13. Unique Estonian sport🏊

 Cited from https://www.visitestonia.com/en/why-estonia/winter-swimming-the-estonian-vitamin

Hi, everyone!! I read Japan times alpha the past week as well, and today I will share one of the surprising winter sport, winter swimming. It took place on a huge scale, and the number of challengers is over 500 from 9-year-old boy to 83-year-old woman.  Among them, there was a pregnant woman and she enjoyed the relay with her angel baby. 

A lot of common occurred this year due to the outbreak, and we have been hit hard by the following problems. Therefore, this year's is to take away the boredom and fatigue of coronavirus. In Estonia, in winter, the temperature is usually below freezing, and the water was at the time 4 degrees Celsius. However, the newspaper says it has gone wild and grown in popularity. It must have left hot news them. 

All over the world are still covered with disgusting news and we are in a dark life. Some people are suffered from enabling to find the loophole in long ways, but I think if all the people feel it as their own business and go back to their beginner's spirits, we can contain a wave of the tiny enemy. 

英語教育講義⑬ modification and enhancement of errors

To Coordinate the learners' process of studying 

I thought concrete ways of Focus on Form are useful for every language learner. In particular, in terms of reactive, when they make errors in grammar, there are some types of responses to what they say. Let's say if a student says "I meet my friend yesterday," in which the verb should be past tense, the teacher can refer to the mistake indirectly to let them notice. Among them, I liked Recast. Applied to the example, the teacher should say "Oh, you met your friend yesterday?" Indirect feedback never hurts anyone. 

I want to use the Focus on Form when I get a job!!

These days I often take part in online internships and had one today as well right before the lecture. We discussed the way of teaching English to those who are from all walks of life. With the change of entrance examinations at schools, students might have problems keeping up with classes. In addition, more companies incorporate overseas and the demand for business English is going to soar. To meet the demand and deal with the problem, cram schools and language schools are putting more time money on output than input. However, through this lecture, I sensed their ways will not be matched with all of the learners due to the gap of their levels and target ones. Therefore, when I get a job in an educational company and engage in teaching English, I would like to focus on how comprehensible and potential the materials and courses are. 

英語教育講義⑫ content-based language teaching

 Content-based Language Teaching

I half agree with Krashen's idea that only comprehensible input is necessary for second language acquisition. At my age, many students started learning English as a subject. For those learners, until they find their ultimate goal of English acquisition, the facilitators need to lead and organize the class to let everyone join with plain English. I have the same share of my junior high school. Without my good facilitator, I might not be here. Therefore, all teachers should take balanced teachers' participation into account and prioritize the curriculum to make students speak at a maximum with each level. 

院生コーナー👏

I was impressed with Senpai's presentation and at the same time, it brought back the feeling which I had in Singapore. He introduced the disparity of the class style of Japanese and American, and the latter is adequate to obtain vitality and creativity. Listening to his talk, I was convinced with that. When I was in Singapore, every student spoke out actively rather than care about making mistakes, and I feel more comfortable to integrate with it. After I came back to Japan, the sense still left within me and if possible, I want to go back to the sort of styles.  

12. German Xmas markets taking safety measures

Hello!! How it's going? 

Christmas Day is coming soon. My favorite Christmas tradition is the Christmas market originated in Germany, so today I will share this year's market there.

In line with the new normal...🎄🎄 

As seen Christmas market in Kumamoto every year, we love to celebrate the holy event and gather to warm ourselves. This time of year is a rousing period for them as well. However, the thing is drastically different from normal years. Owing to the spread of COVID-19, all close-contacts are supposed to avoid these days. (3Cs is one of the hot words this year!!)

Amid the disaster, they commenced hosting a drive-in event taken inspiration from the fast-food chain. In one of the towns, they had 500 cars in one weekend!! It was a big day for them to get the rope of boosting the economy. 

