Unit 1 Study Skills

THIS IS A SELF-STUDY UNIT - DO NOT SEND IN FOR ASSESSMENT

At the end of this unit you will:-

a) know the importance of planning your study

b) know that there are ways of working which aid your memory

c) have set out a timetable for your course

d) have given yourself the best chance of fulfilling your potential

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 STUDY SKILLS

INTRODUCTION

Though we all spend our formative years studying, most of us are never taught
how to study. Most people leave school with little confidence in their ability to
learn; this percentage could be greatly reduced if they were taught how to
learn.

This is nothing to do with intelligence or 'being clever', it is to do with using

effective techniques.

People learn in different ways so you need to find out what works best for you.
Much of this can be done by looking at ways of learning which you have used
in the past and remembering which worked well for you. The following
questions should prompt you to start looking at ways of learning:-

1. What do you find easy to remember?

2. What do you find difficult to remember?

3. What helps you to remember?

4. Do you have your own style of shorthand?

5. Is it easy to read your shorthand later?

6. Do you ever use the notes which you have made?

7. Do you read every word on a page to find a piece of information?

8. Do you study at times best suited for studying?

9. Can you keep yourself motivated?

Hopefully, by the end of this unit you will know how to improve some of your
study skills and maybe you will have acquired new ones. All are aimed at
making you study more effectively. This may mean that you reach the end of
the course more quickly and that you gain more knowledge from the course
and/or gain better grades.

Let's first of all consider why you are studying and your motivation.

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MOTIVATION

In order to succeed in any form of voluntary course of study the student needs
strong powers of self-motivation. In the classroom motivation is usually
generated by the teacher and the group; in distance learning there is a need
for the student to generate this motivation for him/herself. It is easy therefore
for studying to become a second priority.

Your reasons for studying will have an effect on your motivation.

Let's look at typical reasons why people choose to study.

Tick the reasons which you recognise as yours.

1. To prove to myself that I can study.

2. I am interested in EFL.

3. To become qualified and start teaching.

4. To become qualified and continue teaching.

5. To move on in my career.

6. My employer says I must become qualified.

7. The government insists that I get qualified to stay in the country in which I
live and work.

If you have another reason, add it to the list.

Numbers 1 & 2 are personal reasons and mean that you are probably
determined to succeed. Success will be its own reward.

In numbers 3, 4 & 5 the reward is what comes later, the studying is not the
reward in itself. If these are your reasons, your aims are probably still quite
important to you, but when the reward is far away your determination may
fade.

Numbers 6 & 7 do not mean that you really want to study at all, you are being
forced to do so by an outside force.

Place any additional reasons in one of the three groups.

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SUCCESSFUL STUDYING DEPENDS TO A LARGE EXTENT ON YOUR
STUDIES BEING IMPORTANT TO YOU.

You must make it important to you

You must make it enjoyable
You must make it rewarding
OR your determination will fade and you will become bored with studying.

Your motivation
Your reason for doing this course is your motivation.
Whether your motives equate with numbers 1 & 2; 3, 4 & 5; 6 & 7, you will
need to find an effective way to motivate yourself.
What does motivate you?
Write a list of things which you find rewarding and enjoyable - try to cover all
the different parts of your life.

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
etc.

Activities which are their own reward as in 1 & 2 on your reasons list are
known as intrinsic motivation.
Activities which are not the reward in themselves, and in which the reward is
an outcome of the activity as in 3, 4 & 5 on your reasons list are known as
extrinsic motivation.
Now look at your list and write next to each activity whether it is intrinsic or
extrinsic.
NB Most activities can give intrinsic satisfaction to some people, and extrinsic
satisfaction to others.

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Look at the following chart and rate your motivation.
STUDYING AS AN ACTIVITY IN ITSELF

complete lack of -2 -1 0 1 2 completely

motivation motivated

YOUR LONG -TERM GOAL

complete lack of -2 -1 0 1 2 completely

motivation motivated

Add together your scores.

Results Analysis

3/4 - motivation will not be your problem

0-2 - you may need more motivation to keep you going

-1/-2 - you will find it difficult to keep on task

-3/-4 - motivation may be a serious problem for you

Everyone, no matter how motivated, finds times when they feel they cannot go
on. Take 5 minutes to think about this. What is it that is most likely to prevent
you from carrying on?

