Keep learning? Keep earning!

(1) College is just the beginning of a lifelong learning journey. With the rapid advancement of technology, changes in economy and society, you must adapt an effective learning style if you want to succeed. The key to lifelong earning is lifelong learning.

(2) As you embark on this path*, strive always to be a student. Be open to new ideas and information, and be able to adapt. These are essential skills for the new world of work.

(3) To become a student for life, start by finding out how you learn best. There are three main ways of learning: hearing (auditory learning), seeing (visual learning) and doing (kinesthetic learning). If you are not sure which type you prefer, ask yourself how you like to be given directions. If you are an auditory learner, you prefer to be told how to get somewhere. If you are a visual learner, you prefer to be shown. If you are a kinesthetic learner, you prefer to drive yourself there first.

(4) Also, be selective with what you feed your brain. Remember the saying “garbage in, garbage out.” The same holds true for the programs your brain uses. Only put in positive, healthy and educational programs.

(5) An ancient Chinese proverb says it best: “To gain knowledge, add things every day. To gain wisdom, remove things every day.” Just like a computer needs to delete files and information that are no longer useful, you have to discard old programs and information that no longer serve you. Knowing what is important and what is necessary to do will ensure that you have plenty of space left for learning the next new thing.

(Abridged and adapted from Keep learning? Keep earning! By Michelle L. Casto)

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embark on one’s path - вступать на путь

2. Read the text again and answer the questions:

1. What are the key skills in the world of work?

2. What is the main purpose of lifelong learning?

3. What advice does the author give to students?

4. What are the main learning styles mentioned in the article?

5. Why is it necessary to be selective while learning?

3. Look back in the text and find words that have a similar meaning to

fast (paragraph 1)	is valid (paragraph 4)
to be successful (paragraph 1)	to get knowledge (paragraph 5)
very important (paragraph 2)	remove (paragraph 5)
do your best (paragraph 2)	a lot of (paragraph 5)

4. What way of learning do you prefer? How do you know?

Get real

Carry out some self exploratory work. Choose one of the sites to read about learning styles. Take the test on Learning Styles and find out your style and learning preferences. Report back to class.

Useful sites to search http://www.ldpride.net/learningstyles.MI.htm http://www.metamath.com/lsweb/fourls.htm

Speaking

Divide into groups according to your learning styles. Work out the strategies that will help you to achieve good results in the English language learning. Discuss your strategies in class.

Examples:

Group 1 Visual learners

Group 2 Kinesthetic learners

Group 3 Auditory learners

Writing

Copy this mind map and complete it for yourself. Use this information to write a story of your English language learning.

Study help: Mind map (1) Mind mapping is a good way to organize ideas before writing. 1. Write down the most important word or short phrase in the centre. 2. Post other important concepts and their words in the circles. 3. Add other key words and ideas. 4. As you expand your map, tend to become more specific or detailed.

In the Realm of Language

1. While learning a language you come across some linguistic terms.

vocabulary	-	all the words that a person knows or uses
dictionary	-	a book that gives words, their meanings, or their equivalents in a foreign language
grammar	-	the rules in a language for changing the form of words and joining them into sentences
pronunciation	-	the way in which a particular word or sound is pronounced
stress	-	an extra force used when pronouncing a word or syllable
transcription	-	a written or printed copy of words that have been spoken
spelling	-	the way that a particular word is written
intonation	-	the rise and fall of the voice in speaking
syllable	-	any of the units into which a word is divided, containing a vowel sound and usually one or more consonants
sentence	-	a set of words expressing a statement, a question or an order, usually containing a subject and a verb
clause	-	a group of words that includes a subject and a verb, and forms a part of a sentence
prefix	-	a letter or group of letters added to the beginning of a word to change its meaning
suffix	-	a letter or group of letters added to the end of a word to make another word
root	-	the part of a word that has the main meaning and that its other forms are based on
ending	-	the last part of a word, that is added to a main part to make up a new grammar form

NB! Spelling, pronunciation and stress are extremely important in the English language e.g.,

night – knight	[naɪt] – [naɪt]	ночь – рыцарь
to lead – lead	[li:d] - [led]	вести – свинец
sheep - ship	[ʃi:p] - [ʃɪp]	овца - корабль
to increase - increase	[ɪnkʹris] –[ʹɪnkri:s]	повышать – повышение

2. Parts of speech

noun	(n)	-	a book, places
verb	(v)	-	go, goes, is going, has gone, etc.
adjective	(adj)	-	interesting, helpful, etc.
adverb	(ad)	-	often, never, etc.
pronoun	(pron)	-	I, we, its, them, etc.
numeral	(num)	-	one, the first, etc.
infinitive	(inf)	-	to go (go)
gerund	(g)	-	going
participle	(part)	-	going – gone, etc.
article	(art)	-	a (an), the
preposition	(prep)	-	to, on, in, with, without, etc.
conjunction	(conj)	-	and, but, or, etc.

