A letter to future LING 3430 students @ 我就喜歡這樣的妳

A class review for LING 3430 Linguistics and Grammar for teachers

本週是最後一週的上課週，這個學期修了四門有點硬的課程，簡單說就是每週都要閱讀，寫作業，小考，外加期中期末考，穿插幾個assignments 等等。

星期二四是升天日，早上11點連續三堂課上到下午三點，當然作業就是之前都要生出來。

今天先來介紹老師很愛我（自己說）的文法課。
文法課大約有四個學生，上課的壓力可想而知，每堂課都要閱讀文章，每次大約都十頁A4 ，我還活著真的太神奇了！上課就是針對文章內容討論分享等等，回家作業大約就是針對該主題做延伸，課程設計本身就是我的強項，所以上課一切都很美好，直到變成網路課程。

網路課程就是考驗你自制力的時刻，本人自制力不佳，常常不想面對每週的閱讀，常常晚上趕 deadline，有時兩三個加在一起，分身乏術，很想灑脫的喊算了啦！實際上也拋棄了一兩個，希望能在下週前，良心發現。

簡單來說，本人滿喜歡上文法課，如果我再認真點，我會很棒的，但我人生沒有要追求 100分，只求不要違背本心就好外加教授不要討厭我哈哈

Dear Future Students

I am a Chinese Teaching Assistant from Taiwan and I am an ESL teacher in elementary schools. 2020 would be one of the most impressive year in my life. We had nine weeks real classes and five weeks online classes due to Covid 19 and both professors and students had a tough time during the pandemic.

It was a hard time but we were doing well. I don’t know when will the quarantine will be ended, but I can share some ideas of LING 3430 with you. Before you take this course LING 3430A, you had better to think of these questions,

“Are you going to be an English Instructor?”

“Do you do things step by step or wait for the last minute?”

“Are you good at self-control or time-management?”

Why?

First of all, the course is called “Linguistic and grammar for teachers” so it puts emphasis on how to teach your students the usage of grammar and the real meaning of using grammar. Thus, if you are going to be a vet or an accountant, you don’t have to take this course.

Secondly, we have to read different articles each week, and each reading will help you doing the assignments. Thus, if you are always doing things until the last minute, not only you have no time to digest the contexts but also your will be suffered. Take the textbook review for an example. On week 3, we had to review about 10 to 12 grammar books and did a simple categorization of each grammar book. It took time to borrow the real book in the library or to search online resources, so you have to work step by step.

The last question is especially for the online course. After spring break, we switched F2F course to online course. There was a big change for this course, such as quizzes and discussion. Even though we didn’t have to meet on a specific time, Dr. Li arranged everything so well that we felt like we learned even more than the regular class. Each week we have a reading, a quiz, two discussions, and sometimes an assignment so that you still have to spend more time on them. Therefore, as for online course, I would suggest that you have to be good at self-control or time-management.

All in all, no pain no gain. All the efforts will come to you in the end of the semester. After the course, I had a brand-new view toward grammar, novel ideas in teaching grammar, and a framework of how to design a pedagogical activity.

Wish you have a similar journey with me.

Best

TZUCHUN