, I think that this way of teaching is mostly in a way that Barry McLaughland would approve. He looks upon L2 (language 2) learning as the development of a complex cognitive skill. Practise, practise and repeating is what he thinks is the best way to get the knowledge of a language internalised so that you may use it without thinking about the words and the grammar. Conscious and subconscious

The second one

http://www.skoleipraksis.no/fremmedsprak-og-engelsk/filmar/clil-samfunnsfag-pa-engelsk/
was teaching social science in English, in tenth grade. And I think that Krashen would see this as an ultimate way of practising his theory. By listening and speaking the language the pupils learned social science, but at the same time they practiced and developed their English skills. Krashen think that the language are learnt subconsciously and that the learnt skills are in like a monitor consciously correcting the language while a person is speaking.

I also wonder if the acquisition-learning hypothesis is a subconscious process, when you are in a process would not some of it be conscious - and after you had worked on it, it will then become a part of your unconsciousness? I know this is not Krashen's theory - but I am not sure that I understand where he puts the limits. If a child wants to know how a word is pronounced, then it is not subconscious, but a part of the monitor, but why does he mean that monitor-knowledge can’t be a part of one’s subconscious after a while?
Take this for now....

This is my starting point – and done a bit in a hurry – but as always:

Please correct my mistakes and comment on my saying. Looking forward to learn more....

THEATER AND MUSICAL!

2009-10-01T02:15:00.003+02:00

It is late night, and I am supposed to be in bed, but I will write something first. London is great!

Yesterday I were so lucky that I got to go to the Globe with "Ungdomsskoletrinnet". (and yes, they call it so in English too.) We saw Sheakspears "As you like it" - and I liked it a lot! I even understood some of it.

To day I saw "Phanthom of the Opera" with fantastic acters. The school work is going well to. I realy enjoy the pupils, and we are getting to know them a litle bit. But two weeks is not a long time to conect.

That will be all for this time. My madrass is waiting for me...

The piqtures tells the rest!
Or you can read this:

http://gul-fugl-og-marianne.blogspot.com/2009_09_01_archive.html

England - London - Wibledon - Arteberry Road 28

2009-09-27T21:07:00.002+02:00

For two days now, I have stayed here at the Norwegian School in England. We have had realy warm and beautyful weather, and I hope it will last. Tomorrow we are getting introduced for the teachers and all the pupils at the scool. I think it is important that we get a good start, and get to know the pupils well, before their teachers leave. (Luckily not until next monday)
The school is an old brick building from about 1850, built for a doctor and his family. But here is plenty of rooms and absolutly possible to get lost in the begining. We are supposed to sleep 7 students in one room, but if some of us needs it, we can take our madrass and find us an other room for the night, if we make soure we are out of it before the pupils arrives.
I have so many thoughts about London, my stay here, and what I hope to atchive. But it is difficult to find the right words in English. I hope that we tomorrow will get a pasword so we can use our own computers, there I have a very good English dictionary, and then I might even get some piqtures in this blog.
So long, so good. (Or maybe they says someting else in English...)

THE BRITISH CONTEXT

2009-09-18T13:12:00.002+02:00

At first: What are we going to call this islands, south west in the North Sea?

If I have got it right Great Britain (GB) is England, Scotland and Wales joined together. United Kingdom (UK) is Great Britain and Ireland.

The history of the people on these islands tells us how they became what they are today. They have managed to influence the world with their way of thinking and behavior. But somehow they have not let the influence go the other way around, at least not so much.

In the last thousand years there have been no successful military invasions of the UK. They have grown strong and proud, and developed a polite and class divided society.

In the last century there have been a lot of changes for the UK. The two world wars and the liberation of the colonies lead to both social and economic seducement.

And, as in a lot of countries in the world, you can find people in Britain saying that everything was better before.

“There is still a conservatism in British life which regards change with suspicion” (J. Oakland: British Civilization, p. 12)

I see that this is a topic that I do know a bit about, but I find it very difficult to write about it in English. I don’t find the right words for the right meaning – so I need to think before I write some more.

Hopefully (surely) I am going to learn a lot about the British when I am in London and in York.

