In the previous classes, the students did a few language exercises taken from the net. It is quite difficult to teach the students the basics in English language structure which I found they are quite weak at it. The course I am teaching is the final English language course required on the students. At this stage we assume the students' English language skills have gone beyond the basics but this is not true for majority of them. Therefore I believe that we should do something about our curriculum, paying more attention to the students' needs of learning the basics prior to going into ESP-based course like what we are doing now.
We did some revisions on literature review writing. I've given some notes in my wikispaces on the steps they could take to review the literature. But it appears that most of them stop at compare and contrast stage! They did not really engage in the critical analysis of the literature. So I emphasized the needs to do that and explained more on how to do it. Some of them showed understanding and some were still unsure, I reckon! In my opinion, the students need to be more critical if they wan to engage in the analysis of the literature, and obviously, this needs time. The students really need to squeeze their brain to engage in a higher order thinking when analyzing the articles. I hope they could see clearer of the literature review writing stages after the explanations.
I have also provided input on data coding to the students. They have been introduced to the coding book, i.e. to fill in the responses they obtain from their respondents. During this session however, 7 out of 21 students were absent. 3 of them had to go to a visit to Penang organized by their faculty. 1 of them was honest enough to send me a message of apology because she overslept! 3 of them- all boys from the same team, I don't know what's happening to them! I've consulted them before, telling them that they have to be more serious in their study because I believe they are good students, especially 2 of them whose command of English are kind of good, I mean seriously good! I have advised them and I hope they do something about it, it's a pity if they don't take my advice because I really really believe they can score a good grade in my class!
The students have submitted their Assessment 3 for this semester. I hope by reading the assessment, I will be able to evaluate the learners' learning thus far.
We did some revisions on literature review writing. I've given some notes in my wikispaces on the steps they could take to review the literature. But it appears that most of them stop at compare and contrast stage! They did not really engage in the critical analysis of the literature. So I emphasized the needs to do that and explained more on how to do it. Some of them showed understanding and some were still unsure, I reckon! In my opinion, the students need to be more critical if they wan to engage in the analysis of the literature, and obviously, this needs time. The students really need to squeeze their brain to engage in a higher order thinking when analyzing the articles. I hope they could see clearer of the literature review writing stages after the explanations.
I have also provided input on data coding to the students. They have been introduced to the coding book, i.e. to fill in the responses they obtain from their respondents. During this session however, 7 out of 21 students were absent. 3 of them had to go to a visit to Penang organized by their faculty. 1 of them was honest enough to send me a message of apology because she overslept! 3 of them- all boys from the same team, I don't know what's happening to them! I've consulted them before, telling them that they have to be more serious in their study because I believe they are good students, especially 2 of them whose command of English are kind of good, I mean seriously good! I have advised them and I hope they do something about it, it's a pity if they don't take my advice because I really really believe they can score a good grade in my class!
The students have submitted their Assessment 3 for this semester. I hope by reading the assessment, I will be able to evaluate the learners' learning thus far.