FAKULTI PENDIDIKAN DAN BAHASA

OUMH 1203
ENGLISH FOR WRITTEN COMMUNICATION

SEMESTER JANUARY 2014

Name: RAIZABA BT CHURAYME

No. Matrik : 780717015446001
NRIC : 780717-01-5446
Telephone number: O12-3354472
E-mail address raisayangsam@hotmail.com
Tutors name:
PUAN JANET ROSE TANAKINJAL

Learning Centre: OUM LABUAN LEARNING CENTRE

QUESTION 1.
Children learn best by observing the behavior of adults and copying it. Do you
agree or disagree? Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.
We always heard that children learn more at home. As a teacher, I agree with the
statements that children learn more at home by observing the behavior of their parents
or adults. Here we look first at the definition of a child (plural: children) is generally a
human between the stages of birth

and puberty. The legal definition of child generally

refers to a minor, otherwise known as a person younger than the age of majority. Children
generally have fewer rights than adults and are classed as unable to make serious
decisions, and legally must always be under the care of a responsible adult.
The definition of an adult is a human being or other organism that has reached sexual
maturity. In human context, the term adult additionally has meanings associated with
social and legal concepts. In contrast to a "minor", a legal adult is a person who has attained
the age of majority and is therefore regarded as independent, self-sufficient, and responsible.
Conversely, one may legally be an adult but possess none of the maturity and responsibility
that may define adult character.
If we look at the definition between children and adults, the adults are more matured
compare to the children. Adults can make their own decisions and most responsible
compare to the children. This can be seen what had

parents teach us at home. As the

adults and also parents, they always remind us the cause and the effects if something
bad happened, because they had experienced them before it.
Before we look more deeper about the children is copying the behaviour of adults , let
look at the word copying means to produce something so that it is the same as an
original piece of work ( Cambridge Online Dictionary). From the meaning of copying,
sometimes we can see children want to be like the adults. As we know, children
learn what they see around them everyday. Whatever they see, they do not know
whether it is correct or incorrect unless the adults or parents tell them about it.

Children learn a great deal by imitating adults. A new study of Australian preschoolers and
Kalahari Bushman children finds that a particular kind of imitation overimitation, in which a
child copies everything an adult shows them, not just the steps that lead to some outcome
appears to be a universal human activity, rather than something the children of middle-class
parents pick up.
Kids gain knowledge best by watching conducts of adults and replicating it is a contentious
one. Many people think that this is the most effective for the children to learn. However the
opposites are not few in numbers. The behavior of the adults plays a significant role in
shaping childrens inclination and character. After the baby is born the first and the nearest
adults are his/her parents. Then the little baby starts his learning by observing and copying
adults talks and movements.Along with childrens growth teachers and parents will influence
them much more such as logical thinking, making decision, cooperation with others etc.A
child learns most by simply paying attention to what others are doing or copying them. For
instance many girls learn cooking by following her mother in kitchen. Say for another
example a boy sees his father playing video games and watching TV all the time, he would
prefer to do all these activities.
Best is a big word. Actually now a days there are so many ways to get knowledge such as
computer, internet, TV, mobile, games, newspaper, books are the great resources.
By watching adults and copying them is big way but not best way all the time for a child. It
may be true for his certain age. After very infant periods adults role decreases. Then he finds
friends of same ages and his life may be regulated in large scale by the influence of them.
Observation and imitating dont work as positive always. If a child sees his father smoking or
one of his family member using bad words then he be motivated by them.
Children are like young trees, they need to be carefully irrigated, fertilized and trimmed.
Follwing adults and copying them is very good one for learning. But when a child figures it
out his/her own, the best learning can take place. Naturally he will earn knowlege on the earth
from everything.

References:
Mark Nielsen and Keyan Tomaselli. Overimitation in Kalahari Bushman Children and the
Origins of Human Cultural Cognition. Psychological Science, April 16, 2010 DOI:
Camridge Online Dictionary.

