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Using learning strategies to remember

1.Rhymes: 'I before E except after C.' This easily remembered spelling rule avoids spelling mistakes in words like 'receive' and 'retrieve'. Get students to invent rhyming raps to memorise grammar rules.

2.Physical prompts: in Libya, I was taught to use my two fists to remember the days in the months. If the first high bone is January (31) it is followed by a dip, February (28/29). March (31) is the next bone followed by a dip, April (30). July (31) is the last bone on one hand and August (31) is the first bone on the other hand.

3.Memory workout: read, cover, write, say, check. (Repeat the workout circuit many times!)

4.Visualisation prompts: to remember a sequence of facts, think of a regular journey such as to school or to the shops. Connect each fact to a point on the journey.

5.Sound prompts: the same as above but connect each fact to a stage in a piece of music you know well.

29. Read some information about general principles to aid memory and choose the best ones. Why have you chosen them?

Create interest: find a purpose, 'This will be useful for ...' Understand it: it's impossible to learn what you don't understand.

Positive thinking and confidence: often we fail to learn because we are convinced we can't do it.

Intend to attend to it!: be determined to learn – avoid distractions. Organise information into sensible chunks and rehearse. Do not try to learn too much at one time – remember your short term memory can only hold seven items. Plan what you are going to learn.

Create associations: it's much easier to learn something new if you link it to something you already know.

Look for meaning and compare with what you already know: comparative grammar is not a waste of time – most languages have countable and uncountable nouns!

Develop a system of memory triggers for each item you wish to remember. A 'souvenir' will trigger your memory of a holiday.

Use a multisensory approach: employ a combination of audio, visual and physical strategies to use your audio, visual and motor memories.

Be relaxed: play non-lyrical music to help your brain's Alpha waves buzz.

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Doodle, highlight, cartoon, underline: decorate your notes with colour and pictures to make them more memorable.

Involve your emotions: feel happy and reward yourself when your memory works well. Develop an emotional relationship with the information you are learning!

Use concrete materials: make a model or game to represent the information you need to remember.

You remember best the information you receive at the beginning or end of a work session: Try having a short change in the middle of a work session so you have two beginnings and two endings.

30.Give your partner a piece of advice about effective memorizing. Let him make some notes.

31.Have you been to some other countries? Would you like to study abroad? Why? What are the main difficulties for foreign students?

32.Match the words with their definitions.

33. Scan the text and fill in the first 2 columns of the table:

Exams

Level of teaching

Resources

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Becoming an exchange student gives you more than knowledge about another country and its language and culture. A year abroad teaches you about building friendships, taking responsibility for yourself, respecting differences and tolerating the beliefs of others.

Exchange students develop leadership skills, self-confidence and a greater understanding of the complexities of the world around them. This is why the best universities, as well as corporations and professionals, look favourably on students who have spent a school year abroad. They know that former international exchange students bring a higher level of maturity and a global frame of reference to their university studies and activities.

If you become an exchange student abroad, you will experience life in another culture, and make close friends in your host country. Sit in the small cafés, play sports, shop in the same outdoor markets; these are things tourists miss, and this is where you really discover the way of life in another country, with all its subtleties.

While you live the typical daily life of another culture, you are learning every minute of every day. You might live in a French city meant for walking, with cobblestone streets so narrow you can touch the walls of buildings with outstretched arms on both sides. Or you may live in a Spanish village where the remains of an entire castle lie. Perhaps you’ll find yourself in Sweden living in a walled city dating back to medieval days, or that your homestay town in Germany includes a “living castle,” an actual private residence still being used today. These are the sorts of discoveries you will make as you learn firsthand about what you have only studied in the classroom until now.

You’ll also find that the school systems are among the best in the world, and that the teenagers are much the same as they are at home. They work hard at their studies, play sports, love parties and cinema, and pursue hobbies just like you. A few will become your friends for life.

The best way to truly become involved in the culture of a foreign country is to live among its people as a member of a family. Every exchange student does just that. Host families are carefully screened and consider it a privilege to welcome students like you into their home. Host families feel they benefit from the experience as much as you do! They want to learn about your culture and introduce you to theirs. Many families have children your age, and you may find that a family member speaks English, even if it’s only a little.

While someone in your host family may speak your language, you’ll quickly realize that it’s not of much concern. In fact, you’ll probably find

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that after a few weeks you’ll be asking them to speak in their native tongue.

This may be hard for you to believe. You might be wondering how you’ll express yourself; how you’ll communicate with store clerks, teachers, classmates and your host family. Even if you’ve studied a foreign language in school, you won’t feel ready to live in that language. But when you’re surrounded by that language from morning till night, you learn the fastest way possible. It’s like a month of classes in a single day!

39. Is it true or false?

1.Universities, corporations and professionals, look unfavourably on students who have spent a school year abroad.

2.If you become an exchange student abroad, you will learn, learn and learn.

3.Tourists have much more opportunities than exchange students.

4.Teenagers all over the world are the same.

5.Host families want to learn about your culture and introduce you to theirs.

6.The fastest way to learn a foreign language is to live abroad.

40.Be ready to tell about advantages of being an exchange student. You may use the plan for your answer. All the other students have to prepare at least one question concerning this problem. Try to answer them.

41.Would you like your child to be an exchange student? Why?

42.Read the following article about GermanRussian relations and write out the events happened in the years pointed out:

1992

2003

October 2005

April 2005

2004/2005

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2.How many Russian students are currently enrolled at German Universities?

3.What are the signed declarations aimed at?

4.Is there the Goethe Institute in your city? Have you or your friends been there?

5.Do you have friends studying in Germany?

44. Work in two teams. One team will represent a German university, the other one will stand for the Russian university. Try to attract foreign students. The words below can help you:

culture language friends equipment experience independence

45.Use these words to complete the text:

a)higher education;

b)qualifications;

c)cutting-edge;

d)2010;

e)competitive;

f)graduate schools;

g)Bologna.

In the course of the “1) … process” institutions of 2) … will be replacing their Magister and Diplom courses with programmes leading to bachelor’s and master’s degrees by 3) … . Almost half of all the study programmes at German institutions of higher education have already been restructured. As a result, students’ 4) … can be more easily compared with those from other countries. The universities themselves are also taking up the 5) … challenge. The Federal Government and the individual Länder are making available 1.9 billion euros for the current Initiative for Excellence. This money will be used to support 6) … for young researchers, excellence clusters for 7) … research and the research profiles of up to ten selected elite universities.

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46. What do you know about DAAD?

Look at the chart below and say what DAAD programmes are aimed at.

DAAD

(The German Academic Exchange Service)

The great number and variety of DAAD programmes can be arranged into five strategic goals:

What programmes are best funded?

Which programme would you choose? Why?

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47. Look at the map below (pic.18) and say what countries and cities have regional offices and information centres of DAAD? What cities have you been to?

Pic. 18

48. Read the information about the German Academic Exchange Service then ask and answer questions using the following words:

Pronouns: what, where, how many; Nouns: representation, language; Verbs: perform, choose.

DAAD Head Office in Bonn is the "home" of the executive management and, so, is the hub for all national and international activities of the DAAD. Its representation in Berlin (DAAD’s second home base) performs important cultural, science, education and research policy functions.

The DAAD also has an extensive presence abroad. Its Regional Offices around the world maintain contacts with partners and create efficient communications channels, perform programme management responsibilities and provide support at local level: Beijing, Cairo, Hanoi, Jakarta, London, Mexico City, Moscow, Nairobi, New Delhi, New York, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, Tokyo, and Warsaw.

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