Student Monitoring Form
Student Monitoring Form
2 Teacher Comments: Well done: ________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________ Need to improve: ________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________ Meeting with Director of Studies: Met with Director of Studies on: ________________________ Student signature: _______________________ DoS signature: __________________________ Next meeting with Director of Studies: ________________________ Required action / resources for improving English skills through self-study (please tick in the left column when you do these activities during the week): Listening: Use the graded readers (books with CDs) from the CQU Library. Use the program Issues in English on the computer in your classroom. Remember to bring your own headphones for this. Buy the Lecture Ready CD and listen to each lecture several times, practicing the listening skills you have learned in class. Use the IELTS books from the CQU Library. Read the transcripts to the listening test while listening to the CD. Listen to / watch the news on the internet, for example the ABC, BBC. Go to O drive / ELICOS / Information for new students / Study resources / Self Study Websites.doc for useful self-study websites. Note there are 7 different tabs; these include websites on the different skills, as well as Study Skills. Improve your vocabulary and grammar (see below). Live and work with people of different nationalities to you. Make friends with native English speakers join a club, sports team etc. Go out and do fun activities, and dont worry about making mistakes. Improve your vocabulary and grammar (see below). Read the newspaper for half an hour everyday. o o Good newspapers: The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian, The Financial Review. Read for half an hour each day. On every second day, use a dictionary to look up unknown words that you often see. Speaking:
Reading:
3 o Every other day, simply read without the dictionary, guessing the meaning of unknown words from the context. Use the program Issues in English on the computer in your classroom. Remember to bring your own headphones for this. Go to O drive / ELICOS / Information for new students / Study resources / Self Study Websites.doc for useful self-study websites. Note there are 7 different tabs; these include websites on the different skills, as well as Study Skills. Practice the reading skills you have learnt in class, with other texts that you find in the library or online (check that you use appropriate websites for this). Improve your vocabulary and grammar (see below). Always re-write your draft incorporating the feedback from your teacher Read as much as you can this will naturally help you improve your own writing Practice writing extra sentences paragraphs / essays and give them to your class teacher or LSU for feedback Use the program Issues in English on the computer in your classroom. Remember to bring your own headphones for this. Improve your vocabulary and grammar (see below). Go to O drive / ELICOS / Information for new students / Study resources / Self Study Websites.doc for useful self-study websites. Note there are 7 different tabs; these include websites on the different skills, as well as Study Skills. Buy / borrow and use a copy of: o Oshima, A & Hogue A 2006, Writing Academic English, 4th Ed., Pearson Education, White Plains Grammar: Make sure you understand clauses (dependent and independent), and types of sentences (simple, compound, complex). Check that you use clauses correctly (i.e. each sentence must have S + V). Check that you use the correct parts of speech. Check all your subject / verb agreements. Check correct use of verb tenses. Learn and practice complex grammar such as relative clauses, adverb clauses, and noun clauses. Go to O drive / ELICOS / Information for new students / Study resources / Self Study Websites.doc for useful self-study websites. Note there are 7 different tabs; these include websites on the different skills, as well as Study Skills. Buy / borrow and use a copy of: o Murphy, R 1994, English Grammar in Use, 2nd Ed., Cambridge University Press, UK. (Blue book = Intermediate / Upper-intermediate) Writing:
4 o Hewings, M 2005, Advanced Grammar in Use, Cambridge University Press, UK. (Green book = Advanced) o o Hopkins, D & Cullen P 2007, Cambridge Grammar for IELTS, Cambridge University Press, UK. Chapters 10 and 11 from: Oshima, A & Hogue A 2006, Writing Academic English, 4th Ed., Pearson Education, White Plains. Vocabulary: Record all new vocabulary in a vocab list; especially do this with vocabulary that you discover while reading Memorise and test yourself on all new vocabulary Practice using new vocabulary in your writing and speaking Make a conscious effort to learn new academic vocabulary Learn collocations Go to O drive / ELICOS / Information for new students / Study resources / Self Study Websites.doc for useful self-study websites. Note there are 7 different tabs; these include websites on the different skills, as well as Study Skills. Buy / borrow and use a copy of: o o o o McCarthy, M & ODell, F 2008, Academic Vocabulary in Use, Cambridge University Press, UK. McCarthy, M & ODell, F 2001, English Vocabulary in Use, Cambridge University Press, UK. Cullen, P 2008, Cambridge Vocabulary for IELTS, Cambridge University Press, UK. Campbell, C 2007, English for Academic Study: Vocabulary, Garnett Publishing, Reading.
Information Literacy / Referencing: Study and practice using all the information your teacher has given you on this. Practice finding and using this information in a paragraph, using correct referencing, and ask your teacher to check it. The library has useful workshops and resources on Information Literacy The LSU has useful workshops and resources on Referencing
Independent learning Remember that you must do a huge amount of self-study outside class time in order to really improve you must become an independent learner. Look at your strengths and weaknesses; build on your strengths, and work hard to improve in your weak areas.