Merry Merry Christmas... 
It's awkward to take my friends out at ease. I'm going to be involved in the Kumamoto version of the Christmas market next week. When it sealed "safety measure taken," it proves that at least the stalls are reliable and take physical-distancing. Therefore, if you want to get out and enjoy shopping, how about seeking them?

Drive-ins, scattered huts: German Xmas markets find ways around virus. (2020, December 18). The Japan Times alpha, p.12-13. 

11. Owl Creek Bridge and Other Stories

There are eight short stories in this book. Among them, I will introduce a man's pure but miserable love story, Beyond the Wall. 

Dampier is a book lover and spends all his time reading books. He has never been interested in falling in love. But one day, he comes across a girl with a bright and beautiful face. She is a niece's landlady who owns his apartment and lives next to him. Since the first meeting with her, he has no choice to concentrate on reading books and thinking about the girl. As his feeling becomes intensive to her, he is getting like a stalker. Every day he is knocking the wall between his room and her room to satisfy himself. The ultimate ending is as you expect. 

All the short stories of this book can be seen in the aspect of war and it is a bit hard to read the whole without looking into dictionaries. However, if you want to stretch your brain as a practice, I will recommend it. 

Bierce, A. (2007). Owl Creek Bridge and Other Stories. Oxford: Macmillan Readers. 

英語教育講義⑪ Working memory is necessary when learning languages

 Working memory is

I learn three memory that we go through when listening to someone's talk. I suspect you know the conception of short-term and long-term memory. Short-term memory functions on a daily basis such as when you repeat someone's phone number and words. However, learning languages need working memory that comprises three components. We experiment with how it works when we listen and mumble after someone's talk. Though today's activity, I noticed the thinking process is similar to shadowing something. When I study listening parts of the TOEIC test, I try to repeat just after the audio and interpret it in mind. As repeated the same thing, unconsciously, some words and phrases I want to memorize embed in my head, and I can go to the speaking step. With my experience and today's lecture, working memory has a good work, which helps us learn chunks by heart. 

英語教育講義⑩ Information Gap activity and other ways to boost skills!

Get out of framed ways of speaking English!!

How can we expand our repertoires of communication styles? Though I love reading books and listening to people's speaking, I feel agitated when I speak out in class or talk with my friends. One of the reasons is I count on limited-expression too much, and some pause occurs in recalling new words I learned. Like those who have the same concern with me, I feel the Information Gap activity is helpful to go forward to the next level. The Information Gap activity is pair learning by giving hints to each other and filling in the blanks. Moreover, it aims at checking your vocabulary realm and doing input from the pair's talking. 

Who am I?? 

The activity has lots of common with the other activity, "Who am I?" This week, I will host an English activity event and do "Who am I?" It is for international students and Japanese students. Now I'm exchanging ideas to proceed with the event smoothly and check the rules. Like the Information Gap activity is intended to provide conversation time with learners, we want to make it more reasonable for those who are studying English zealously. I believe in both activities, the facilitator should not hurt their inquisitive attitude when they make mistakes or are stuck with some problems with speaking. 

10. The Escape and Other stories

 

There are four sarcastically funny short stories in the book. Among the stories, The Escape is so amusing that I could often giggle while reading it. The main character, Roger is handsome and rich, and many women want to marry him. However, he always makes an escape when those women turn up in front of him. He is satisfied with the bachelor life. At a party, he meets Ruth for the first time in a while. She has married two husbands so far, and both are dead. Therefore, he is engaged to her to make her happier. Soon after their engagement, something wrong occurs. He recalls the merry lonely life and doesn't love her anymore!! Then, one clear idea comes to his mind. He promises her that if they find a nice place to live, they will get married. He brings a bunch of lists of houses for sales, and they begin hanging around to seek the best house. After they complete viewing them privately on the list, he gathers the property information and lists up them. They do it over and over again. As might be expected, she is tired of going with him, and the ending is as you suspect. 

The storyline has another unpredictable ending to make his strategy successful!! If you are even slightly interested in it, why don't you reading it??

Mugham, W. S. (2005). The Escape and Other Stories. Oxford: Macmillan Readers.