Study Abroad Diary ⑭ Study Abroad in Gifu (Part 5)

Hello! I'm Clever Apple!!

Today, I would like to write about my study abroad experience!

Today's topic is, "What did I study while I was studying in Gifu? "

The picture above is two cats under a car that was parked near Campus East, the dormitory I lived in !

There weren't many cats in Wollongong, so I took the picture!!

Today I will continue to talk about what subjects I studied in Gifu !

Please see this article about how I decided to study abroad in Gifu instead of Australia!

■Please also see this!■

cleverapple.hatenablog.com

 

 

After completing all four courses in the first semester, the online classes for the second semester began! !

 

 

 

The four subjects I took in the second semester are as follows! !

 

①Leading, Developing and Managing People

②English Pronunciation and Prosody

③Assessing and Evaluating in TESOL Environments (English evaluation)

④English in Specific Contexts

 

 

This time, I would like to talk about a subject called English Pronunciation and Prosody !

 

 

 

 0. What kind of subject?

 

The purpose of this subject was to "learn the theory and practice to effectively improve the pronunciation of English learners by understanding the English sound system and deepening the understanding of English pronunciation ."

 

 

I'm not very confident in my English pronunciation, but I learned English pronunciation tips and pronunciation instruction techniques . It was a very educational subject, not only as an educator, but also as an “English learner”! !

 

The assignments were also very interesting, and I got High Distinction (AA in Japanese universities) for the first time! !

 

 

This is a subject that students majoring in Master of Education at the University of Wollongong should definitely take! ! 

 

 

 

 1. Assignment ① Quiz

 

This subject has only two assignments, but the second one was quite difficult ... 

 

 

The first task is the weekly quiz ! !

 

This assignment tests what you've learned each week with a one-time quiz at the end of the week!

 

The content is not that difficult, and you can see the notes you took, so I think you can get a perfect score pretty easily! !

 

Also, the content starts with basic things like phonemes, consonants, vowels, etc., followed by complex thought groups and connected speech, so you can learn at your own pace without difficulty! !

 

 

There are only two assignments in this subject, and the percentage of quiz grades for this subject was 30%!

 

 

 Assignment ② Practical Assignment

 

The second assignment is "Practical Assignment"! !

 

 

 

In this task, you choose an English learner, identify the pronunciation problems that prevents that learner from communicating in English, and compare these problems with those of the target group of learners. Then,  propose techniques to solve the problems. " !

 

 

 

Put simply,

 

① Record a Japanese English learner's English speech

② Analyze the recording and look for the pronunciation problems

③ Consider whether the problem can apply to other Japanese people

④Think of the teaching methods to solve the problem of their pronunciation

 

 

 

 

Including the pronunciation analysis, this assignment was over 5,000 words , or 40 pages ! lol it's pretty hard lol

 

 

 

First, I would like to show you a little analysis of the English speech! !

 

 

 

 

Is English your nati v e language? If no t , your fo r eign accent 

                               [b] (adds [o]) [l]  

may show people th at you com e from ano th er count r y. 

                             [z] (adds [ʊ]) [z] [l] 

 is it difficult to speak a for eign language wi th out an accen t ? 

                (adds[o])[l][z] (adds[o]) 

This way, you can identify unnatural intonations other pronunciation problems.

[ L ] Is E ng lish your native language? // [ L ]If not , / [L]your foreign accent may show peo ple / [ L ]that you come from another country. // [ L ] Why is it difficult to speak a foreign lan guage without an accent? // [L] There are a couple of an swers / [F] to this question. // [ L ] First , / [F] age is an important factor in learning to pronounce .

The hard part is listening to the recorded speech over and over again for this analysis and identifying the mistakes!

I've listened it at least 20-30 times ...

In addition to the assigned speech, I also asked the learner to speak on anything and analyzed the speech! !

Then you identify four pronunciation problems for learners to correct and compares them in the context of ESL (English as a Second Language) and EIL (English as an International Language).

Finally, for each of the four identified pronunciation problems, you propose two techniques for improving their pronunciation, for a total of eight !

In addition to this, you have to submit a PowerPoint with audio to explain the technique, so the assignment was quite demanding...

However, the assignments themselves were interesting and the content was very educational, so I enjoyed learning! !

 3. Summary

 

This time, I wrote about one of the subjects I took, " English Pronunciation and Prosody" ! !

For me, this subject was a very satisfying in terms of the content and grade! !

I hope that it will be helpful for you to know what you will learn at graduate school in Australia and what kind of challenges you will face! !

 

 

 

 

I will write about what I learned while studying abroad for a while from the next time!

 

 

 

May your study abroad be a wonderful one! ! !