task 13, individual reflection, leticia peixoto, grupo 3-ingles -- ufmgprat

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Date Posted: 20:07:49 07/02/04 Fri
Author: leticia peixoto
Subject: task 13, individual reflection, leticia peixoto, grupo 3-ingles

Reflections on my own autonomy

When I read the bibliography for this text, I was seeing the issue of autonomy through a teacher's point of view, but I decided to write my individual contribution as a learner. I've always been quite autonomous when studying topics I like. Fortunately, language is one of them.
As an advanced learner of the English language, what I seek to learn is more and more vocabulary and complex structures. I recently took a course at Cultura Inglesa to help me study for the CPE. Although it was good having a teacher to guide me, it was up to me to do the exercises, check unknown vocabulary and try to internalize it. Besides, interaction (as it is mentioned in all three texts) in class helped me more than anything. I could use expressions I had just learned and improve my oral communication strategies such as compensation. But that was for a test. I usually read a lot and watch TV (more than I should) and films. I can't help but watching and reading everything with a learner's eye. I even take notes if it's something I really want to remember. I'm very visual.
However, it is much harder to have autonomy as a beginner student. I need much more guidance with my German than with my English studies. Nowadays, I'm not taking formal lesson in German, but I often look for material to study on my own. Especially children's books, which have a much simpler language. To practice listening I try to watch the German channel every once in a while, even though I can only understand 0,1% of what I listen...
I believe my personality has a lot to do with my level of autonomy, and it's a shame not all people see the importance of autonomy for learning any language. Partially because not everyone studies a language because they want to. Especially English. And as much as a teacher might try and lead a student to have autonomy, we can't make them "drink" it.

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