TOEIC 950

I got a result of TOEIC last month. It is 950(Reading480, Listening470). When I finished answering the test, I felt I was able to answer more than those I took before. But the truth is the more I study, the more things I know I have to learn to master English. In other words, I begin to feel that "mastering" a second language or a foreign language is next to impossible. Despite the feeling, learning English is fun! Learning means knowing a variety of worlds, and knowing myself. I'll keep on learning.



Below was the comment I posted when I got 910 on the test I took previously(September, 2009). The comments somehow collected unbelievably lots of nuisance mails, so I deleted it. Since I would like to check what I wrote, I added it below.

この間受験したTOEICの結果がonline上に出ていたのでさっそくチェック。結果は910点でした。うーん、何か微妙な点数です。新形式になって初めての受験でリスニングにやはり手こずりました。旧形式で受験した前回よりListeningは１５点もダウン。その分Readingで取り返しましたが、「英語力が伸びている」とは言えない結果に、物足りなさが残ります。まあ、でも新形式で９００点を突破したことはよしとしましょうか。明らかに帰国子女や、この人はしゃべれる、という人は９５０を超えています。そういう人たちとの間に圧倒的な高い壁をかにじるこの頃。この壁を越えるには修行のような苦難の道を歩まねばならないのでしょうか‥。shadowingとか、dictationとか、部屋に閉じこもって苦行を積まなくてはならないのでしょうか。どちらかというと、自分の英語力は本を読んだり、講義を聴いたりと、content-basedでのびてきたと思っているだけに、そういった訓練のようなskill-basedなtrainingは辛いと感じる自分がいます。しかし、壁を越えたければやるしかないのかな‥。これまでのTOEIC受験歴をまとめてみました。

2009/9/13 Listening 445 Reading 465 Total 910（３回目。新形式で初）
2006/3/26 Listening 460 Reading 440 Total 900（２回目。大学院時代）
2002/1/27 Listening 440 Reading 420 Total 860（１回目。教員２年目）

Trip to Lexington

I had a trip to Lexington Kentucky in the U.S. for 9 days. I had this opportunity as a member of a delegation from shin-hidaka town where I live. Shin-hidaka and Lexington had a sister-city relationship for more than 20 years because both are known for "horse city(town)". We, ten members in total, had a home stay for several days, and staffs from city government took us to various places around there. We had very dence and meaningful days due to their great hospitality. After that we dropped by L.A. for two days seeing Universal Studio and the like, and then got back our daily lives here in Japan yesterday. It was really fantastic experience for me! The picture is where I went called Waffle house. It was what is called authentic restaurant I had dreamed of visiting for a long time because that kind of place were often featured on American movies I watched.

My passage in 'English Classwork(英語教育）'

I got 'English Classwork' titled in Japanese '英語教育' featuring my posting passage. The passage I wrote and contributed was more than one year ago, so the passage is a bit older than what I am now doing, but it reminds readers the importance of checking each person's pronunciation, and facilitation of reading (uttering) sentences. Though I am not checking the pronunciation precisely as what I used to one year ago, I could not help thinking to restart the activity from the next school year.

Graduation Ceremony

　Yesterday was 62th graduation ceremony in the school I work for. I have been a homeroom teacher in the past 3 years since the graduates entered this school. My class was fun, friendly, interesting, and warm-hearted. Thanks to them, I have been able to spend really meaningful life. Maybe, I will not　be able to meet such wonderful members as a homeroom teacher. In contrast with previous class I were in charge of several years ago, I have been able to see my class objectively, and take concrete steps to manage, lead, and consult the class. Previous time was my first try as a homeroom teacher, so I felt like I was in a dark tunnel until they graduated. But in this time, knowing I can exit the tunnel someday, I was able to enjoy this three years pretty much. I appreciate my colleague,vice principal, and principal, and of course I would like to thank my wife for her dedicated support. Thank you all members of this class, and I will never forget memories with you.

あんかけやきそば

今日は札幌周辺まで行ってきましたが、帰りに苫小牧でおいしいと評判のあんかけ焼きそば屋さんに行ってきました。やきそばのほかにはメニューが数品しかなくて、まさにそれで「売ってる」という感じ。評判どおりのおいしさで、非常に高い満足感を得ることができました。ここはおすすめです！

First try as an Eiken examiner

Last Sunday was the day when I worked as an Eiken examiner. Though I was registered on the list of examiners for two years, I have not yet got the chance by then. I was a little nervous before the exam, and I got really tired after that. But the experience fulfilled my expectations enough.

Soup Curry

I went to Soup Curry shop called "PICANTE" (I don't know what it measn...). Lately, I don't feel like eating ramen, one of my favorite food in the world. I don't know why, but anyway, I felt like eating soup curry probably because it has been so cold outside recently. PICANTE is near the university I went to around ten years ago. The atmosphere in the shop somehow reminds me of shiny days those days. The soup was a bit different from what I tried before, but I was able to enjoy it enough.

To make my school's English classes better

One year has passed since I became a head of the teachers in charge of English section in my school. Through this school year, most of our efforts has been spent on making a integrated or packaged way of teaching. Until recently, each teacher has taught something in the way what she or he would like to teach. There has been no rigid "style" which they call "This is our school's teaching method". Through making Can-Do-List in terms of four skills, coming up with syllabi, and sharing them among teachers, our teaching style has been determined little by little.
Yeterday evening, I talked with a co-worker a lot around four hours. His teaching style and belief underlying his way of teaching seemed at first just as opposite of mine. Because I have had little opportunity to tell him what I learned from grad school, I explained my teaching belief under my way of teaching yesterday. My belief means like learners are likely to understand English through sizable input, they acquire English through 'meaning', not just form, and interaction and output are crucial for English learning process. Interestingly it turns out that he also strongly believe so, but the problem is he does not change his teaching style because he as a learner receive no instruction as I said above. The more he go through experiences where he could activate his deep knowledge about English (He is really much more knowledgable than me!), he would change his style into more what is called, 'SLA-friendly' one. Anyway it was really meaningful evening to share and discuss such matters.

Two books above are the latest books from which I was inspired in the field of English education.
First one is from a book featured in the blog below and also recommended in a teacher training this winter. It boosted my motivation again to make my class sophisticated one along with SLA insight. The second is also a book from really famous ex junior high school teacher. Though he does not seems to have so much SLA or TESOL background, his practices through 26 teaching experiences have been surely crystallized within this book, which of course encouraged me to change my style more better one.
The last one below is a blog from a author who came back from Britain where he studied SLA. His blog was full of insightful mixture of his SLA background and his daily practices in his classes.

http://d.hatena.ne.jp/takachan75/

The next school year will be a challenging one for us to make more packaged teaching style. Whether who will be a head teacher, I will spend considerable time and effort on this "mission".