Survay on 29th April.

On the 29th of April in 2008, I carried a survay to gather some information about the way to improve English abilities ; speaking, reading, listening, and writng. The subjects were English composition class students and the aim of this survey was to collect pre-teachers' thoughts about enhancing English abilities.

The participants answered for the question "What is your top tip for improving reading ability in English" was similar one by one. Hwan-gi and Sera answered in like manner. They said that reading many and different materials would help to improve reading ability. Jong-woo, however, replied that practicing to translate English into Korean and as for Hyun-a, memorizing lots of words would be advantageous.

In case of improving writing proficiency, Hyun-a emphasized covering various essay topics. Writing essay with the topics would be good for being proficient in writing, she said. Others, Myung-suk, Hee-young, and Hwan-gi projected similar opinions. They stressed that reading plenty of good articles and learning useful expressions through them will be effective.

Actually, about some questions, most of the subjects showed general opinions. Concerned to becoming better listener, Su-jin, Hwan-gi, Inkab, and Kang-hoon presented common viewpoints. They answered being exposed to English environment like TV, movies, or other sources of information are needed. Especially Inkab added somthing more-dictate and speak them out loud.

In the same fashion, to the next question, subjects answered that passive or faint-hearted attitudes are obstacles to becoming a more able speaker of English. Su-jin said that learners should have courage to speak even make mistakes, and Hyun-a, be comfortable whenever they communicate with someone. In addition, Jason, the professor of composition class, responded learners should be risk taker, and not be sensitive about misunderstanding. Additionally, Sera suggested to learn many expressions and practice them in various situations.

Related to the better grammar comprehension, Sera answered learning grammar naturally from sentence would be good. Hyun-a's answer was closely related to that of Sera. Shd recommended to read funny story and learn from it unconsciously. They stressed learning in natural way. On the other hand, Jong-woo's suggestion was to practice patterns and think over the meaning of contents. Su-jin's answer was to learn from oneself ; try to learn from your writing and speaking. They underlined conscious interests toward grammar.

Lastly, when it comes to improving vocabulary, Hee-young advised to read a lot and memorize expressions repeated frequently and Jong-woo said that whenever you faced with new words, speak and write them over and over again. They thought building vocabulary as memorizing. The other guys, Inkab and Sujin viewed it as the accumulation of experience. Inkab and Sujin proposed to learn vocabularies from personal, real, various situations.

The various suggestons and recommendations to improve various English abilities were different from one by one. However there were several consensual approaches also. Closing the survey, the research revealed that improving 4 aspects of English abilities is not individual course but serial process which is integrated all in all.

Last vacation, I think I've learned how to do it, but I cannot do exactly the same way I learned before. It is quite hard to paraphrase some words frequently used. I felt that I need to enlarge my vocabulary.