• Progress rate

  • week 3: 7%

  • week 4: 20%

  • week 5: 67%

  • 26/8/2024: Read

improve communication skill

learning some daily expressions

Definition:

• Sentences that contain one independent clause and one or more dependent clauses.

Structure:

• Independent Clause + Dependent Clause

• Dependent Clause + Independent Clause (Note: A comma is usually placed after the dependent clause when it comes first.)

Example:

• "Although it was raining, we went for a walk."

  • Independent Clause: "We went for a walk."

  • Dependent Clause: "Although it was raining."

Subordinating Conjunctions:

• Time: when, after, before, until, while

  • "She stayed home until the storm passed."

• Cause and Effect: because, since, as, so that

  • "He studied hard because he wanted to pass the exam."

• Condition: if, unless, provided that, as long as

  • "I’ll call you if I get home early."

• Contrast: although, though, even though, whereas, while

  • "Although she was tired, she finished the project."

Relative Pronouns:

• Who/Whom/Whose: Refers to people.

  • "The teacher who helped me was very kind."

• Which: Refers to things.

  • "The book, which I borrowed from the library, is excellent."

• That: Can refer to people or things (used in defining relative clauses).

  • "The house that they bought is near the park."

Complex Sentences with Multiple Dependent Clauses:

• "After we finished dinner, we watched a movie that I had been wanting to see."

  • Dependent Clause 1: "After we finished dinner"

  • Dependent Clause 2: "that I had been wanting to see"

  • Independent Clause: "we watched a movie"

Common Uses:

• To show relationships between ideas: "She left the party early because she wasn’t feeling well."

• To add detail or clarify: "The man, who was wearing a blue suit, spoke confidently."

• To express conditions: "If you finish your work, you can go out to play."

• why

  • our ego thinks that others should take us into consideration. it doesn't want to be criticised and want to be acknowledged.

• two strategies

  • it's NOT about me

    • try to look at it from other person's perspective/intention.

    • shift the focus from "me" to "we"

    • brain produces 50000 thoughts a day, but only 10000 are positive.

  • it is about me

    • give yourself empathy

    • speak up

• people may attack you, criticise you or ignore you, they can crumple you up with they words, spit you out or even walk all over you. but whatever they do or say, you will always keep your values.

Vocabulary:

• referee 裁判

• scapegoat 替罪羊

• apparently 显然

• conscious 有意识的

• criticism 批评

• neglected 忽视

• offended 冒犯

• betrayed 背叛

• exhausting 筋疲力尽

• take over 接管

• drain my energy 耗尽我的能量

• endless 无休止的

• battling 战斗

• kick off 开球

• toss 抛掷

• head and tails 正面和反面

• convince 说服

• on the contrary 相反

• irritation 恼怒

• ring a bell with you 和你一起敲响警钟

• a hell of 地狱般的

• gossiping 闲聊

• clue 线索

• discipline 自律

• pep talk 鼓舞人心的谈话

• trigger 触发器

• thrown of 抛出

• come to term with 接受

• clumsy 笨拙

• selfish 自私

• take into account 考虑到

• raw nerve 神经紧张

• to concluded 得出结论

• enormously 巨大

• watching English movies

• try to communicate with strangers

Definition: The subjunctive mood is used to express wishes, hypotheticals, demands, suggestions, or actions that are contrary to reality. It often appears after certain verbs, adjectives, or conjunctions.

Example:

• Wishes: "I wish she were here." (Contrary to reality because she is not here.)

• Demands/Suggestions: "I suggest that he study more."

• Hypotheticals: "If I were rich, I would travel the world."

Common Words:

• Verbs: suggest, recommend, insist, demand

• Adjectives: important, essential, necessary

• Conjunctions: if, though, unless

Definition: Inversion refers to the reversal of the normal word order in a sentence, often used for emphasis or in certain grammatical structures like questions or conditional sentences.

Types of Inversion:

• In Questions: "Are you coming to the party?"

• Negative Inversion: "Never have I seen such a beautiful sunset."

• Conditional Inversion: "Had I known, I would have acted differently."

Common Words:

• Negative adverbs: never, rarely, seldom

• Conditional: had, should, were

Definition: Conditional sentences express actions that will, might, or could happen depending on a certain condition.

Types:

• Zero Conditional (Real Present): "If you heat water, it boils."

• First Conditional (Real Future): "If it rains, I will stay inside."

• Second Conditional (Unreal Present/Future): "If I were you, I would study more."

• Third Conditional (Unreal Past): "If I had known, I would have helped."

• Mixed Conditional: "If I had studied harder (past), I would be successful now (present)."

Common Words:

• if, unless, provided that, in case

Definition: The passive voice is used when the focus is on the action rather than the subject performing the action. The subject of the sentence receives the action.

Example:

• Active: "The chef prepared the meal."

• Passive: "The meal was prepared by the chef."

Common Structures:

• Present Simple: "The book is read by many people."

• Past Simple: "The letter was sent yesterday."

• Future Simple: "The project will be completed next week."

Common Words:

• by, with (to indicate the agent or means)

Definition: Relative clauses provide additional information about a noun in the sentence. They often begin with relative pronouns like who, which, that, or whose.

Types:

• Defining Relative Clause: Essential to the meaning of the sentence. "The man who is wearing a hat is my uncle."

