We, first-year students in the GV program, had a News Reading class once a week. In this class, we read an article chosen by the organizer of each week based on his or her personal interests. Then, we discussed some prepared questions, including pros and cons of the controversial issues related to each topic, by sharing various opinions and possible solutions to current problems of our society.
There are two main things I learned from the class. Firstly, I improved my English skills. The English articles contained specialized words and phrases that I do not usually use on a daily life. I spent a lot of time looking them up in a dictionary, but they were very difficult to understand and remember each and every word. However, I was able to improve my vocabulary skills as I repeatedly went through the new words for a long time. Moreover, as I challenged myself to use the new words in discussion, I came to use more diverse expressions and express more clearly what I wanted to convey to others. I would like to continue to practice this way to become more proficient and have a good command of all the new expressions I learn..
Secondly, I learned new skills that are necessary for discussion. Especially, I learned how to moderate discussion. In each class, the moderator has to not only encourage participants to speak, but also present his or her own opinion and summarize the opinions of the whole group. The most difficult part was to think about the direction of the discussion and prepare for conclusion while keeping the discussion moving forward without interruption. I cannot say I am good at leading discussion smoothly, so I would like to keep on working on it.
In this class, I realized that preparing for discussion as a moderator is very tough. However, I was glad to take part in the class because it is a natural way to learn not only English but also knowledge about many social issues.
Kanasa Asato