things you need & things to help you in your English study

Materials & Resources

You should make your own style of notes. For this, lines and squares are not good.Recommendation: brown notebook from Mujirushi (180 yen); or Sketch book by Maruman (180 yen), available at Amatrias, etc.

Notebooks

You should make many notes. You should fill at least 1 notebook in the semester.Making notes helps you remember. Making notes in a different way of the same information helps even more.A good way is to take quick notes in a class; then make better notes after class on the opposite page.

Notebooks 2

Visual mapping is a way to help you write things in a meaningful and attractive way.It helps you see the RELATIONSHIPS between things and ideas.

Visual Mapping

see the book “Mapping Inner Space”,

by Margulies, Nancy Call no.: 153.1||Ma 51

An example (high school science)

Another science example

Lecture notes

If the notes are meaningful and useful for you, don’t worry what they look like.Your notebook should look different from other students’ notebooks.

Make your own style

I give every student a file for the TALK system.If you’re lucky and have a big one, you may like to keep your B5 papers in the file.Anyway is OK, but make sure you don’t lose handouts.

Files, folders

An English-English dictionary is very useful for your study.It’s important that definitions & explanations are easy to understand.

Dictionaries

Oxford Learner’s Wordfinder DictionaryWordPower Fully-Bilingual Dictionary (Ei-Ei-Wa Jiten)Longman Essential ActivatorLongman Kirihara Shoten Gendai Ei-Ei Jiten

Some good dictionaries

Most English books are on the third floor. English readers are usually in the 800’s (around 830) Search the library at:http://wwwlib.pu-kumamoto.ac.jp/cgi-bin/limedio/limewwwopac/

The library

The tape library has many videos (mainly movies)There are a few DVDs, too. Some have English and Japanese subtitles (jimaku).Music DVDs are hidden. You need to search or ask.Search the tape library at:http://www-flec.pu-kumamoto.ac.jp/

Tape library (language

center)

Use English subtitles (at least sometimes) if available.Choose a short segment (2-5 minutes). Watch 10 times.Buy the Screenplay book (daihon, available in Kinokuniya).If you enjoy a movie, watch the same one 2 or 3 times.

Learning English with

movies:a few hints