Political institutions in USA

2009-09-14T22:20:00.000+02:00

The federal government

I find politics sometimes a bit boring, and uninteresting. Not because I don’t care how people manage to live in a country, but I feel like politics often is politicians making promises and breaking promises, and no one can do anything about it. Now, after last lesion we are supposed to have some knowledge about politics in USA, and know the names of their political institutions and how they work. After writing this I hope it will be a bit clearer. And I want to start with the present situation.

USA has three branches of Government:

1. The executive branch: The president and his administration.

2. The Legislative branch: The Congress

3. The Judicial branch: The Supreme Court

1. The president and his administration

The president is elected separately from the Congress, for four years at the time. He (or she??) is limited to at most two terms (8 years) by the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution. His administration is assembled in the White House.

The administration is composed of the Cabinet and the executive offices.

(The Cabinet comprises the heads of 14 departments,

heads of all departments is the Secretary - secretaries are political appointees, hired (and fired) by the president whit approval from the Senate (part of the Congress).

Three key cabinet positions:

I. The secretary of State (foreign minister)

Hillary Rodham Clinton

since: January 21, 2009

II. The secretary of defence:

Robert Gates

since: December 18, 2006

III. The secretary of treasury (finance minister)

Timothy Geithner

since: January 26, 2009

(IV. National security adviser)

Gen James L. Jones

since: January 20, 2009

2. The Congress - the Legislative branch

(Placed on Capital Hill)

The Congress is split in two: The Senate and the House of Representatives (the House)
4 joined permanent comities with members from both houses.

THE SENATE

100 members
- two from each state
elected for 6 years
1/3 elected every 2. year
no limits to how many terms a senator can be seated
has to be at least 30 years old to be a senator
16 permanent comities
Proposal of bills

THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

435 members
- two years term
each state is split into district based on population, one representative chosen from each district
Population based upon a national census every 10 years
22 permanent commitees
Proposals of bills
- only the House can introduce revenue bills – not the cenate

3. The Judicial Branch (Headed by the Supreme Court)

The Judiciary explains and applies the laws. This branch does this by hearing and eventually making decisions on various legal cases.

The Judicial Branch is in charge of the court system. There are three different kinds of courts found in the federal court system. The lowest level is the district courts. The 2nd level is the court of appeals. The top level is the Supreme Court.

http://library.thinkquest.org/J0110221/Judicial.html%20(Page%20with%20questions)

The Supreme Court’s job is to interpret the constitution. It has nine members.

http://www.congressforkids.net/Judicialbranch_supremecourt.htm (This page is for kids, but I find it very informative.)

50 State governments and the Federal government
Every state has its own laws. The American Government can do nothing about them unless they violate the constitution, and it is the Supreme Court which decides this.

Four key areas where authority is shared with the federal government:

1. Taxes Americans pays State and Federal taxes.

2. Laws Federal and State laws and courts
i. Federal – only cases involving the Constitution or cases involving violations of federal laws

3. Economy Banking system is regulated by both Federal and State Government

4. Social Services The State has the primary responsibility for their social services.

Last weeks events

2009-09-06T20:52:00.000+02:00

Yes, I am going to London and have my teaching practice there! The Norwegian school in London wanted to hire some students, and HSH asked if some of my class maids and I wanted to go. And now we are eight students going to London the last week in September and the first week in October. And as I said once before: The best place to learn English is in England. I really want to learn English so that I can talk and write correctly and also understand written and spoken stuff. Yes, we can call it: be able to make a good communication in English.

And maybe in English I will be better to not speak before I think – and listen more carefully to what other may mean with what they say. I try to remind myself of that every day – because I think the world will be a better place if we all listen more and spoke less.

This may lead us to the theme we had in American Civilization this week. American history contains a lot of struggling because of bad communication, both for the minorities in America and for the American women.

Today there are many minorities in the USA. And they all have their own history. Off curse there are the Native Americans and the African Americans. Then we have Asian Americans and Latinos. All these groups are struggling for their rights and a better life in “The Land of Freedom”.

I find it difficult to write just a little bit about this. Our textbook has a lot of pages about this theme, but still I think it is not enough to really tell their stories. The first and the largest amount of immigrants came from northern Europe. And as the book says:

“The Native Americans became a small minority as a result of a long history of successful invasion, military conflict and pressure by Europeans and then white Americans.”

(Mauk & Oakland, American Civilization, p. 85)

And then we have the African Americans, which actually did not come as slaves at first.

