My English competence in 2009!

MY BEST ORAL EVIDENCE!

I think this is my best oral evidence because it’s the last one we had done and we weren’t as nervous as other times. So, the lack of nerves helps me to take more care about the pronunciation. Moreover, I think we speak more fluently and it makes it more entertained than the orals we had done before.

Another important reason why I have chosen this one is because during it I felt confident and meanwhile I was talking I move my hands and this made my speech more understandable.

The last reason of my choice is the structure we followed during the presentation. First we explained all about our trip to London and then, when we have finished, we showed some pictures of the trip and we comment them.

To conclude, I want to say that I like this oral in particular, because we told our own experiences and that was much easier than talking about something you haven’t experienced before.

MY BEST WRITTING EVIDENCE!

http://carles---porfolio.blogspot.com/search/label/discussion%20essay

I have chosen this evidence because it is my favourite one. In this writing I had been critical with one of the main tools of the modernization, but I think I did in an appropriated way.

In fact, I like the topic and it was easy to write about it. Besides, I think this is one of the best structured writings I had ever done because it is well separated and really easy to understand. I believe that another strong point of it is the use of the connectors, for example: on the other hand, to sum up…
Another reason why I have chosen it is because the arguments of this discussion essay are, in my opinion, really strong. I remember that before writing it, I decided what I was going to argue and why.

Finally, I want to say that this was one of those writings which are funny to write. I enjoyed writing it and, maybe, that’s why it is my favourite one.

Analyse your work!

As our teachers have recommended us, I have been looking at all my portfolio work and, now, I am really surprised. I have compared the first writing I wrote at the beginning of First of Batxillerat with the last writing I have done. As I said, I have been really surprised because the maturity and the structure of the first writing were really poor. Moreover, I have noticed that I presented myself talking about my family, my pet… Nowadays, I think I will do it in a really different way. Now, I think I write with more maturity and with longer sentences. Besides, I use more vocabulary and I try to write as an English person. It means that I try to write typical English sentences (with a better structure).

Apart form the grammatical point of view, I would like to analyse my fluency because I know how many hours I spend to write a composition in First of Batxillerat and I know how much time I need now. One year ago, I spent most of the time I had to write thinking about what I wanted to write about and with what vocabulary. Nowadays, I write more quickly and the vocabulary came to my mind more quickly than before. Moreover, I think that, now, I am not afraid to use complicated structures and I am more self confident than before.

To conclude, I would like to say that if I hadn’t done this post I wouldn’t have noticed the importance of the famous “Practice”. Today I have seen that these two years of hard-working have been useful, because I can appreciate a clear improve of my English level.

Observing your portfolio, can you see an improvement on your level of English since September?

Yes, maybe I try to use more connectors and my writings are better. But I think that in the third term we had done the blog and the portfolio quickly, because we need time to study and that is the reason why it's difficult to see an improvement.
But as I wrote before, I think that now I can write better and quickly than in the first term.

Whitch activities did you enjoy doing and would you like to do again next year?

My favourite activities are the dialogue and the speaking ones. I don't know why, but I like to record my dialogue and then listen to it, maybe because I can hear my pronunciation and that helps me to improve it. And about speaking, I recognise that I love talking and that's one of the reasons why I enjoy this activity. But I give importance to speaking because if we travel to England or to the EEUU, it's really important!

Witch activities did you not find useful to learn English? Why not?

-In my opinion the most unuseful activities are the blog and the portfolio ones.
Although I recognize that they help us to improve our writing ,we spend lots of hours on them and we can’t see all of our mistakes. It's a laborious task and doing the posts we have less time to study for the exams.

Witch activities were really useful for you to improve your English?

-Personally I think that the most useful activity is speaking because if we travel abroad, for example, it’s very important to communicate. And if we know how to speak, it means that we have a good grammar and vocabulary level. So, from my point of view, the speaking with Annika and with the teachers are the most useful activities we have done.

Witch activity best shows your level of English?

-In my opinion it’s difficult because in my case I have different levels, depending on the skills, if I am listening, speaking, reading or writing.
So, the best way to show my level is taking a complete exam , because I have to do it without the book, the dictionary…