• Non-defining Relative Clause: Adds extra information and is set off by commas. "My uncle, who is wearing a hat, is coming for dinner."

Common Words:

• Relative pronouns: who, whom, which, that, whose

Definition: Reported speech involves reporting what someone else has said, without using their exact words.

Example:

• Direct Speech: "I am tired," she said.

• Reported Speech: She said that she was tired.

Common Words:

• Verbs: say, tell, ask, explain

• Conjunctions: that, if, whether

Tense Shifts in Reported Speech:

• Present simple → Past simple ("He said, 'I am happy.'" → He said that he was happy.)

• Present continuous → Past continuous ("She said, 'I am reading.'" → She said that she was reading.)

• Present perfect → Past perfect ("They said, 'We have finished.'" → They said that they had finished.)

Definition: Gerunds are the -ing form of a verb used as a noun, while infinitives are the base form of a verb, usually preceded by "to".

Examples:

• Gerund: "She enjoys swimming."

• Infinitive: "She decided to swim."

Common Uses:

• Gerunds: After prepositions, certain verbs (e.g., enjoy, avoid, consider), as subjects or objects.

  • "He is good at dancing."

• Infinitives: After certain verbs (e.g., want, need, decide), adjectives, to express purpose.

  • "She wants to leave early."

Common Words:

• Verbs: enjoy, avoid, need, want

• Prepositions: before, after, without

Definition: The past perfect tense describes an action that was completed before another action or point in the past.

Example:

• "She had left before he arrived."

Common Words:

• by the time, before, after, already

Definition: The future perfect tense describes an action that will have been completed before a specific point in the future.

Example:

• "By next year, I will have graduated."

Common Words:

• by (time), before, by the time

Definition: The present perfect continuous tense describes an action that started in the past and has continued up until now, often with a focus on the duration.

Example:

• "I have been studying for three hours."

Common Words:

• for, since, lately, recently

Definition: Apposition is a grammatical construction where a noun or noun phrase is placed next to another noun or noun phrase to explain or define it.

Example:

• "My friend, a skilled artist, is hosting an exhibition."

Common Words:

• commas, dashes, or parentheses often set off appositive phrases

- Feedback from peers about the plan

- Reflection on skills you already have that will support you in achieving this plan

- How achieving this goal will help you in life beyond school

- Research and act on this

- Final product

When we were watching an English movie as a part of her weekly goal, she especially paid attention to new vocabulary and expressions. I can also see a significant improvement in her reading abilities. She is now more able to grasp the meaning of an English passage without needing to understand the meaning of every single word. Her capacity to step back and grasp the big-picture ideas has improved drastically. I was particularly impressed by how well she was able to identify and take key information from complicated academic journal articles she needed for her school essays. I am tremendously proud of her and her progress thus far. 

The only feedback I would provide at this point since she has already excelled in self-discipline and hard work when it comes to the reading and writing aspects of English, is to be braver in speaking in English with others. She will need to find ways to overcome her shyness in social settings and find more opportunities to practise speaking English outside of school.  

Reflection:

In the early stage, I mainly focused on reading, listening and writing skills. Based on the feedback, I aim to focus mainly on speaking skills in the later practice.

• it tells the story of the growth of a girl named Esperanza. when she was 12, she and her family moved to a very old and shabby house on the mango street in Chicago. Because of the poverty, the little girls experienced lots of unfair treatment such as racial discrimination. However, She had enormous hope for herself longing for a better life and her desire to escape the constraints of her environment. At the end of the story, she got a house that belonged to herself through her effort and helped the people who were not able to leave the mango street.

• It consists of dozens of short stories, each of which tells about a person, an event, a dream, a few clouds, a few trees, and a few feelings...

Reflection:

• This is the first time I have finished reading an English book. In the beginning, I was too concerned about the meaning of every word and wanted to understand every sentence. Later, I found that I only needed to grasp the meaning of the main words without affecting my understanding of the content.

• Because English is not my first language, I used to want to figure out the Chinese meaning of every single word, which made me feel anxious and took a lot of time to read long English articles. Through this experience, I overcame this challenge. At the same time, it will help me improve my efficiency when reading English articles in the future.

I found that when I was dubbing, the speed of the video was still too fast for me, so I couldn't finish a whole sentence within the time limit. At the same time, when dubbing, I need to pay more attention to the intonation and punctuation of the sentences compared to the original video. These factors can make me speak more like a native speaker.

The feedback I got:

I thought this was a very creative way to practise speaking English! What a fun exercise! I agree with what Ran said above. Her sentences got cut short because she wasn't able to keep up with the speed. But I'm sure with practice she'll get better and better. Overall, her words were annunciated clearly and it was easy to understand. Great job!

Joanne 31/8/2024

During my second recording, I followed the original video many times, trying to learn the intonation and rhythm of the original video pronunciation. I felt my progress, and practicing speaking skills through dubbing was very interesting and kept me going.

I know that my grammar foundation is weak. So during this learning process, I will do some research on the questions where I made mistakes.

Quantity or number (e.g., two, several)

Opinion or quality (e.g., beautiful, ugly)

Size (e.g., big, small)

Age (e.g., old, young)

Shape (e.g., round, square)

Colour (e.g., black, red)

Origin (e.g., American, Chinese)

Material (e.g., cotton, wooden)

Purpose (e.g., running (as in running shoes), sleeping (as in sleeping bag))