“By the late 1600s, however, hereditary slavery had become the rule and African Americans were degraded to the status of property.” (M&O, p. 94)

And I think the American should be ashamed that it took so long time for the African Americans to get the rights they have today.

And I think that the same could be said about women’s rights.

Next week we are going to talk about American politics. And I think I have to learn something about it in Norwegian first, before I can write something about it in English.

______________________________________________
18. September 2009

Thank you for telling me.....

Yes, I am going to London - and yes we are eight students from HSH who are going. And they are my classmates and maybe they will help me by being maids as well - but I am not paying, except if I can help them with some teaching inspiration.

And this is why I am bloging, someone have to tell me when am doing wrong – otherwise I don’t learn a thing. And then I do the same mistakes over and over again. And that will be YOURS fault!

2009-08-30T23:24:00.000+02:00

What have I learned this week?
GRAMMAR
I have decided that if I am going to continue this blog, I can`t think about the grammar. I am going to write more or less like I speak, and then I might look back, and think about the grammar afterwards. Because if I start thinking when to use for example simple tense, and when to use continuous tense I would not got to write anything.
This week we also got an introduction in when to use “it” and “there”. And so it will go on almost every week until our exam in December. New grammar rules – and we have to remember them and not least understand them and be able to explain them. Not easy – but to make it clear: This blog will mostly be about American and British civilization.

AMERICAN SETTLEMENT AND IMMIGRATION
After our lesson Thursday I came to a conclusion: It is a miracle that The United States of America are united. (But don`t tell them. They already think high enough of themselves.) But somehow they manage to build a feeling of patriotism inside their citizens that grows stronger the more someone outside criticize them.
And one can wonder, were did it start? At first it started when the Europeans thought they had discovered a new country, about five hundred years ago. The Native Americans however had lived there for a long time. And they welcomed the new arrivals whit open arms. Maybe not so smart, but they had to lose anyway. The Europeans were not used to so much land not owned by anyone. Such deferens! People on the same earth thinking so totally different about ownership. And maybe that’s why the Native Americans could not be made slaves? (Off course with many other reasons)
I can`t remember that I ever before heard that the first African people who came to America where employed workers paid for the job they did. But maybe that were not so many, so it is most common just to tell about all the Africans made slaves. And off course this is something we all should learn of….
The waves of immigration have off course also contributed to make US to be what it is today. I think it`s fascinating to see what countries the different immigrants come from, and also what countries they didn`t come from. In the two first waves people immigrated for economic gain and religious freedom. And isn`t that also the reasons people today immigrate?

And that was all I could do for now. Bit thoughts, and a lot of training for my English.
I really appreciate the comments and thoughts from you all.

Thank you – and have a god week!

About American Civilization

2009-08-22T00:59:00.000+02:00

At first I wonder if American only includes the United States of America. Because I always thought that America includes both North and South America, and all the countries in the continents. But it seems like the US think that they are the ones to be called Americans. When I hear the word America, I first see a map of the continents in my head. When I think of USA I think of the geography of the country, and how it is divided in states. But of course when we are learning about American Civilization it is the people we are going to concentrate about. American politics and industry covers a lot of subjects that I think we are going to discuss, the nearest weeks. I hope I maybe get a bit wiser about the American politics; it has to be more than just the election of presidents and all the scandals we read about in the headlines. And I also want to know more about the deferens between the states. I now realize that I may have done the same mistake that many Americans doo. They know maybe a lot about their own country, but don’t care so much about rest of the world. I don’t know so much about America that I wish I did, and sadly much of my “knowledge” (?) comes from “bad” American soap series. But this course, I hope, will improve my knowledge about Americans.

23 years ago.....

2009-08-21T21:54:00.000+02:00

Thursday this week I had my first English lesson in 23 years. I hope it will get a bit easyer as "time goes by". I want to use this blogg to improve my English, and I hope those of you who are reading this, will help me. Both with my grammar and my vocabulary. I am very glad that we get the opertunity to go to York in England in November. I think that is a very fine way for all students to learn English more properly. Exept for going to live there for a whole year or so. As you may see, I am not sure in when to use one "o" or two "o"-s in the word "to". I haven't search finding answer on this before, but I see it now, and may you can help me?
I hope I will find time too write something here every week, and I hope you will join me.

Grethe