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Date Posted: 19:42:44 06/29/03 Sun
Author: Carolina Rosa Pansini
Subject: Task 8

UFMG/FALE
Communicative Approach
NAME: Carolina Rosa Pansini
Professor: Vera Menezes
TASK 8


THE CLASSROOM

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.

My first experience with learning English was at school. I started learning English at the 5th grade, when I was twelve years old. It was love at first sight. I was a good student and I studied hard to get good performance in English. And I got it. So I realised that English at school was too weak for the objectives that I would like to reach. So I intended to study English at an English Course too. I asked my parents to enrol me at an English course, but they did not agree. Because they think it was too expensive and I would not try my best to be good at English. As a result I revolted against them and also avoided talking to them for a while. So my parents did not have other choice unless to enrol me at English course. It was excellent to me! To start Studying English made me feel so happy. Because I enjoyed it very much. My parents enrolled me at MAI English School. I had good time there. I studied at MAI for seven years. And their teachers teach English using the Communicative Approach. So my first class was so funny, because the teacher spoke only in English and I did not understand everything just some words and expressions that I had already learnt from school, such as: hi, hello, bye, teacher, student, classroom and etc. But I got used to the Communicative Approach and through the years I could understand everything spoke in class at MAI.

In my opinion, the way MAI’s teachers deal with the Communicative Language Teaching is the best one to teach English. Because when I studied there I learned and improved the four abilities, not just speaking. I could realise that grammar is too important as communicative skills. That is the reason why when I teach English I always tend to use communicative approach, but it is not always possible. I am not a teacher yet, but I intend to be. I have already taught English in Prática de Ensino and as a volunteer in Greenwich. The students that I taught were low level and had difficulties to learn. So it was not possible to use Communicative Approach with them. But I think that the Communicative Language Teaching should be the most important method used in English course. In school in Brazil it is not possible to be used. It is a pity.

When I was still a teenager, 17, I took part in an exchange programme of my school. I stayed in The United States for one mouth in order to study English and sightseeing. It was a great time! I had English classes in an University in Jackson, Tennessee for two weeks. It was few days, but I could improve my speaking and pronunciation. In addition to it, dealing with native Americans my English got better.
When I became an adult, I started to study English at Cultura Inglesa. Before it, I got Private classes. Unfortunately, it was not a good idea. Because the private teacher was not good enough to teach. She knew English very well, but she did not know how to teach. She just worked with it because she needed money and I was her ‘guinea pig’. Anyway, I decided to study to Cultura Inglesa because I intended to pass in the Cambridge exams, First Certificate English. And I thought that Cultura Inglesa was the best school to prepare to this exam. I was wrong. The teachers were excellent, the book was also good and its library was perfect, but the classroom had fifteen, eighteen or twenty students. In addition to it, the majority of the students were teenagers. It was difficulty to concentrate on the lessons. But I continued to study there until I passed the First Certificate Exam. Cultura Inglesa helped me a lot to get this certificate, but I consider my efforts and dedication the most important tools to get it. So during this time, I realised that I was in a level that I would only improve my English if I studied abroad or studied by myself. As a result, I started studying English using authentic language, watching Cable TV, reading English literature and also using Internet. I improved a lot my English using these strategies. And in my opinion, the best way to enhance language is dealing with authentic language and natives.

The next step in my learning history was my entrance to FALE. At the beginning of the course I could skip the subjects Habilidades I, II and III. So I started studying Literature, Práticas de Ensino, Linguistics, Phonology and etc. My English has been enhancing a lot since I entered in FALE. One of the most important things that I have been learning at FALE is a corpus. In my opinion it is the best way to learn English and to be good at fluency and accuracy.

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

English at school was based on audiolingual method. So it was so far from Communicative approach. On the other hand, classes at MAI were based on the communicative principles. For example:

- Functional Competence: each unit of the books had a communicative purpose to be taught, such as requesting, describing, expressing likes and dislikes, greeting and etc. And the teacher asked the students to do role-play in order to memorise the functions.
- Sociolinguistic Competence: the books often used a formal language, but sometimes they presented situations used in an informal language too. In addition to it, the teachers always showed to the learners the differences between the use of formal and informal language in order to teach how to use language appropriately.
- Interactional Competence: This principle of Communicative Approach was not practised at MAI. I just had knowledge of this competence when I did the subject Oral Expression at FALE. I had the opportunity to practice how to initiate and manage conversations, the use of body language, eye contact and proximity to other people. Because the aim of this subject was to prepare students to communicate, especially in a speech, lecture, during a classroom and other events.
- Cultural Competence: As every MAI’s teachers lived abroad for a while. They had a lot of cultural information from USA and England. So they shared it with us in order to make us understand the social structure, the values and beliefs of these people. The books also brought a lot of information about the differences of language and costumes between Americans and Europeans.

When I studied at Cultura Inglesa, these communicative principles were not highlighted. Because the purpose of the course was to prepare students for Cambridge’s Exam. And this kind of exam does not demand knowledge in this area. Sometimes some lessons required practice in one of these principles, but it was not the point of the lesson.

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