Survey: Studying abroad

Introduction

   There are various ways to improve English. No doubt, studying abroad is one of the best way to learn English. This survey was conducted by students in English Education major to see (1) the effect of studying abroad according to time they spent in English speaking country and (2) which part of English skills improved best.

Method

   To find out the student’s background, the survey asked the students about an experience of studying abroad and the country they went to study English and how long they spent time in the county. 7 students responded this survey.

Experience of studying abroad

    All 7 students who responded to this survey have an experience of studying abroad. Most students prefered to go to U.S.A to study English and rest of the students went to U.K, Canada, Australia and Philippines. This survey says that the more they spent times in the country, the more they are satisfied with their English improvement. All of the students think that through the experience of studying abroad, they could improve their speaking skill best, but in the survey, they could choose only one part of the 4 skills. If there were more options, the result could have been changed.

Personal idea of studying abroad

   Many student said that studying abroad is really good way to improve English skills, but it is quite expensive. When it comes to English achievement, some students emphasized that it really depends on how hard they study in the country.

Conclusion

  People who have an experience of studying abroad are satisfied with their English achievement according to the time they spent in a certain country. All of the students answered that they could improve their speaking skill best.

Two opinions on "To a Daughter Leaving Home"

“To a Daughter Leaving Home” is the most favorite poem among the people in the class. Two of them decided to teach this poem to the students and posted their opinion on their blog. According to their opinions, the poem is really appropriate for high school students to learn about poem because of its language use and message.

 Both of them think the language use in this poem is suitable for the students because it is not too difficult to understand. Um Yura says that although the poem has some new words that the students are not familiar with, it doesn’t affect that the student can’t understand the poem(2014.10.14). Choi Hyewon developed Yura’s opinion by using “Input hypothesis” which means that if students confront some challenges, they tend to be motivated by it to overcome. (2014.10.12). Both of them think a little challenge can give a good impact on the students.

  They also agree that the message of the poem is suitable for the students in term of thinking their parents’ effort. According to Choi, the students will get a good chance to remind their  childhood and realize that they could not been independent without their parents’ love(2014.10.12). Um says that the high school students are excited by the fact they are going to be independent, but at the same time, they start to think about their parents who help them until now. Both of the writers agree that the students empathize the situation in the poem and they are eventually going  to think how thankful they should be to their parents(2014.10.14).

  With this reasonable reasons, both bloggers think the poem, “To a Daughter Leaving Home” is a good source to teach poem in high school class.

Choi, Heywon(2014.10.12) “EEE Week 5 Assignment” [Web Log Post] Retrieved from http://eeehyewon.blogspot.kr/

Um, Yura(2014.10.14) “To a Daughter Leaving Home” [Web Log Post] Retrieved from  http://yura0419.blogspot.kr/

Learning about poem through "To a Daughter Leaving Home"

 

Learning poem could be a great challenge for high school students because they are not familiar with poems and also have kind of stereotype that reading a poem is always boring and meaningless. Yet, this poem, “To a Daughter Leaving Home” is really appropriate to teach students poem and get them interested.

 This poem contains a meaning of being independent from parents by portraying the process of learning how to ride a bicycle. High school students can understand easily the situation of this poem because most of them have the same experience when they were young. This will lead the students to get interest in this poem. Moreover, high school students are on the process of being an adult, so the poem can give the students a good chance to think about leaving their parents later. One more thing that makes this poem appropriate to teach high school students is its language use. It uses easy words so that the students don’t have difficulty in understanding. It also uses many rhetorical expressions and they show characters of poem well.

 As we could see the advantages of it, the poem “To a Daughter Leaving Home” is really suitable to teach the students poem for its messages and language use. It will let them know about the joy of reading a poem.