tiArA d tanah Zea yg Baru

Hello there!
I am so sorry that I am actually lack of ideas (with the 'raya' mood and stuff).. I don't know what to write about this topic..but, I will try my best..please do correct me if I make any mistakes..

There are four skills in learning English which are reading, listening, speaking, and writing. The most important thing I must always bear in mind is that reading and listening are inputs whereas speaking and writing are outputs. In other words, if I want to improve my speaking and writing skills I should first master the skills of reading and listening. There are some ways that I can do so, which I will try to summarize.

• READing,

I read as much as I can..but, my reading must be active. It means that I must think about the structure, unfamiliar words and etc as I read. There is no need that I stick to some complicated grammar structures or try to understand all the unfamiliar words I come across, but the fact that I will see them for the first time and recognize them whenever I see them, for example in other passages or books is enough. It would be better to prepare myself a notebook so I can write down the important words or structures in it..hehe..actually I am working on it.

• LISTENing,

As for listening, there are two options, I think:
a)Aside from reading, I must listen anything in English every day for at least, about 30 minutes.
b)I can only concentrate on my reading and become skillful at it, then I can catch up on my listening....
I myself prefer the latter because when you are skillful and native-like at reading, your listening skill grows automatically. Since you have lots of inputs in your mind, you can easily guess what the speaker is going to say. This never means that I should not practice listening. For listening I recommend cartoons or some movies that are specially made for children. Their languages are easy and do not contain complicated phrases or slang terms. whenever I think I want to try another method of listening.. I can listen to BBC programs broadcasted every day or some useful websites that my lecturer has given to me and my friends. Again..the thing to remember is being active in listening and preferably taking some notes. I believe..if I follow these pieces of advice, my speaking and writing will improve automatically, and I can be sure that with a little effort they will become perfect...InsyaAllah..

I often hear people say that they like watching movies and TV programmes to learn English. I watching movies, you will have lots of clues on things that what is going on. The dialogue is not so concentrated unless it was intelectual movies. Advices from one of my friends..when reading or listening an audio book, it is better because you are completely depending on that language. The intensity of the learning experience is much greater. It is easier to repeat our listening and reading whenever and wherever we want.

I think learning English together with several people is a good idea to improve English skills. I have tried to write one essay one day forpreparing IELTS exam, but it didn't work very well, it's hard to find the errors in my own writings. So if people would learn together,exchange experience and find out each other's disadvantages in English, it would be very nice.

• WRITing

So writing is the most crucial part..I am hardly to write if Miss Elliza's was not forcing us.. Basically, I love to do this blogging thing in need to improve my writing skills and also reading.. Besides that, its my hobby to read sample essay from any types of sources such as internet, printed materials, and etcetera..I have some sample essays that I got from one of my PPOU friends..a collection of essays made by 'Ahmad Faris' (our super senior...I guess) and also essays from my ATU friends..they have done a lot of essays..which I think can help me to improve a lot!

• SPEAKing

I love to speak..but, I don't have the courage to speak especially when speaking in front of other people..to present my presentation and stuff like that..I am actually have stage fright too! So my strategy to overcome my weaknesses is I will put my best effort to speak among of my friends and we will try to correct each other..

Last but not least, I hope I can master this four fields; listening, writing, reading, and speaking skills in order to improve myself and of course the important mission- to success in IELTS!

Hope to see you soon in the next post!

Regards,

Nurfarahin Binti Baharul' ulum