[caption id="attachment_205849" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Taken in Arkansas 2010"][/caption] Everyone must be thrilled when their dream comes true. It happened to me two years ago. I got financial support from International Fellowship Program to taste a learning experience in the University of Arkansas, USA. I studied English there for a quarter of year. Many memories have been come up when I remember being there.
One day after I arrived at Spring International Languagae Center (SILC) University of Arkansas, I took replacement test i.e. Michigan English Test as Foreign Language Proficiency. Similar to other English language tests, it also consists of reading, listening, speaking, and grammar sections. Through this test administration, the board of SILC would have information about new students’ English skills to be placed in an appropriate level based on the result they had gotten by administering the test.
Three following days, the board of SILC issued a letter that informed our levels. I was in the level 402 for all skills: reading, grammar, listening, and speaking. Each skill was taught by different instructor.
My English program run from Monday to Friday. Reading class started from 8.30 to 09.30 AM. At the beginning, we were taught by Bob Bailey. He preferred to be called “Bob”. He taught us vocabularies and the ways how to improve our reading skills. Basically, I saw him as the person who tried to teach us the best he could. He gave us the new English words and their derivation. He tried to derive from one word into other forms that originated from the same word root for example: select (Verb), selective (Adjective), selection (Noun), selectively (Adverb). Also, he wanted us to become more creative to create derivations from new words that we studied.
When we studied vocabularies, he often asked us to study in group in order we could share our knowledge each other. If we had found any difficulty to understand the materials, he would have offered a help. However, sometimes the method he applied was not properly fitted the time.
Honestly, I said it had been difficult to teach vocabularies within a limited time. When we studied materials in the reading book, often, Bob just explained in the front of classroom without opening the book so we sometimes did not realize that materials were exactly in the book we had. Fortunately, whatever style applied by the instructor, I could adapt myself easily because I highly realized that study had been basically more emphasized on the student’s hand. Bob only taught us until midterm. Ever since, a new instructor, Lydia, had been teaching us till our English class ended.
Grammar and composition was may be my favorite class in that term. I felt lucky because the instructor did his job very well. Honestly, I liked the way he taught and explained the materials to students. Also, he could answer whatever question was addressed to him. “David” was what students in my class called him. For me, if I had had a question, I would not doubtly have asked him and he could answer very clearly. His sense of English was wonderful. Even, he knew many accents from many different regions and pronounced words very well. What made me surprised was he could imitate speaking English very perfectly as Indian people do. It made me fun and laughed because it recalled my memories when I was doing my master’s program in Malaysia, where some lecturers come from India.
”David, David, you are a very good teacher”. I said silently. Besides, he could speak some languages that are spoken by people from other countries. In addition, the way he taught composition was also excellent. He asked us to write and he checked our writing meticulously. Each punctuation, word, and even clause he could correct them more elegantly so that our composition became more elegantly to be read by everyone.
Furthermore, I had special moment with David. I made appointment first to see him. The following day, I went to his office. He was waiting for me when I came. He asked me to come in.
He said to me, "Ok Husni, what can I do for you?"
I answered soon, "David, I have little problem in pronouncing English words and I think most people do, too. Now, I want you to show me the most difficult word and I try to pronounce it."
After saying okay, he immediately opened the dictionary lying on his book shelf. Then, he showed me one word that I have never known before. So, I pronounced it before him loudly. He nodded his head and say, "Good Husni, you did it well."
However, I was not satisfied with it so I asked David to test me more. In short, David tested me how to pronounce three different words that were still new to me and I did it perfectly. Finally, David asked me how to do that? I said that I used Oxford Dictionary Application Method pronunciation. As David realised that he had the software of that method, He copied the software and gave it to me.
In addition to grammar class, speaking and listening class was also my favorite. The man wearing rather thick glasses and always being looked tidy in his fashion was our instructor. His name is Don William but he preferred to be called Mr. Don.
The first time he came into our classroom and taught us, I was impressed with his pronunciation which was quite clear. That made me remember to an instructor that I often listened when I took toefl tests. It was rather difficult for me to follow the intonation he taught to us. Often, I had to read the text for more than two times in order to get correct pronunciation and intonation. I felt it was the hardest class that I ever had in that semester but I liked it because I could pronounce English words such a native speaker. However, I have been still fighting to improve my listening skill. It is hard for me to catch the idea when speakers say in the tape recorder because they speak very fast.
Studying English in a native speaking country has great impression especially for those who want to improve reading, speaking, listening, and writing skills. To be good at them, the best way to do is by intermingling with native people in their country.
