WRITING:
Summaries
Summary writing was one of the hardest tasks for me. When you read the text and then try to analyze what should be written, what kind of information is important it is quite easy, but the hardest part is when you begin write and try not to copy sentences. For it was hard, because I hardly can found another words to explain meaning of that sentence. Another problem in my summaries was grammar and vocabulary mistakes. I think it is because I try to write without any dictionaries. Just do it in way like it would be on exam.
Good news is that I finally understood what kind of information is important, how to summarize 2 or more texts into one that was quite hard to do in the beginning.
SPEAKING:
Short talks
This task was quite easy. I enjoyed searching information while preparing for short talks because almost all information I found was useful and interesting. I learned some new things, facts and also could express myself and show my own point of view. I haven’t any fear to speak no matter if I have just some fact or plenty of information.
Impromptu
In my opinion it was easiest task ever. All that I needed is to think some seconds about given theme and say what I think, share my opinion. I enjoyed this task so much. But sometimes it was quite difficult to say something because I had no idea what to say what was not said by colleagues.
PPP
Task which takes a lot of time for preparation. This semester I performed much better here. One of the reasons was time; I had it enough to find required and interesting information, to do slides and to practice my speech before deadline. Also theme I had was interesting for me so I enjoyed making presentation.
I found one minus in this task – I was nervous all of the time while I was talking in front of others. It was not because I have fear of scene, but because thoughts haw to perform well, pronounce all words correct and try not to be boring.
LISTENING:
Online materials
Online materials were easier than listening to the cassettes. Despite fast talking it was easy to understand what people are talking about and fill in the gaps.
Cassettes
This kind of listening was harder because of two things. Firstly, speakers talk very fast, sometimes is quite hard to understand them. Secondary, there were noises in background of the recording. They made this listening task harder.
Filling the gaps here were funny – word which must be filled in were said very fast, sometimes unclear.
ESP VOCABULARY:
Formal tests in class
Stressful task especially when it was changed. No matter if I spend hours learning or not the results were the same. So I stopped preparing for the tests and spent just a little of time for them and my results were better than spending hours, reading all modules, making online tests. I think this test are not useful they just waste students time, make them feel stressed, and I can say from my own experience that only thing you do during the class, you think just about the test and all tasks you do in class stop being useful.
Class tests online
I really haven’t understood why we did them? Where is the point? Ok, maybe just to spend that 5 or 10 minutes of the class for nothing. They aren’t useful, they not make any sense for me, and I haven’t seen the difference between moodle tasks and this task.
Moodle tests
I think it is one of the methods to raise your mark. It is not very difficult when you do it with a course book. It requires just for more attention and reading. I’m a bit disappointed about filling in the gaps part. There are some words which are different and doesn’t mach with the book. But a good side of this task is to test own knowledge or just to practice to remember some things. Also this task is exciting when you do it the last day till the deadline.
