My English competence in 2009

As a conclusion of this portfolio, I will select the two documents that, in my opinion, show my level of English at the end of the second school year of Batxillerat:

- My best written evidence: London III

- My best oral evidence: 4th Oral presentation


I think this that my best written works can be found in my blog, where I have posted many writings about different topics and I have had more freedom about topics and structures. It is a hard job to find the best one, but I have chosen this post because I think it is where I have introduced more vocabulary and the length of the text has allowed me to use many linking words and connectors, avoiding repetitions as far as possible. I have also used other resorts like direct and indirect speech, modal verbs and different verb tenses.

I have chosen the fourth oral presentation as my best oral evidence because it is where my pronunciation and my body language are reflected, my use of non-spontaneous English in front of a group of people during a medium space of time. Even so, I think I could do it a bit better because this video was taken in the second term and I have been working three more months.

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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.

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Final evaluation of 1st Batxillerat

Well, I’ve finished my portfolio and I’ll say my opinion about it:

I think that I have improved my level of English since September 2007. In one side, for example, there is a difference between the first oral presentation and the last one. I feel more comfortable talking in English than at first. On the other side, I’ve learned how to make a formal letter or an opinion essay.
Maybe, the activity which best shows my level of English is the oral presentation.
I think that the most useful activities are the oral presentations and the books. I’ve learnt a lot reading the books.
One of the activities that I didn’t find useful is the writing of a formal letter. It’s useful but I think that it would be more useful to learn how to write a good e-mail because now we prefer to send an e-mail before doing a letter because it’s cheaper, faster and more flexible, but we tend to write like in a mobile phone.
Finally, I think that most of the activities we have done are good for next year.

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