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Write a list of these things.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

etc

How important are they to you? Are they more important than your ultimate
goal?

If your determination is fading, if your motivation needs a boost you may like to
consider the following tips:

1. Make a card or poster with the qualification you are working towards with
large letters on it. Put this on your work desk or on the wall.

2. Talk to people who have been successful in this field or talk to a fellow
TEFL student through our service.

3. Work to a daily plan, but every so often focus on your long-term goal.

4. Phone in for a chat.

5. Put your short-term study goals in words to someone else.

6. Give yourself rewards at short intervals, ie at the end of each unit or if you
are really in trouble, every 1 or 2 tasks.

Now you have some ideas to help when you are becoming demotivated, let's
look at your organisation skills.

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PLANNING AND ORGANISING STUDY TIME

Success in any course depends on the candidate's commitment to work and

the organisation of his / her study time, but never more so than in a distance
training course.

Distance training is not an easy option or a quick and painless way of gaining
a qualification. Distance training can be very hard work. The strain can be
lessened by good planning.

Time is a challenge whatever your sphere of life. It is difficult to fit in any

studying when your day is filled with work, domestic duties and personal
responsibilities. Advances in the world of technology have made life easier in
this respect but there are still only 24 hours in a day and sleep has to be fitted
in somewhere. The only way to succeed and fit everything in is by being a
good manager of time. It may be hard work and you may need to change the
habits of a lifetime but the end result will be worth all the effort.

Student teachers on this course come from many different backgrounds.

Some are teachers already, some are full-time students, many come from
totally different careers or are unemployed.

Home and family commitments are also varied. Some live alone, some have a
family.

This course is therefore being studied by a vast range of prospective teachers

of EFL from unemployed, single people living alone to those with full-time jobs
and young, dependent children.

The amount of study time available to people in each of these groups varies
considerably.

No matter whether you have a lot of free time or very little, planning is
essential.

Studying cannot be fitted in between breakfast and going out to work, or

between your two favourite TV programmes. It must be taken seriously and
given its own time and space in your day.

Timetabling your study is a task which can be described both as very simple
and as very hard. Simple because anyone can draw up a timetable and fill in
the blank boxes. But can you stick to this timetable?

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This is where is becomes hard. Don't be wildly optimistic and then fail. Look
first at what is realistic for you. Being honest with yourself is a good place to
start.

Divide your day into time spent on your usual daily activities such as:- working,
sleeping, personal life etc. How many hours do you spend on each during a
typical week?

Complete the following chart for YOU, also complete the key.

A B C D E F G H

SUNDAY

MONDAY

TUESDAY

WEDNESDAY

THURSDAY

FRIDAY

SATURDAY

KEY
A = personal duties
B = work
C = sleep
D=
E=
F=
G=
H=

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How much time do you have left on each day?

If your free hours total per week is 10 hours, you are being unrealistic to
believe that you can complete the course in 8 weeks.

Complete the following:-

Course requirement in number of hours 120 - 160

Your hours available per week ..............

Your course will take ...........…

If it is necessary to you to finish your course in fewer weeks, you have to

decide if it is feasible for you to increase your study time by lessening the time
spent on some other activity.

Now that you are being realistic you can begin timetabling. Look at the blank
timetable on the next page. Complete it as follows:-

1. Shade in fixed activities such as work, sleep etc.

2. Mark at least one and up to two as days of rest. (Remember you are
being realistic and you may need this break)

3. Now timetable your planned study hours in the gaps.

4. You should have some gaps left over for unplanned events.

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TIMETABLE

SUN MON TUES WED THURS FRI SAT

.................................................................................................................

.................................................................................................................

.................................................................................................................

.................................................................................................................

.............................................................................................................

...............................................................................................................

..........................................................................................................

.............................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................

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HOW LONG SHOULD A STUDY PERIOD BE?

There are no right answers here, much depends on your commitments and the
type of person you are. However, there is a basic fact which may help.

Short lengths of time such as 10 minutes are not usually any use. You will not
normally retain a period stuck between other activities in this way.

