Here is the report we wrote together in this morning's GVD class. I'm looking forward to a Bank Holiday weekend spent reading reports on your own mini-surveys:A survey was conducted into pre-sessional student journeys to the university. Respondents were asked about the means and duration of travel. The results show that the majority of students commute by bus, while forty percent walk every day. Although methods of transport vary, the journey time of most students is very similar – between 10 and 25 minutes.
There is some debate about the two exceptions to this general rule. Contrary to the claim of one respondent, Al Hosan (2010) argues that it is impossible for anyone to reach room 3.413 within three minutes. Al Khudiry (2010) is similarly sceptical about the estimate of one participant that it takes him 30 minutes to walk from University Quays to the campus.
There is some debate about the two exceptions to this general rule. Contrary to the claim of one respondent, Al Hosan (2010) argues that it is impossible for anyone to reach room 3.413 within three minutes. Al Khudiry (2010) is similarly sceptical about the estimate of one participant that it takes him 30 minutes to walk from University Quays to the campus.
(If you're curious about the image of Lisa Simpson, it's the first image that comes up when you google "sceptical")l
2 comments:
I have read an article about building vocablary. and I would like to know your comment about it.
It is through this link:
http://www.mycollegesuccessstory.com/academic-success-tools/build-vocabulary.html
Adel
Hello. Thanks for the question and the link. I'm assuming you're one of my GVD group (I'm not so good at reading in Arabic though), and there are certainly some suggestions on this list that I have encouraged everyone to do both in and out of the class.
The importance of reading is certainly something we talk about a lot, although I'm not sure why Katherine Hansen needs 2 points to suggest this (probably so that she has a total of 10!). This then allows you to apply tip 7. 8 and 9 seem to be more or less the same point - try to use new vocabulary in a meaningful context, although I'm not sure that it's worth using new words just for the sake of using new words. Surely it's more important to use them appropriately when you actually need them (which is why I completely disagree with Katherine Hansen about using a Thesaurus. I am not at all convinced that a Thesaurus is a useful tool, because it won't give you any indication of the nuances of words or how to actually use them. I've seen some disastrous writing that has been produced with the help of a Thesaurus. Personally I would only recommend using one to help jog your memory - for instance, you know that you know a synonym of a word, but you just can't quite grasp it...a quick look in a Thesaurus should show you the word you were trying to remember. As a starting point for learning new words, though, it's a slippery route, and very much in opposition to Hansen's suggestion that it's good to encounter new vocabulary in context).
Points 3,4, and 5 are all suggestions that I have made in some form or other over the last five weeks, and I agree with them all. I think point 6 is a little random. If you read enough, you'll encounter more than just one word a day, and you'll see them in context. What's the point in allowing a random computer program choose which vocabulary you learn each day when you can make far more intelligent decisions about this yourself? I suspect that Katherine Hansen's target audience are actually native speakers who want to expand their vocabulary. Even for native-speakers, though, I don't see the point in such an approach, unless what you really want is to impress other people by using long words that they've never heard of. Sadly though I think there are lots of people who think that this kind of one-upmanship is more important than clear communication.
Finally, I would say that point 10 is a good one. People with a genuine interest in language and a "curiosity for words and their histories" are likely to develop their vocabulary at a faster rate than those who don't care about words and have no interest in language. Surely this is obvious. However, simply telling someone to be more interested strikes me as being told by a doctor to "be more healthy". If someone isn't interested in words, what good will it do to tell them that they SHOULD be interested?
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