My English 2007-2009

With this portfolio I can see how my level of English has changed during two years, from the first post to the last one. There are different kinds of activities and it is difficult to compare the first post (an e-mail) with the last activity (a summary of a piece of news), but we can observe them separately:

For example, the first mail (link) and the second one (link): I have improved the structure of the text because, in the first one, paragraphs are very short and simple (I + verb + complement) and the second text is longer, with fewer and longer paragraphs, and I have also used resources like conditionals (If I get the degree...), reported speech (...things which I like most...) and new linking words (despite).

From the first piece of news (link) to the last one (link) I have corrected some mistakes (a piece of news, not a new) and, maybe the most visible fact is that I have learned a lot of new vocabulary, with about five new words each time (it depends on the source of news, sometimes you learn more from a newspaper like Catalonia Today than with news from BBC)

In this portfolio there are also many examples of different structures that I have been practising these school years (descriptions, opinion essays, letters, etc.) and now I have used them for Selectivitat writings.

About the oral presentations, I think that the last one is not a good example to make a comparison, because it is very different than the others. Then, I’m going to analyse the first oral presentation (link) and the fourth one (link).

The fluency of my speech has clearly improved, in the first presentation I stop many times to think and I am very nervous while in the second one stops are shorter and I’m less static, maintaining eye contact with the audience. I think that both topics were interesting, but the content of the second one was richer, with new vocabulary and unusual structures, introducing new information to the audience. Maybe it doesn’t fit here, but I’ve learned that there are big differences between British English and American English. About the pronunciation, I have tried to make it as correct as possible and, with practise, it has improved, but I think there’s still a long way to go.