Improve your public speaking with Toastmasters

A great way to improve your speaking ability (listening and vocabulary too),  build your confidence,  engage in networking,  and integrate into Canadian culture is to join Toastmasters.    This is a voluntary organization that meets weekly.   There are 12 clubs in Nanaimo,  and in particular there is one at Vancouver Island University -- Toastmasters on the Hill.  

You can read more about what Toastmasters does on their website.

Toastmasters International - Home

Are you a good presenter?

  vs.



Making effective presentations is a learned skill,  and there are terrific tools and resources available today that make it easier to give great presentations and develop your presentation skills.

Mobile devices like tablets make it even easier,  although their flash limitations make the creation of digital content difficult.     Some experts recommend creating slide shows on a pc,  then using the mobile device to deliver them.

There are far more options than Powerpoint these days,  although it may take some time to learn them.   One of the easiest is  Google Presentation (via Google Drive).     For more dynamic presentations,  you can use Prezi or Haiku Deck.

Compare two different style of digital presentation -- the first with Prezi




And the same content delivered more traditionally.

Presentation Tips from Jennifer Austin

Free Rice -- Try the Vocabulary Learning Game

Here is a good way to improve your vocabulary and help the world at the same time.

Play online, learn online and feed the hungry | Freerice.com

You can play on a pc   or  download the mobile app.    It is free and reputable.

Government of Canada's Language Web Portal plus some business writing resources

I came across this website today quite by accident, but it looks very interesting and worthy of exploration.

Language Portal of Canada


Also,  for business students,   the Business Writer's Free Library has a bountiful supply of resources.

Business Writer's Free Library

Finally,   this business writing blog is definitely worth subscribing to.

Business Writing

World.VIU.ca

Check out International Education's  social media presence via Twitter

WorldVIU (WorldVIU) on Twitter

Creating an Outline -- an integral part of the pre-writing process

                                            

Once you have written your thesis statement,  it is time to start planning and organizing the essay, and collecting the support for your argument.    You can't begin doing your main research until you know the type of support you need.  (Or at least,  you shouldn't unless you want to waste your time and effort.)

An outline is an integral part of the pre-writing process.   The key word to notice here is "process", as opposed to "product".  Process is fluid, not static.    Just because you have written an outline as part of your writing plan,  doesn't mean you can't change it.   Plans are meant to be changed; they should not be straitjackets that fully restrict us.   They are a planning tool.


Two primary benefits of an outline are that:

1. You can build and  see the support for your thesis
2. You can see the logic of your argument

An outline exists in a middle state between structure and creativity.  Its focus ought to be on ideas and their organization.    It follows from brainstorming and precedes the written essay constrained by issues of grammar, vocabulary and style.   You should not be worried about these latter issues when working on an outline.

Your outline should also help you better plan your time as you write your essay.   For example,  you may spend one day on one section of the outline (i.e.  one of the paragraphs or sections) and another day on another section.     

Here is a good template for a typical 5 paragraph essay.

(Source:   https://www.tacoma.uw.edu/sites/default/files/global/documents/library/essay_outline_worksheet.pdf

Here is a blank template you can use:

Here is the same essential structure in a more graphic format:

Here is another graphic template you might want to use:

If your teacher asks you to hand in a formal outline using Roman Numerals,  here is what one looks like:

The Purdue OWL: Sample Outlines



How detailed your outline is depends on its purpose.   Are you submitting it to your teacher,  or is it only for your own use?       If it is for the writer only,  then point form will be enough.


Here are some web resources that will be helpful for preparing an outline.  


9 Different Types of Outlines for 9 Different Types of Essays

Word Collocations

One of the difficulties ESL students have with words is knowing which words go together, particularly with phrasal verbs.     The more you read and notice, the more you will learn this, which is called collocations.

English Club has a good albeit limited website about collocations.  I encourage you to explore it.

Collocations | EnglishClub

Just the Word also will provide some useful collocations for any word you enter.

The point is that you cannot simply learn a word in isolation.   The reason students struggle with cloze exercises is because they do this — they learn words in isolation, simply reciting the word and its translated meaning.   Instead, they should be seeing the word in sentences and in different contexts.   They should practice writing the word in different contexts as well.   Remember this — one word can have slightly or radically different meanings depending on the context.   This is not the case for all words, but certainly for many.

Collocation Examples  (from About.com)

And here
Collocations Lists | EnglishClub

Try this quiz  (and other things from this website)

Learning and knowing collocations are simply one more approach (and aspect of vocabulary)  that will improve your vocabulary knowledge and ability.   Simply engaging in translating and reciting words is not an effective method.

Do you annotate?

An important element of  "active reading"  (click for explanation/definition) is annotation.  A sharp pencil is an essential tool for this as you engage with what you are reading.    You can jot down your thoughts and observations,   questions, disagreements.    You can indicate what are the important points in the materials.     Two purposes of annotation are to to help you think as you read,  and to make it useful when you come back to the reading at some point in the future

Good reading is active reading that engages the brain,not just the eyes.

Here are some useful tips for active critical reading from Harvard Library

They recommend you throw away your highlighter.

Remember that reading is a dialogue between you the reader and the writer of the text.  

Here is a classic example of annotation.  I believe this was the director’s original annotation of the script for the movie, “The Godfather”.   

I don’t recommend this cluttered text as a model for you, and there is too much underlining,

but it gives you some idea of the mental interaction.

Now let's jump into the 21st century of digital annotation.    Your professor has provided a reading in PDF or has posted to D2L her PPT (Powerpoint) slides for you to read before class.     In the old days,   you would print these out and then annotate with a pencil.   In 2014 why not go digital,   especially if you have a tablet such as an iPad or Android device.

How can you annotate digitally?     You need a good app  like Goodreader.

If you want to annotate a PPT file,  in Goodreader you need to first convert the file to PDF.
I do this by first importing into Powerpoint or Keynote,  then saving as a PDF, then opening this PDF in Goodreader.   (It only takes a minute.)

Using commas correctly

Today's newsletter from   About ESL   ( a great website,  and you can subscribe to the weekly newsletter in the top right corner of the website homepage),     deals with commas,   a common difficulty for ESL students.    There are 10 essential rules about comma use.    You can click the image below to go to the actual page.

Commas are a tricky part of English and even native speakers frequently get them wrong.    Oftentimes this is not a serious issue as it does not impact critically on the meaning.   Other times though,  incorrect comma use can result in confusion and miscommunication.

On this webpage,   "Five Most Common Grammatical Errors",  the first error noted is "Comma Splice".  It is important to know about this so that you can avoid making this common mistake.

You can take a comma quiz here  and   here.

You can also take a punctuation quiz here.    (This is actually a great website.)

Try to spend a little time each day or week on improving your English.     Just because you are not studying English or ESL in an actual class,   doesn't mean you should stop learning it.