ENTRY 14: REFLECTION ON MY PORTFOLIO
My portfolio was a very important element that helped me a lot because I have learnt many things from it. One of the thing was to improve the management of technology: I have managed to create a blog, to upload videos, to embed files and documents, to link to different sites, and so on. I could also practise to use different computer programmes as Power Point, Word, etc., as well as the use of platforms like Slideshare, Issuu, or Google Drive. I have known and suscribed to some websites that will be useful for my students too. As regard to my learning process, this portfolio contributed to have a record of all the material I have read and studied, by writing summaries, doing analysis of texts, etc. All the entries were interesting but the most I liked were the videos because they have facilitated the comprehension of theory. Moreover, the portfolio will help to study for the final exam as I have at hand all the work made during this course. In conclusion, I may say that the portfolio is practical, useful and a good idea to implement in schools or to organize a course.
ENTRY 13: REFLECTION ON MY WRITING SKILL
Definitively, I can say that I have improved my writing skill. First of all, I did not know how to write an essay but this year I have learnt to, for example, how to develop paragraphs through analizing different examples of them with the theory, which was crucial to know the different kinds of paragraphs within an essay. In addition, the framework of the essay was another important thing I have learnt; for instance, how to state the thesis, introduce the topic and expose the arguments that support the ideas, or to conclude it. The material provided was important not only to do cohesive and coherent jobs but also to teach our students to write, regarding the approaches we have learnt. Although I am aware that I must continue studying language, I feel that it is another area which has been improved as well. Therefore, I am sure that, on balance, this year was good, my writing capacity has changed and my writing skill has been developed.
sábado, 4 de noviembre de 2017
jueves, 2 de noviembre de 2017
ENTRY 12: DIALECT AND ACCENT- Videos analysis
On the first video, "The Inspector", who is a character of "The Pink Panther", was going to the U.S.A to learn American English because he wanted to learn to pronounce English correctly so that he did not seem suspicious when he travels around the world. But he did not manage to pronounce even a single sentence like "I would like to buy a hamburger"; after repeating several times, the teacher corrected him without success. The problem here is that the inspector is a native French and he cannot avoid his strong and very recognizable French accent, though he can speak English. This is due to the difference between Latin languages and English language, in terms of word sounds. According to G. Yule the accent is influenced by the region or country we live in, and tells us where we come from.
On the second video we can observe a group of students sharing an English class at college. It is typical that students at college or universities come from different parts of the country: in this case, they were from different regions in The USA. They were talking about the problems they had in grammar, vocabulary, or to interpret metaphors. This is an issue related to dialect, which is a variaty of Standard English and presents not only differences on grammar or vocabulary but it can also differ in pronunciation., according to G. Yule every language-user speaks with an accent that identifies where an individual speaker is from, regionally or socially.
With respect to the third video, there is another example of accent in terms of how mispronunciation can be an obstacle for an individual who speaks a foreign language. Although the man claimed that he had studied English at an American university, he could not be understood by native English speakers. Therefore, the video had been subtitled during the interview to make it more comprehensible.The man who spoke with an arabic accent got offended and jeered at the journalist, saying he could not understand her English. "Speak English, please" he shouted.
SOURCES:
BOOK: Yule, G.(2006)The Study of Language. Chapters 18 & 19. U.K.:CUP.
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miércoles, 1 de noviembre de 2017
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