VoyForums
[ Show ]
Support VoyForums
[ Shrink ]
VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, [3], 4 ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 13:59:45 06/26/03 Thu
Author: Maria Cristina Cambraia
Subject: Task 8

Task 8

1. Write a narrative telling us your learning history. Include your classroom experiences and all the actions you performed in different contexts in order to learn English.

2. Analyze your learning history according to the communicative principles and tell us if there were some of its characteristics in your learning experience

I decided to do Letras, with the aim to learn English. I didn’t have opportunities to study English in a particular school (and I didn’t study in good schools during my life), so I idealized that in UFMG would be the better place to do this.

I had my first barrier when I discover about the English Test in Vestibular, I felt very worried because the ‘open’ questions. My only helper would be the Cursinho. So I perceive that it will be unsatisfactory to help in a short time. But I couldn’t get in an English Course in that moment. I decided to buy weekly English magazines that teach English through the Larrouse Method. During a year I read and listen the tapes very enthusiastic. I remember my first lesson:
“Where is the bank?” / “Where is the hotel?” /“Where is the post office?” /“Where is the museum?”
In fact the method involve repetition of the same structure all the time. But I think it wasn’t the worst thing, the big failure was the translations of everything. You hear the phrase in English followed of the translation in Portuguese. So when I already listen several times the same lesson, I didn’t know every phrase in English, but in Portuguese. Well, I think it wasn’t a perfect method, but help me with a basic grammar to Vestibular.

After over this barrier, I have thought everything is good, but for my surprise the English class in UFMG begin in a Intermediate Level. In the first they the professor give a test and said if you do sixty percent I advise you stay in the course, otherwise not. I did tem percent. So I was enrolled in Cenex course, and I continue in Habilidades Integradas III. I get in a total immersion, because in the first days I couldn’t understanding anything. In my first oral presentation I said a text by heart. I felt beet nervous, because myself couldn’t understanding what I was saying. It was a great experience.

Very fast I development abilities:
To reading – I have never read a book, but in the first semester a did it.
To listening - I have the need of understand the class
To speaking - My first professor was Kevin, a native speaker, he most of time he couldn’t understanding what I was saying)
To writing – I have never write a line for myself, but I need do a text.

So, I can perceive that I development fluency but not accuracy, I have difficulties in basic grammar, because I don’t study it. I think this is a characteristic of a Communicative Approach, so nowadays I’m trying to perfect my abilities with the Grammar rules.

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]
[ Contact Forum Admin ]

Forum timezone: GMT-8
VF Version: 3.00b, ConfDB:
Before posting please read our privacy policy.
VoyForums(tm) is a Free Service from Voyager Info-Systems.
Copyright © 1998-2019 Voyager Info-Systems. All Rights Reserved.