QUESTION 2.
What do schools need to do to prepare students for the 21st Century? Discuss
your opinion.
Nowadays, teaching and learning become more challenging compare to the old times
ago. As a teacher, we constantly strive to prepare our students for the real world that
exists around them. We teach them how to read, write and calculate. We want to
prepare them to lead productive and successful lives once they leave us and enter into
the realm of adulthood. But yet teachers had to do their best to prepare their students
for this world anyhow. Nowadays, teachers are still charged with the same complicated
task- preparing students for the unknown.
We may not know exactly what lies ahead for our students in the future, but we have
the advantages of knowing what skills they will need once they get there. Firstly, teacher
has to develop critical thinking and problems solving skills whereas students need to
develop their skills at seeing problems from different angles and formulating their own
solutions. By doing this, teachers can give the students with the situations in which
they need to use problems solving skills. This can avoid teachers to spoonfeed the
students with the solutions.
Then, teachers can train the students with collaboration across networks and leading by
influence because as we know not every person is born to be a natural leader.
However the ability to lead others can definitely help a person to advance and become
successful in their chosen career. To prepare students in this area, more than just the
typical teamwork is required. Students should instead be encouraged to take on
different roles within their group for each task within the project. There are many
different roles that students can fill during a project with their peers that allows them to
work with others in a more collaborative way than just breaking a part a project and
then putting it back together in the end.

If we look back the education systems 20 years ago, so many changes had happened.
The education systems was so different between my school times to now. Students are
more advanced. Our students need to be comfortable with the idea of change and be
willing to adapt to the changes around them. Teachers can create a very dynamic
environment within the classroom that can help to prepare students for the future.
Varying the teaching strategies we use, the setup of the classroom, the way that learning
is demonstrated by students, and even guidelines for group work or homework can help
students learn to adapt.
Students have access to unimaginable amounts of information today. The Internet
provides an incredible research tool that can be their best friend or worst enemy.
Accessing information is easy, but accessing good information tends to be more
complicated. Students need to be taught how to sift through the millions of web pages
available on a topic and find what they need. They need to learn the difference
between factual information and factual sounding opinions. Many students today will check
answer websites to gather information, not really thinking about how the information was
written. So that, teachers have to ensure by accessing information from the websites,
have to remind the students that they have to be careful.
As the conclusion, teachers or educators have to play the main roles to prepare the
students for the new educations approaches for the 21st century. Everyone should
participated to ensure the education system to be succeed.

QUESTION 3.
The destruction of the worlds forests is inevitable as our need for land and food
grows? Do you agree?
Forests are very important to the environment because they use carbon dioxide ( CO2)
and produce oxygen. They also provide shelter and food for many different types of
plants and animals. Trees are cut down for many reasons are to make space to build
new houses and to clear land to grow grass for cows and sheep to eat, to produce
dairy food. The trees which are cut down are sold and they are made into paper and
furniture.
Cutting down trees is called deforestation and it give serious effects. Cutting down the
forests is inevitable because human need it for land and food grows. Agri-business is
responsible for massive rainforest destruction as forests are cleared or burned to make
way for cattle ranches, palm oil or soya plantations. Irreplaceable rainforests are
converted into products that are used to make toothpaste, chocolate and animal feed.
According to Professor Norman Myers, one of the foremost authorities on rates of
deforestation in tropical forests, the annual destruction rate seems set to accelerate yet
further, and could well double in another decade (Myers 1992). As Myers points out,
we still have half of all tropical forests that ever existed. The struggle to save the
worlds rainforests continues, and there is a growing worldwide concern about the issue.
Agriculture is the cause of the destruction worlds forests which is the shifted
cultivators is the term used for people who have moved into rainforest areas and
established small scale farming operations. These are the landless peasants who have
followed roads into already damaged rainforest areas. The additional damage they are
causing is extensive. Shifted cultivators are currently being blamed for 60% of tropical
loss ( Colchester & Lohmann).

The reason these people are referred to as shifted cultivators is that most of them
have been forced off their own land. They became shifted cultivators moving into
rainforests areas of which they had no previous knowledge in order to sustain
themselves and their families ( Colchester & Lohmann). After a time, these farmers
encounter the same problems as the cash crop growers. The soil does not remain fertile
for long. They are force to move on , to shift again, going further into the rainforest and
destroying more and more. It is evident that the shifted cultivators have become the
agents for destruction but not the cause ( westoby 1987: Colchester).
The destruction of the worlds forests will be continue in our next generations. This is
because people are too demanded to have the comfortablity in their life nowadays.
Where there are the things people can make money, so that people like to destroy
anything without thinks about the effects to the world.