3. Here are common symbols teachers use to correct students’ works.

sp	spelling	Sg	Singular
T	tenses	Pl	Plural
ww	wrong word	art	article
wo	word order	prep	preposition
۷	word missing	Gr	grammar form
st	style	L	layout

Unit 1. Progress Monitoring In this unit you have worked on the following vocabulary related to the topic “Ways of learning” classroom discussion to do a course in to take/to make notes on to improve knowledge/skills to take exam in to help with/to do an assignment to keep a notebook to focus on learning style self exploratory work to organize ideas to take classes in (subject)/on (time) to develop one’s strengths to overcome one’s weaknesses to cope with problems to achieve results to gain knowledge lifelong learning Tick (V) the points you are confident about and cross (X) the ones you need to revise.

Unit 2 Study Smart, Not Hard
	Lead-in

• Are you satisfied with the results you achieved in different subjects at school?

• Do you think studying at a university is different from that at school?

Why?/Why not?

• Work in groups of three or four and make a list of the factors that contribute to effective learning (e.g., motivation, ….).

Reading

1. How many English words that correspond to the Russian word “цель” do you remember? Give as many equivalents as you can.

2. Read the text and write down the other equivalents for the word “цель”.

3. Think of a proper title for the text. Explain your choice.

* * *

“Goals equal success”, says Paul Shearstone in his article on goal setting. Studies have shown that “only three percent of the population are engaged in some form of goal setting and only one percent, on average, write them down. … No wonder that one percent that writes goals down are the richest people around the world.”

Goal setting is a powerful technique that can improve all areas of your life. By deciding on your goals and targets you will know what you want to achieve, what to concentrate on. In your studies it will help you to organize your resources.

It’s good to have big goals – a vision of what you want to achieve – and smaller objectives with exact time frames. By measuring their achievement, you will be able to see what you have done and what you are capable of. It will help you to move step-by-step towards your goal, at the same time improving your self-confidence. But this is only possible if you follow a few simple rules in your planning process that will help you to achieve your aims:

• Express your goals positively. The more positive instructions you give yourself, the more positive results you will get.

• Avoid setting general or unclear goals - put in dates, times and amounts.

• Break big goals down into a number of small tasks.

• Do not set goals too low or too high. It is important that you can achieve your goal without losing motivation.

• When you have several goals, set priorities.

• And most important of all: WRITE YOUR GOALS DOWN.

“The difference between a goal and a dream is the written word.” – Gene Donohue

(Adapted from: list of Internet sites used)

Discuss

• Are the rules described in the text easy to follow? Why/why not?

• Which of them do you follow?

• According to Gene Donohue what is a principal difference between a goal and a dream?

Focus on language

1. Look through the text and write down all the verbs that go with the word “goal” to complete the word web.

Study help: Mind map (2)

Mind maps may be a good solution if you have a problem remembering new items of vocabulary and word collocations. They are usually called word webs.

2. Draw a word web for the verb to improve. Use a dictionary if necessary.

3. Work in five teams. Each team completes word webs for the verbs achieve, set, organize, get and lose using its own colour marker. The word webs are rotated every one minute, and then the results are checked in class. The team that suggests more combinations than the others is the winner.

Writing

Rewrite the statement about learning English you made in Unit 1 Lead-in task, using the recommendations on goal setting.

Listening

1. Comment on the saying by an English writer William Hazlitt "The more we do, the more we can do; the more busy we are, the more leisure we have." Give the Russian equivalent to this saying.

2. Listen to Ann Cameron from the University of Minnesota Duluth talking about time management and write down basic time management principles mentioned. Use the guide below:

Identify …

Use …

Study …

Make sure …

Make room for …

Have …

Try …

Discuss

• Do you have enough time during a day to do all the assignments?

• What are your most productive time periods during a day?

• What are your top five time wasters?

• What are the strengths and weaknesses in your time management practices?

• Have you ever made daily, weekly or semester schedules?

• Have you ever checked where your time goes?

Get real

Carry out some self exploratory work. Take the time management test to see where your time goes and report results in class. Do the tasks on your own daily, weekly and semester schedules. Choose the one you find the most significant and present it in class.

Useful sites to search http://www.studygs.net/timman.htm http://www.ucc.vt.edu/stdysk/stdyhlp.html

Reading

1. Read the article about effective study habits. Which of them do you agree with. Discuss them with a partner.