Now that you have organised your time, you must ensure that you make the
most of each of your study periods.

NOTES

A great deal of your time will be spent reading course materials, the course
handbook and supplementary materials. In order to retain the information
gained from reading, most people will need to write some of it down. This
usually means making notes.

Why do you need to make notes? There are many reasons. Here are just a
few of them:-

1. The actual process of writing the notes helps you to remember them.

2. You can link information from various sources.

3. You can link new information with your own knowledge and previously-
learned facts.

4. Personal memory aids give a stronger message simply because they are
your own.

5. You can write a simple reminder of points which you find easy. Concepts
you find more difficult can be noted in more detail. This alone may help
you understand.

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The way you make your notes can be quite a personal thing and there is really
no right and wrong way. Try different methods and decide which is best for
you.

Writing out everything you read in a slightly different way or a slightly shorter
version is not good practice. These notes are virtually useless to you. There
are principles for good note-taking which you should follow. First look at what
you are doing when you are making notes:-

1. Helping yourself to recall

2. Helping yourself to understand

3. Linking current studies with previous knowledge

4. Highlighting points in your studies

In order to achieve the above your notes should:

1. Break down the materials into small, manageable parts

2. Make things stand out from the rest

3. Link previous and present learning

4. Give your learning some recognisable structure

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CONCEPT MAPS

This is one way of showing the structure behind the subject.

It shows relationships between small parts of your studies, and their link with
previously learned units.

Here is a concept map for a reading skills course

Reading Skills

extensive reading comprehension intensive reading

macro micro
skimming skills skills

scanning
reading for
speed a purpose
reading vocab
studies

transfer of use of
information adjuncts
extraction of
information

inference deduction

logical
relationships

Draw your own concept map for this course, or if you prefer, for one module of
this course.

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NUCLEAR NOTES

These are similar to concept maps in that they are in diagrammatic form, but
they are used for one topic which forms the nucleus, here the central bubble,
from which lines are drawn to each major point.

Look at the simple example for a topic on housing:

wiring

plumbing

works

brickwork architecture

building design

HOUSING

flats
Govt. intervention

houses

bungalows
Council benefits

However you decide to make notes you need to keep the following points in
mind:-

1. Space your notes well

2. Use highlighters and colours

3. Use headings

4. Use diagrams

5. Add memorable examples

6. Use mnemonics

7. Add humour - it helps you remember!

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MNEMONICS

Mnemonics are memory aids, especially those associated with the capital
letter of each word.

Two which many of us were taught at school are:-

Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain

reminding us of the colours of the rainbow.

Every Good Boy Deserves Favours

reminding musicians of the notes on the stave.

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READING TECHNIQUES

When you are reading the set course materials you will probably want and
need to read everything. When you are reading supplementary materials
however, you are unlikely to need to read all of it. It is more likely that you will
be searching for materials to back up your argument or exemplify or expand
on teaching points. In these cases you will need particular reading techniques
which you in turn will need to teach foreign students.

Broadly speaking there are five reading sub-skills which are all necessary
though in varying degrees:-

1. recognition of information

2. selection of information

3. extraction of information

4. organisation of information

5. transfer of information

It is not necessary to read every word, every sentence or even every

paragraph. The skills of skimming and scanning which you will eventually be
teaching your overseas students are what you need to use. If you are unsure
of these it may be a good idea to complete some of the exercises which are
meant for overseas students and can be found in the Skills Unit of this course.

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HOW THIS COURSE WORKS

Distance/online learning does not mean that you are cut off from your trainers
and cannot communicate with them. Training is a two-way thing. Your trainer
will communicate with you and you may wish to communicate back to him/her.

When you have completed a module email it to the designated trainer. He/she
will mark the tasks and return them to you with feedback.Read the comments
as they may be useful for the next module. If there are some tasks for which
you have not been given a grade this does not mean that you are failing, it
means that with the help given you can achieve more. This should be seen as
a form of teaching not as a form of failure!

Please make sure that you submit only those tasks which are marked as such.
Self-check exercises are for you and must not be submitted.

None of the above are tasks which have to be returned to be marked, you are
however strongly recommended to read the unit carefully and to complete the
exercises for yourself.

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