ELSC Newsletter Volume 2

Welcome back! Second semester begins as the March issue of our newsletter hits the streets. Here at the English Language Study-Centre we hope you had an enjoyable and relaxing holiday break. Now, with the new semester upon us, we are happy to welcome new groups to ELSC.

This issue is packed with interesting features including news about the Centre, informative tit-bits on language and culture, a film review, and student writing. We hope you enjoy it. Moreover, we encourage you to send us your ideas, comments, and writing.

Students will find a new service in the Centre this semester that is specifically designed to help them with their writing. The Writing Assistance Programme (WAP) allows writers to develop their skills while receiving personalised attention from a teacher at any stage during the writing process. Appointments may be booked in advance at the main desk or writers may drop in and receive assistance if there are no pre-booked appointments at that time. Come along and explore the possibilities at the WAP.

Congratulations to Sie Tak Kwan, whose guess of 1023 jelly beans was the closest of the 160 entries in our holiday contest. The precise number of beans in the jar was 1028. Great job Sie! Don't eat them all in one sitting.

The Centre For Independent Language Learning, has moved to L008 on the ground floor of E Core. In addition to the great multimedia resources there is now a new programme, the Guided Independent Language Learning Scheme (GILLS), designed to provide students with the opportunity to improve their spoken English. All this in a modern and comfortable setting!

The Soothsayer in William Shakespeare's famous play Julius Caesar whispers this premonition to the Emperor. The ides of March is another way of saying March 15th, the day on which Brutus killed Caesar.

Words travel around the world just like people. They cross borders and influence other languages. Did you know that there are many words in English that come from Chinese? Sometimes it is obvious to the native English speaker that a word is from Chinese. The word kung fu is a good example of this. But there are other words that people use every day in English without ever realising that they are of Chinese origin. Below you'll find a list of Chinese words that are commonly used in English. Can you think of any others?

English words have also entered into Chinese. Can you guess the original English word and its Cantonese version in this exercise? Answers on page 4.

STUDENT FORUM provides writers with an opportunity to voice their ideas and have their writing published. All students are invited to submit essays, stories and poems to Shari or Thomas (ST405d&e).

Recently, mother-tongue instruction has been suggested for secondary schools. Some people say that it is beneficial to students since they can learn more easily. But some people say that it does more harm than good to students since their English level will decline. It seems that different people have different opinions. It is difficult to say which side of the argument is right. For me, I agree that mother-tongue will help students become better learners and actually improve English language skills.

In my opinion, I think mother-tongue instruction is really helpful to students in studying. Many subjects such as geography, history, physics, chemistry… etc. have a lot of difficult concepts and words. I am sure students can understand them more easily without the barrier of English. As a result, their academic performance will be greatly improved.

Besides, mother-tongue instruction can improve the attitude of students in learning. Since they can speak and write in Chinese, they will become more involved in lessons and more active in expressing their ideas. As a result, they will find lessons are not so boring as they thought before.

A positive learning attitude not only increases students’ interest in learning; it also improves the communication as well as the relationship between students and teachers. In the past students always hesitated to ask questions or express their opinions to teachers due to lack of confidence in English. Now if they are allowed to speak in Chinese, they will be motivated to talk more than before.

Some people may argue that mother-tongue instruction will decrease the English level of students since it reduces the chance to use and practice English. But I do not agree with them because students still have English lessons every day. If the students have the incentive to learn English, then their English standard will not be affected. However, if the students do not have the incentive to learn English, even more and more English lessons still cannot improve their English level. On the contrary, they may lose all their interest in learning English and even hate it.

In conclusion, I totally support mother-tongue instruction to be used in secondary schools. Actually, it can really help students in studying and developing their talents, interests as well as personality. Personally, I think many students will welcome using mother-tongue instruction as their teaching medium.

Have you seen the movie Titanic? It’s the story of the biggest ocean liner in the world in 1912. The whole story occurs in the vessel.

Titanic is about a rich girl named Rose, played by Kate Winslet. She is tired of her extravagant lifestyle and is very sad. On the ship she meets Jack, a poor guy (Leonardo DiCaprio). They fall in love very quickly. Unfortunately, their love can only last four days before the Titanic crashes into an iceberg and they start to sink.

If you want to know whether they can escape and get married, don’t hesitate to see the film. We think that this movie is very romantic and we recommend it highly. Titanic is an enjoyable film.

Spring heralds an explosion of life with trees and plants bursting with colour. Green shoots and sprouting leaves prove once more that Earth is still alive and fertile. But is it going to stay like this? Not if we continue to waste the precious resources it gives us. Not if we continue to pollute and ravage the very place that is our home.

On the right you will find a word search. Try to locate as many words as possible related to the environment and the Earth. Hope you can find them and in doing so promise to do something for the protection of our home so that spring will come every year with the same splendour and beauty.

After buying a lottery ticket he began to tell me about his pie in the sky plans to build a castle.

The teacher only asked for one summary of the text, but Mary made a meal of it. Her assignment was ten pages long.

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	Maida was born in the United States but she spent a lot of her childhood in Taiwan. Before coming to Hong Kong, she taught at several universities in the United States and in Sichuan. She can write and speak Chinese. She has four children; a boy and three girls.

	Jim, originally from Australia, has taught English in Japan, China and Hong Kong. He enjoys working with computers and designs the English Department newsletter, Polylingua. He has worked in the Poly U since 1993.

	Ah Wai has been the Centre's Office Assistant for more than two years. He enjoys working at the ELSC because it gives him a chance to practise his English. In his free time he likes to play TV games and go shopping. He also loves action movies.