A diary for the CELE students of group 613 to write and enjoy.
Comments on each lesson are most welcome! (Please read the first post from February for more information)
Hi everyone! Wow, so many entries on one day! Thanks to all who are writing. It's great to read your posts for a number of reasons:
It helps me know what activities helped you throughout the semester
It helps me know where you feel you are at after one semester of level 6 (especially those who haven't studied English for a long time)
It helps YOU to reflect on your own learning
It helps others think about what they learned as compared to others in the group.
Having watched that funny clone video three times tonight I thought I'd put in a post with the trailer to The Boys From Brazil, which is a 1978 movie based on the book that Roberto read and reviewed (we saw a part of it tonight on the video, talking about Hitler). It was such an interesting review of the book that I decided I'd rent the movie and watch it, which I did a few weeks ago. I highly recommend it! Especially if you like creepy and eccentric characters.
Below is a link to the original trailer from the movie so that you can get more of a taste for it. It might be interesting watching after having talked a lot about clones in class!
Hi, Shelley. Well, I think I've learned many things such as the pronunciation of some words and certain grammar rules (I hope not to forget them...), moreover we have discovered some aspects of Australia that otherwise it would have been difficult to find out such as the existence of vegemite! I did like the movies we've watched (especially Blade Runner) and I think it's been a good way of improving our listening ability. Thanks to all these activities I've acquired more acquaintance with English even if I haven't been able of putting all the necessary effort (maybe because of the hour or the pressure of other subjects). I imagine my performance has been reasonably appropriate but I would like to have worked better. I think I'll keep working on all the aspects of English, especially on listening and speaking because I have still to improve a lot my ability of interacting with other people in "real time". This course has been pretty funny and useful and I would like to have another one just like this.
Well, this English course was really helpful for me. To be honest, before entering the course I thought I almost knew how to speak English; but through the semester I noticed there were lots of aspects about the idiom I had to improve on.
I think I learned many things in the course. First, lots of words I didn’t know that helped me to get more vocabulary. I improved my listening with the records and the movies, but most of all with the classes because I hadn’t had a class in English ever =S , and having a native teacher that speaks very well the idiom is good to improve the listening I think. My grammar improved too: there are expressions I hadn’t even thought about what was the correct way to say those expressions; for example the correct use of hypothetical situations. I liked the journal writing; as I don’t usually write in English, the journal made me think about the correct spelling of some words and about the correct order of the sentences. Because of the readings in the book and some activities in classes, I got a better reading level as well. It has been the only English course where I have had to participate actively, and because of my mistakes and my companions mistakes, I learned the correct pronunciation of many words and that was useful to get a better speaking.
About the effort I put in the course, I think it was the necessary to learn well, but not the enough effort I had to put in. I should had studied for my own and do some extra classes activities to get a better learning I think. In the next course I’ll try to put more from me.
I learned lots of things in the course but, obviously, I must keep working on many other things. I have to work on the four aspects: reading, listening, speaking and writing. I think that I should try to practice more the idiom, by reading books, articles, etc. watching movies, listening songs, and trying to talk with people who speaks the idiom. I must keep working on grammar aspects and practice the writing with notes for myself for example.
Finally, I’d like to congratulate and thank you Shelley. You’re a very good teacher, I really like your method (I love watching movies, listening songs, and doing funny activities ^^), it made the class funny. And I like your way of being, always smiling, I think you’re a sweet person. If I’m able to, I’ll absolutely take another course with you =)
P.D. Sorry because I didn’t write on the blog in the semester, it’s just that I don’t usually write on facebooks, hi5, or things like those where you interact with other persons =$ but I think this is a nice way to communicate.
Hi shelley First of all I want to apologise my timing on the evaluation. Well to be really honest I think I've improved a lot since the first class, that is because I had not take clases of english since i finished high school, and this semester was really helpful to remaind me things like reported speach, articles, how to expres possibilities, and specially the spelling thing that is really a big problem to me..... as you could have seen, my spelling is terrible, but I think that is something I've got to work out, I don't know, maybe reading and writting more, even do short stories.... I think the most helpful thing to correct my spelling problem was the Journal writting, I think it's a great idea, and I've never seen that a teacher did this, so thank you for that. On the subject of my performance on troughout the semester I can say that was good, I try to do the homeworks and pay attencion in the class so in general I think i did well. XOXO Elvis
Hi Shelly, I want to apologize for write my self-evaluation until now, but this weekend was a little estrange, so I didn´t had enough time.
