introduction to language learning 3

 Dear Erik,

It has been another two weeks, and here I am again! Today I am going to share with you an interesting language learning approach I’ve learned in class. Last week, our teacher talks about an activity called “jigsaw activities”. This is the first time I hear about this learning method, and I think it is a really good way to help people improve the languages they are learning. After practicing this activity in class, I concluded some benefits of jigsaw activity. First of all, I think it helps us engaged in the material given to us more since we can read and break down the context several times and also learn others’ opinions. Second, it helps us understand the context at a deeper level. Jigsaw activity not only requires us to understand the material, but it also needs us to teach others in a comprehensible way. I think teaching others is a really good way to see if we really learn and understand the knowledge we receive. Through teaching, we need to explain the concept and answer question, which requires a deep understanding of the context. Third, I think jigsaw activity gives us a chance to improve our communication and cooperation skills with others. Whether we are teaching and learning the jigsaw group or exchanging opinions in expert group, we all need to communicate and cooperate with others. When others don’t understand what we are trying to say, we need to find another word to express the meaning, and I think it can greatly improve the language we are learning. In a nutshell, I think jigsaw activity is a very useful way to learn a language; it helps us in many aspects.

Now, I want to share with you my teaching experience during summer vacation. Last summer vacation, I went to a summer camp to teach English. I remember when I was a child, I never went to any summer camp that focuses on teaching English, and I have no idea what this summer camp would be like. At first, I am really nervous; I have no teaching experience, and I didn’t know what those kids what to learn. This teaching job required me to prepare my own teaching materials, which was probably the most difficult part for me. However, after I started teaching, I found out that it was not that difficult. I started by thinking about the questions: “how do I learn English?” and “how do I want to learn English?” and after thinking about these questions, I was able to know what the students need (I think). As I mentioned in my previous blog articles, I learn grammar and vocabulary in school, but what really makes me fall in love with English is the movies and books. Movies and books are things that help me make great progress in learning English. Therefore, during my teaching in the summer camp, I always tried to help students find passion and love in learning English. I designed a lot of games and found interesting movies that can make them happy and at the same time really learn something. I think this is really a precious experience for me; I have learned a lot and my English actually improved after the summer camp. When I was teaching, I was able to review what I have learned in school, and also look into my own learning method and see what I can improve.