Toyohashi University of Technology,
Institute for Global Network Innovation inTechnology Education

News from QC（Vol. 16 2015/11/24）

Reports

Small Attempts
Tomoya Matsui, Toyohashi University of Technology
The Outline of the Global FD program waswent to museums, Central Park, The Statue of

introduced in previous my report, I’d like to

Liberty, and looked at some architecture

write about my action in Queens College (QC).

during this period in order to make small

Attending this program was a big challenge

talk.

for me. The reason for this is that I am terrible

The fall semester of Queens College began

at English. To tell how low my level is inat the end of August. I attended lectures ofEnglish, I got a score that a person could get

Differential Equations, Our Changing Planetwith their eyes closed and their ears closed on

and Our Planet in the 21th Century. I think thethe TOEIC, which I took in April for the firststyle of the lecture depends on the instructor

time. I thought about what I learned and how

and the contents of the lecture. Somedo I learned it with my English skills during myinstructors use blackboard, some instructors use

six months.

slides. And some instructors speak at natural

I knew the level of my English skills andpace (it is fast for me), and one instructor

methods of learning English in training inspeaks very slowly withToyohashi Univ. Tech. from April to June. I

repeatedly and carefully. And I found that all

took an English conversation internet lesson

instructors interact with the students many(Rare Job) every day as one of Global FD

times in lecture. Instructors often confirm andprograms. It was useful to get used to making

ask if students understand lecture. And

conversation in English. I began to take theinstructor say to students who answer or ask aRare Job again to increase my opportunities ofquestion “ Thank you (student’s name)”,English conversations from September.

“ Good try, but it’s wrong” and so on.

I moved to New York at the end of June,

simplewords,Attending these classes provided me withand I took English classes provided by the ELI

helpful information on teaching methods.

(English Language Institute) of Queens College

Meanwhile, I attended a Japanese Culture

for six weeks. I was assigned to the second

Club to get opportunities for conversation. Butlevel class from the bottom in five class levels

I didn’t actively think of finding a language(basicallyexchangesevenlevel),whichisanpartner.

BecauseIthinkmyintermediate level. Everyone but myself

vocabulary and reading skills are not goodseems to able to listen English in this class.

enough, and I had studied them intensively. But

I find the characteristic of English education inwhenever I met a member of the Club on

a Japanese school is that it places importancecampus, he said to me, “Did you find aon English for an exam although I don’t know

language exchange partner?”, “You should lookrecent English education in Japan. I tried to say

for someone since American people are shy.”

to someone, “What did you do on the weekend?”(He is form Dominican Republic) So I tried

on Monday to make conversation. This

to advertise for a partner on Facebook ofconversation sometimes finished right away,Japanese Culture Club. As a result, I

and sometimes connected to another topic. I6

found a partner at the next meeting. We
practice English and Japanese with eachother one or twice a week.
For another attempt, I expect to makeconversation in English about soccer as acommon topic, I tried to go to play soccer at apark in Brooklyn with a QC student and a ELI
student (he introduced us to the soccer groupthat he found from Meetup of SNS). But all ofus played soccer for about one hour without
substitution, since there were only fourteenWith classmates of ELImembers. After that, all the members except us
continued to play soccer, so there were notconversation opportunities at all. Unfortunately,
I was sorry that my expectation of anothersmall try was disappointing.
Finally, my inconsequential actions arewritten in this report. I think that one needs toaccumulate small attempts in order to achieve abig challenge. I’m looking forward to a good

Study meeting with language exchange partner

result by my accumulation of small attempts inthe future.

Classes and my research activity in QC
Kenji Moriya, National Institute of Technology, Hakodate College
This letter reports my classes and mystudents; it's interesting.

research activity in QC.