Well, to be honest I have to say that I didn’t do my best throughout the semester, first because I was working all day in a project for my work, nevertheless when I quit my job I think I was more focused on the English classes and other stuff that I had forgotten.
In other hand, I have learned a lot of grammar stuff, and also a lot of phrases that I can use in specific situations; those are very useful because you can use them to express yourself better. Also I think that I improved on my vocabulary, I really learned a lot of new one.
I believe that English, well in fact every language is a matter of time, patient, and practice, so I have to keep working in every part of English, because I really want to speak it the best is possible for me.
Finally, I want to thank you for everything, you are really a very good teacher and a wonderful person, thank you very much…
Well, I want to express that I really enjoyed, loved and apprecciated the way that the class was managed.
I saw that Shelley ever was thoughtful on the blog I want to say thank you because ever I wrote a suggestion ever Shelley took my suggestions in count and gave us material to watch, to read or to listen.
I think, I have improved my english skills perhaps not as wide or deeper as I wish but I tried to do my best effort.
One think that I have really improved is that before this class I have never tried to watch a movie without subtitles and now I do it.
Regarding my development in this course I don´t want to say anything until my final grade will be ready but I know it could be better; the same as most of our peers thought, if the only work that we have, were just learn English language...
I want to give Shelley final comments this are: You have sometimes gave us the use of language through some sheets but other times we use the grammar section of the book, that is someting that I don't like; I got really boring just reading that section and most of the times I think the book is confusing or perhaps could be that mos of the times we were very tired that we can't be awake for reading the little words written on the book. Another suggestion coud be, If you can make some quizes through a blog or web site, just for checking our advance in grammar.
Finally I just say: Thank you Shelley for everything I know you are one of my best English's teacher.
Hi shelley!! first of all i want to apologize for never have writen on the blog untill now, and i want to thank YOU for all your wonderfull classes, the semester was so enjoyable!!! and the must important thing is that i have learned lots of new things, i think the principal improvement i had is in my hearing ability and what i really need to improve is in my writting and grammar, i have to admit not doing my best effort, i didn´t study enough and must of my mistakes in grammar are because of that, that´s why i have to memorize many grammar rules that i always forget to use with terribles consequences when i write, that´s the part what i will keep working on, in the other hand i have learned the correct use of the different tenses and you have helped me to be more selfconfident when i speak, thanks a lot shelley!! and see you today in class!
Even though my English is not so great I consider that as a result of the course I have improved my English because I learned new vocabulary and have a better handle of the grammar in both reading and writing.
I think the movies we saw during the course were helpful or at least for me they helped me in the listening part, now it is less difficult to understand a movie without reading the subtitles but still….. There is much for me to do in this issue. Reading a book was nice and helpful too and of course I admit that I should have written on the blog during the semester.
What I have to keep on improving is my speaking I would like it to be faster and with fewer errors.
Finally there were times when it was a little difficult for me to be on time or go to class because my job is located far from CU and sometimes the traffic can be really stressful so I think this was the most difficult part for me.
Here you have my self-evaluation: I know that in most of the classes I didn´t arrive on time, that was because I had a class from 5:30 to 7:00 pm in which the teacher used to let us go out after the hour, also sometimes I missed some classes, because my career is very demanding (I am studying engineering in telecommunications); regularly I don´t sleep more than 3 or 4 hours per day during the semester and sometimes I had to do exams on Saturdays. Despite that, I´ve learned many things which have been helpful for me, for example when I hear music or when I see documentaries, movies or news in English (your ponunciacion helped me a lot).
Always when I have a chance, I see movies without subtitles to improve my pronunciation, my listening and my vocabulary. I think I have to keep working on the topic of Reported speech because sometimes it confuses me. After all, I feel I've been doing a considerable effort to learn English, and I will continue doing it.
Shelly, I think that the classes that you gave us were one of the best that I ever had, always you tried to make the class very enjoyable and fun.
Well, first of all I would like to say that I always wanted to have a foreing teacher because I wanted to know if I was good at listening and I must say that I paid a lot of atention when Shelley was speaking during the class that's why I think I have improved a lot my listenig.
In the other hand I think I need to keep practising my writing and my grammar because I have noticed that sometimes I don't know how to write my ideas properly.
Talking about my performance I think it was good but it could be a little bit better and I know that, is just that in some occations my career is so demanding and I have to spend a lot of time studying my subjects.
A good thing is that I think that I have a good knowledge about the topics that we studied during the course.
Finally I think I did a good effort and I liked to learn some things about the australian culture.
