Journal 3

The reason for taking this course in the first place was actually to find any
methods or strategies for tackling reading activities that I would most likely to pursue throughout my life. Though my English capacity may be overrated by some of my counterparts, I believe that some aspects of my English skills should indeed be enhanced to a level in which I would not have that much of a problem when I go abroad to study or even engage in a discourse with people all over the world. Moreover, I find that reading skills in English could enable me to read, in depth, diverse books of disparate spheres. These can include books in the areas of philosophy, psychology, biology, physics, and management. In short, reading skills are essential, if not in need to me at all.
I am actually applying some of the strategies that I have learned in class to my English reading at this point. Some pre-reading strategies that I often use these days are setting reading purpose and identifying text structure and genre. I ordered the magazing "TIME" and it comes to my house once every two weeks. When I start to read it, I am confounded with all the international news and insights into the global world, including economy and politics. Then, I begin to wonder why I am reading this, usually forgetting the purpose of doing it. However, when I set certaing purposes for reading, it aids me in comprehension. The purpose for reading "TIME" would be to be aware of how the world is operating and to improve reading skills as a whole. Just like in the textbook, I think that 'while-reading strategies' are the most important. Post reading strategies can be utilized right after reading without any much effort, but I find it pretty burdensome to virtually use 'while-reading strategies' in reading. Identifyinig the main idea, making inference of the text or passage, and skipping ahead, in my perspective, are crucial to the apprehension of the given reading material. I contemplate that it takes much more time to solve related problems to the text if while-reading strategies do not work as they are supposed to. It might have been better if I had the time to utilize every single skills and strategies to implement to my actual reading, but I am satisfied to have gained some of the skills that could be of great help to me now and in the future. Overall, I have liked the way in which the class was structured, consisted of debates and presentations( teaching lessons). It really helped me in that some people provided me with clever solutions that I myself was not aware of at all. Also, it was worthwhile to hear from different people of different perspectives on the same subject. I think that this will pay off either in the near future or after some time later on. The important thing is that it was all education, and it will be part of me forever. By the way, you have done a great job, Professor Kim.( I was impressed by the effort you put in to prepare for all those books and items to clarify students' misunderstandings and discrepancies.)Thank you.