by George Chou
You have probably noticed a new faculty member, with short, gray hair, a big belly, and always neatly dressed, walking around the halls of the A. V. Center and L.T.T.C. with a big briefcase smiling to whomever he encounters . He is Mr. Ted Partington, a new part-time instructor to D.F.L.L. Mr. Partington comes from Canada. He was born in Ottawa. When he was very young he moved near Toronto to an ordinary, middle-class, but very prosperous area of Canada. Mr. Partington went to the University of Toronto and studied classics there, mainly Greek, Latin, Greek and Roman history, and Archeology. Then he attended York University and studied Medieval History and Literature, and some Modern Lit erature. Later he received his MA in Byzantine History and Literature at the University of Manitoba. He also went to law school in Manitoba and got his law degree. Now he has begun his Ph.D. at the University of Wales in 17th-Century History an d Literature. Mr. Partington was actually a lawyer. He spent most of his life practicing law. He practiced law for 13 years before selling his law firm in 1989 when he received a good offer. Since he had nothing to do, he felt there was no sense in s taying where he was. So he decided to come to Taiwan to visit some of his former clients. Mr. Partington was considering Hong Kong for a permanent stay, but he decided to come to Taiwan instead for various reasons. The main reason was that he ended up mar rying the daughter of a former client, and she is a graduate of the N.T.U. Food Science Department. This year Mr. Partington is offering language courses such as Oral Training One, Oral Training Two, Sophomore Composition, and Junior Composition. I try to make conversation as natural as possible, Mr. Partington explained. I try to get the students to listen and respond to presentations rather than just listening. Just sincere conversation, to teach them not merely to speak in a grammatically correct way, but to deal with English usage. I have always been flexible and adaptable, he continued. Maybe because of my legal background. When I first started teaching here, I adapted, I think, quite quickly, and tried to identify with the needs of my students. Just give them wh at they need and gradually adjust your course. I think teachers have to be very adaptable, constantly changing their material to suit the students, not just for the sake of change, but to adapt to the students’ needs. When Mr. Partington first came to N.T.U., what surprised him the most was that students rarely do research papers during their entire four years of study. What I would like to see in our department is that it become more and more resear ch-oriented. He remarked. Because I come from a tradition where the focus towards university is research, it might be an idea to begin doing one or two papers as early as possible. We did our first research paper in high school. I think there will be some disadvantages to our students if they haven’t done any research by the time they graduate from university. Perhaps it is not possible because this is an E.F.L. environment but the students in the department are quite intelligent and excellent, and I thi nk they are capable of doing this. Maybe there will be some language problems but this is one thing that I would like to see. To me, a university without research seems contradictory. We should try to do research even at the undergraduate level. Most of Mr. Partington’s students have often said they could sense that he really cares about them, that he is genuine. And the only suggestion Mr. Partington has for the students of D.F.L.L. is to read more. I think they need to read more in English, to read widely in English, not just what is required in class. Maybe some popular novels like John Grisham’s books. .Just read. Because I think through reading you get a feeling for the language, which you can’t learn from conversation classes. And because you are in an E.F.L. environment, you have to develop an English-speaking environment for yourself. You need to take advantage of every opportunity. I guess books are the main thing you have. a
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Authors
The Taida Student Journal has been active since 1995 with an ever-changing roster of student journalists at NTU. Click the above link to read about the authors Archives
May 2024
|