Because National Institute of Technology,KOSEN, also adopted BB, the effective
utilization of BB in QC could be useful for us. I1. Classes
CUNY (City University of New York)

think that whether the LMS is effectively usedsupports students very well by web systems.
Students

cancheckvariouskinds

or not depends on each professor. This problemofmight also occur in our institute or my college.

information (e.g. their grades, scholarship) by

Next, I'd like to talk about classes in QC. I

the CUNY web site by themselves. CUNY has

feel the following points: firstly, homework isadopted BB (Blackboard) as their LMS

significantly important for both students and(Learning Management System); BB is adopted

professors. Students have a ton of homework,

not only in each college but in all of CUNY.

that is, students really (have to) study, which is

Additionally, QC provides their own app forthe key to their comprehension. Professors can7

students and professors.
Professors who are in charge of the GFD
project in QC are going to give us opportunities
to audit many types of classes in QC. I'mlooking forward to attending those classes.
2. My laboratory and my research activity

Blackboard, which is adopted as LMS

Cooperative research is one of the mainin CUNY.

aims in the GFD project. Thus, we have tutor
professors in both TUT and QC. However, inQC, finding a tutor professor who has the same
research field as that of each member wasdifficult. Fortunately, professor Fan, who
researches

recognition

brain

scienceandbio-signal measurement, which are near myresearch field, was willing to be my tutor
professor. The lab has only postdoctoral

The QC app for the Android OS.

research staff and doctoral course students, so,they are committed to their research. Honestly,

focus on difficult or special topics with thebecause I don't have enough time to tackle ourassumption that students study well before andlab project than the other members, I hope toafter class. Secondly, students usually have an

stay here for a longer period. I hope that I could

active attitude; students often ask questions anddedicate myself to research by getting anotherhave good discussions. Even if that question isopportunity

not focused on the point of discussion,

fellow...someday.

asanoverseas

research

professors don’t prevent students from asking

By the way, because lab members conduct

it; professors wait until a student finishes

their experiments and analysis without chatting,speaking. Finally, professors seem to prefer a

I think that I can't have a lot of English

lot of speaking and/or interactive discussions

conversation which is good practice. (It's mythan a lot of writing.

opinion; it's only in my lab case.)

Professors' lesson styles are also interestingand helpful for me. When a professor ofmathematics explains equations, he prefers tosay "This guy." And, he always has eye contact
with students and uses the word "right";
according to my perception, he adds "right" to90% of the end of his sentences. I love his
passionate and humorous expression; I feel hereally loves math. I think such a frank style
attracts students' interest and induces morePhoto) With the lab members. The person atactive discussions. I'm really enjoying andright end is Prof. Fan.

learning from my classes in terms of both8

listening to the play-by-play in sports is really

3. Daily life at the summit apartments
I'd like to introduce a part of our daily life

difficult, because of following reasons: thealthough it doesn't directly relate to ourspeaking speed is very fast due to real-time

project's mission. We live in the Summit

explanations: the commentator is excited: theApartments of QC, which is the university

spectators’ cheers prevent from hearing his/herdormitory. Because the summit is on the QC

voice. I was delighted that I could watch thecampus, and there are supermarkets andNFL kickoff game in real-time. I'd like torestaurants near QC, it is really comfortable

continue to watch the sports and dramas inexcept one room is shared by four persons (Iforder to improve my listening skill.

you are interested in details of the summit, see
the QC letter Vol.3).
Due to a previous GFD members’kindness, fortunately, we have a television inthe common space. The many professors said
"If you have unknown words, don't use adictionary. You should try to guess them fromthe context." and "Watch a TV show and movie
every day and familiarize your ears with native
speaker's English." Therefore, I have beenPhoto) The NFL kickoff game. He is Tom

watching TV dramas and movies in order toBrady, who is the QB of the NE PATORIOTS;

improve my listening skill by streaming

and, the PATRIOTS are the previous champion

channels such as Netflix and Hulu; let me say

team of the Super bowl. the PATORIOTS

again I do it "in order to improve my listening

seem good due to his activity. Go! The NYskill".

GIANTS!

I also like watching sports. Although I canunderstand what happens from the pictures,

Toyohashi University of Technology
Institute for Global Network Innovation in Technology Education
Center for International Education
1-1, Hibarigaoka, Tempaku-cho, Toyohashi, Aichi, Japan
Tel: +81-532-81-5161
Mail: unireform@office.tut.ac.jp

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