TEACHER: What else do you think we could add tothe course program to help with this readingproblem?
SPIROS: There's not really anything because it's myproblem.I remember we were given long articles toread.We didn't like that but now I realise thatreading those long articleswas good preparation forthe things I need to read now.Also,in class weregularly had speed-reading tasks to do,and we kept a record of our reading speed,so theteachers were encouraging us to work on that.
HIROKO:That's true Spiros,but what we read could have been different.Sometimes in theEnglish class I felt frustratedwhen I had to read articles about the environment or health oreducation,because I wanted to concentrate on my own field,but we didn't read anything aboutengineering.So,I think I wasted some time learning vocabulary didn't need
TEACHER: But surely the strategies you were taught for dealing with that vocabulary werehelpful.
HIROKO:Yes,but psychologically speaking,I would have felt much better working on readingfrom my own field.What do you think Spiros?
SPIROS:I agree;that would have helped my confidence too and I would have been moremotivated.It was good though that we could work on our own topics when we wrote theresearch assignments.
TEACHER:Okay,let's move on to writing now ...