selecting key points and note-making

SELECTING KEY POINTS

AND NOTE MAKING

Selecting Key Points

After selecting and understanding the most relevant texts, the next step is usually to make notes on the sections of the texts that relateto your topic.

Consider this text and the notes selected

Note-making

• Effective note-making is a key writing skill, with a number of practical uses.
• Good note-making techniques lead to accurate essays.
• Although you are the only person who will read your notes, clarity and organisation are important to save time and errors at the writing stage.

Effective note-making employs

NB:

1. Do not abbreviate too much, or you may find the notes impossible to understand in the future.
2. Sources should be noted in the same format as they will appear in your references.
3. You need to develop your own style for note-making, to suit the nature of your subject.

• Headings, sub-headings, underlining and listing to organise the data clearly
• Simplified grammar (few articles, pronouns or prepositions)
• Symbols (such as = or +) and abbreviations (pp. or av.)

Click here for an example:

Click here for the forum task:

You are writing a research paper on EFL classroom interaction. You need to summarise the main points of the following research paper (this is not the complete text but some sections) to then incorporate them to your literature review. Complete the following notes (not complete sentences- brief phrases and key words): Problem: In general: In Japan: Problems in the class: Resuls of the action research: Possible causes of lack of participation:

Improving Teacher-Student Interaction in the EFL Classroom An Action Research ReportJonathan SnellToyo Women's College (Tokyo, Japan) A common problem for EFL teachers is dealing with a passive class, where students are unresponsive and avoid interaction with the teacher. This is especially true when a teacher seeks interaction in a teacher-class dialog, such as asking questions to the class as a whole, expecting at least one student to respond. This can be a frustrating experience for both parties. Obviously, there will be times when no student can answer a teacher's question, but often students do not answer even if they understand the question, know the answer, and are able to produce the answer. Furthermore, students can often be very reluctant to give feedback or ask the teacher a question in front of the class. This action research project attempted to explore this problem and sought to create a more interactive teacher-class interchange in one class of Japanese adult English learners. Problem IdentificationThe students, as a class, didn't respond voluntarily to the instructor's questions and did not participate in class discussions. Students also never asked the teacher questions outside one-on-one situations. Thus the teacher received little oral feedback. According to the teacher: Most of the class members sit looking straight ahead using minimal facial expressions, gestures and verbal utterances. What I want is for the students to be more demonstrative and more overtly communicative in their feedback. I want these behaviors: I want the students to ask questions, make comments and to respond with nods and shakes of the head, with sounds of agreement or sounds of understanding. Also, I want them to be both reactive and proactive. ConclusionThere were some areas where the results of this action research were not as successful as hoped. For instance, the students needed to be prompted with eye contact and a repeated question from the teacher to answer a question, and when they did not understand something, they still did not interrupt the teacher with a question. And yet some progress was definitely made, especially when the brief span between observations is considered. The students did interact with the teacher by nodding, some did answer the instructor's questions, and two, on their own initiation, even asked questions before the class. The unanticipated side effect of the teacher becoming more concerned with the interaction was a welcome surprise and contributed to the improvement. There seems to have been some success in instructing and reminding and then expecting the students to become more interactive with the teacher. ReflectionThis action research project forced both the teacher and the observer to remember that ESL teachers in Japan are not just teaching a language, but also a culture, and this includes instructing the sociolinguistics appropriate for the native English speaking classroom. Perhaps more importantly, they had to think about why the cultures are different, in this respect, and how to try and bridge that difference. This lead to questioning the conventional notion that Japanese students simply do not like the native English speaking classroom culture. An additional reason for interest in the problem addressed here was the belief that this was a common problem in Japan. Teachers, especially native English speaking ones, often become frustrated with a lack of initial success in obtaining an interactive dialogue with the class. This often leads them to mistake a lack of familiarity with a lack of interest, and to teach within the students' culturally conditioned classroom expectations, instead of introducing the expectations commonly found in classrooms in English speaking counties. While intending to be more accommodating to students, they are failing to give students a useful sociolinguistic skill, which students would likely want and derive benefit. Some may think encouraging the use of this student-teacher interaction common in native English speaking counties is culturally arrogant. But if it is introduced in a sensitive and reasonable manner, it actually contributes to a more fulfilling English class. After all, most students don't study English just for linguistic competence. They will also want to develop sociolinguistic competence for communicating in different situations in English speaking countries, and this includes the classroom.