REFERENCES :
Colchester and Lohmann(Ed), The struggle for Land and the Fate of the Forest. 1993. Zed
Books, London.
Myers, N, The Primary Source: Tropical Forests And Our Future. 1992. Norton, New York.

QUESTION 4.
Technology is making communication easier in todays world, but at the expense of
personal contact as many people choose to work at home in front of a computer
screen. What dangers are there for a society which depends on computer screens rather
than face-to-face contact for its main means of communication?
Todays world are making connections to each other from other country to another
country so easy and fast. The world become small. All this is because the technology
in communication that enhance the way of connections. Communication technology is
a term used to describe the various forms of correspondence that are available,
including technological advancements. Nowadays, a lot of people choose to work at
home in front of a computer screen. Many people like to do online business, selling
things and services to the public rather open shops because they can cut cost. The use
of the technology can be great help to people in communicating, reducing the time it
takes. But technology can have consequences of reducing person-to- person interaction.
For example, the social media have been a revolution in how people plan events and
communicate with one another . Rather than talking with their friends in person, they
can post a comment about their life. The revolution of social media has allowed
people to rekindle friendships, make new friends and gain new interests. Some people
will use social media to connect new relationships in person, while other people will
never meet anyone from the sites used. Cyber bullying is one of the problems with
social media. The content posted, though personal, can be used to fire or deny work
and promotions.
The rapid revolution in technology affected our lifestyle drastically and led us to
believe that our lives have changed for the better. Now communication with our
distant friends or relatives, buying branded products or goods on the go and conducting
business meeting is possible with just a single click. We believe that all these changes
have made our lives more comfortable than before.
But there are also negative effects for the person who works in front of the computer
screen. Of course, you may not recognise whom you are deal with online. For
example, you want to sell your products online. You may attract your online

customers to buy the products but you do not know the background of your online
customers. Whether his/her a good person, whether his/her honesty person, can be trusted
or someone who got money to pay you. When you do the online business, you have to
give your online customers your bank account number. Then you have to make sure,
that person can be trusted if you give your account number? I think all this questions
will be on your mind. For those who want to work in front of the computer screen,
you must be brave to take any risks and face the consequences.
Another downside to communication technology is that even as we communicate with
more and more people using various technologies, some people feel more isolated than
connected. The paper cites a study done in the 1990s on the effects of internet use on
social well-being. The study found that some people who used the Internet a lot for
communication actually felt more isolated than before.

References:
http://www.qfinance.com/dictionary/communication-technology.

QUESTION 5.
In your life experience , what is the best advice you have ever received?
People give advices and people receive advices too. Usually advices that we receive
always give good impact for the whole life. Elders always give advices to the
youngers as the guidelines in leading a life in this world. Like the others, I also
received an advice that I will never forget in my life.
My mother gave this advice 27 years ago , and on that time I was nine years old. She
told me to study hard if I want to have a good life in future. Then I told her that I
wanted to be a teacher. So that, my mother said you have to study hard to achieve
what I want to be. So as the student who aged 9 years old, I decided to follow my
mother advice.
This is because I felt on that time I do not want to stay in the village for my whole
life and i want to have a better life than my parents ever had. Both of my parents
they were not going to the school because their parents were poor old time ago.
Now, I am a teacher. By keeping the following advice in mind, however you can
dramatically increase your chances your chances of becoming successful in whatever
you choose to pursue. I always imagine to become successful, Einstein said the
imagination is more important than knowledge. The more vividly and accurately you
imagine your success, the easier it will be the rest of yourself to follow through.
Many successful people have an insatiable curiosity. If they don not understand how
something works or do not know the answer to a question, they find out. Often , this
takes them on a quest of self discovery, one in which the journey is just as important as
the destination.

References:
http://m.wikihow.com/ Be-successful.