| 2010-2011 Academic year | Course: ENGL216 English for academic communication |
| Questions/queries in terms of English language learning | |
| Speaking | |
| Pronunciation (accents, IPA transcription) | |
| Student 1 I watch quite a lot of English movies and listen to English songs often, and I try to imitate the native English accent but still, it is hard for me to totally get rid of the Hong Kong accent when I speak. What other ways can I further improve my English accent to make my speech sound more native? | |
| Student 2 How can I improve my pronunciation or oral speaking skills? | |
| Student 3 How could I conquer the stage-fright when I have to perform a public speaking in front of the mass? | |
| Student 4 Should I speak very slowly to avoid some bad HK accent and making mistakes? | |
| Student 5 Is British accent more preferable to American accent in Hong Kong? What is the role of “accent” in communication? (Why do most people feel ashamed if they can’t speak/sound like a native English speaker? I believe that accent is just a way to have information about the speaker’s background. What’s wrong if we have Chinese accent in English when we are Chinese?) | |
| Student 6 What should I do to improve my pronunciation and listening skills? | |
| Student 7 Is it crucial to speak English in an accent? | |
| Tones, intonation and stress | |
| Student 8 How can I understand the emotional feeling of a speaker well without seeing his/her face impression? (I know we can decide this from stress and intonation, but it’s a little bit difficult.) | |
| Accuracy | |
| Student 9 How can I improve my fluency and accuracy of speaking? | |
| Fluency | |
| Student 10 How can I improve my fluency and accuracy of speaking? | |
| Student 11 How can I improve my fluency? | |
| Language competency (like confidence in giving a speech) | |
| Student 11 I actually believe that my English speaking skill is not bad, but I am always too nervous when I have to present in front of people, and that makes my speech not fluent. How can I manage to speak more confidently? | |
| Student 12 I would like to know how I can speak English more fluently and confidently. | |
| Student 13 In what ways can I improve my ability to communicate in informal English, in addition to learning formal English from this programme? Should I use simpler words or phrases so that I could think of at the first time, instead of carrying out some paraphrasing in the brain before I speak? | |
| Student 14 How can I seek opportunities to communicate with others in English, whereas my friends are mostly Hong Kongers? | |
| Student 15 I am not confident in giving presentations. Moreover, my grammar is quite poor, so I need to think twice before giving speeches. This probably reduces my English proficiency. | |
| Student 16 What can be done to improve my English proficiency? I've heard that reading aloud can help, will it help? | |