I think I’ve improved my level of English because I see an important difference between my first compositions and my last ones.
For example, if I read my first composition, which is About studies, what I first see is that is very squat and made by short sentences without connectors between them. Then, I also see that the vocabulary is not as well as in my last compositions, where I use new vocabulary learnt in class, like in Recording "Patorets" writing. This composition shows my level of English; it is too much longer than my first one and is also better structured: with a little introduction on the top, using new connectors like in order to, and ending with a good conclusion.
I believe that the reason of my improvement on my English level is this way of writing eight compositions per term compulsory in a personal blog. It is very useful because we have the opportunity of practice our writing expression of English and improve it little by little in every composition that we make. We improve looking up new vocabulary on the dictionary or reading our last writings which always have some mistakes that we can correct. We can read them easily because they are already posted in our blog. So, another advantage of this system of having a blog is that we can see our level progress, correct the mistakes if there is any, and what’s the most important, we can write them whenever we want during three month before the deadline.
A part from the blog, there are more activities which I find very useful to learn English, like doing oral presentations or recording podcasts, which makes you improve your pronunciation a lot. But, the thing that I don’t find useful is watching films in Idiom’s class because we don’t have enough time to see them completely and I also think it’s difficult to concentrate you reading the subtitles and listening the film at the same time that people are speaking around you.
Anyway, I enjoyed doing the rest of activities that we did and the one I’d like to repeat again next year is the phrasal verbs play because I think it is a good way to learn and memorize phrasal verbs playing and laughing.
‘We have almost learnt to respect our world. Do you agree?’
I disagree with the idea that we are responsible or that we respect our planet. In my opinion, we do not take care of our world because we are very used to doing what we want without thinking about the consequences.
It’s true that we have cars, we like travelling and we like buying things. But, we don’t think how it affects the planet. We are cutting down lots of trees in poor countries, and we are polluting with our industries or with our cars, which we do not want to change for bicycles or public transport. Anyway, we are starting to use alternative energies in order to use less petrol which pollutes a lot. I think that it is not enough to respect the planet.
I also believe that we all know the way to respect our planet, but not everybody wants to do it. However, we are in the consumer society, which means that we need to consume to be something in this world. If we consume more, we use more energy and, as a result, we injure the planet.
In addition I think that, in the school, the children learn to respect the planet, but if the parents do not respect it, their children won’t either.
To sum up, I would say that we can do lots more to respect the planet and we can do it in different ways. We have the power to change, to do not injure our little world not only for our lives, also for our children. If we respect nature more, we will not have an injured world.
I used a visual power point, which helped the audience to comprehend easily, and I didn’t use any notes, so that was a good point for me. I talked a little more than five minutes, which was great.
Body language and eye contact
I was looking at the audience most of the time and I didn’t read any notes. I know I should do more gestures to hold the attention of the audience.
Structure
It was very well structured, but apart from then,later or to conclude I should use more connectors.
Content
I think I introduced some interesting ideas like how much petrol a plane consumes, and I also did some examples like how there were some airports problems caused by a volcano explosion. I looked some information up on the internet, but it was original, I think.
Language
I made some grammar mistakes like putting the article THE before pollution (fight to pollution instead of fight pollution), but in general, the grammar was correct. I think it lacked more phrasal verbs, but the vocabulary was great. I know that I should use more sentence linkers and more pause fillers.
Pronunciation & intonation I have to say that I checked the pronunciation of all the words that I didn’t know how to pronounce on the internet. So, what I have to improve is with my tone because I have a monotone which bores the audience if I speak a long time. However I spoke fluidly.
Self-evaluation
Here you have a literal transcription of my oral presentation. I think I deserve a good mark.
TRANSCRIPTION
Good morning! I’m Gisela, as all of you know, and I’m going to start my 3rd oral presentation which is about a social problem.
The title that I have chosen is... What about pollution?
Erm.. I think that all of you know that pollution is always a negative alt... alteration to the environment, and there are a lot of types of pollution, water pollution, acoustic pollution, atmosphere pollution... and more else.
Erm... First, we are going to see who causes pollution. Now, the majority part of pollution is caused by humans, but it can also be caused by natural effects like volcanoes explosions. Do you remember that few weeks ago there was a volcano explosion in Iceland? Which caused some problems in flights, European flights? So, that was, that caused, pollution in the atmosphere. Here you have some, the most important things that cause pollution. And the first place there are erm.. factories and cars and planes. Did you know that a plane, in every flight, consumes, more or less, the same petrol that one person consumes all his life with his car? It’s a lot! So you must think more, a little more, before you buy a plane ticket. And here is light pollution and acoustic pollution that we are very used to.
Well, and then, how does pollution effect? It affects to the environment, the natural ecosystem, altering it.
For example, if there’s atmosphere pollution, the atmosphere changes, the composition of the atmosphere changes, which means that the climate change and the temperature of the planet gets higher, which means the poles melts and which means some species can become extinct, like the bear, the polar bear.
And, what can we do to reduce pollution? We can do some basical things like recycle, whenever we can, or turn off the light when there’s enough natural light, or instead of using particular transport, use public transport or bicycles. And... all of these are topics, and I think all of you already know them. And what’s new, is this other way to reduce pollution. Like take part of an organization, ecological organisation, or erm... work as a volunteer in some ecological problems or... go to manifestations, ecological manifestations.
So, we can fight to pollution by our own, but, do you think that if we take care of our acts, the pollution will ends? I don’t think so, I think that we need the collaboration of politicians, the owners of big industries and multinationals because, at the end, they are who have the power to cause pollution or not in our planet.
So, what are the politicians doing to fight to pollution? Well the politicians now are changing, are starting to use new energies which aren’t aggressive to the nature and they are using this energies instead of petrol. And there’s an organisation erm.. the U.N.O. (united National Organization) which is fighting to make an accord, and agreement, so join all the countries to fight to the climate change which at the end is caused by pollution. Erm... and the last protocol that U.N.O. did was the Kyoto Protocol, which, as all of you know, neither U.S.A. or China didn’t wanted ai! Didn’t want to take part. And they are who need more than other countries to fight to pollution.
And, to conclude is pollution as important as it looks? I think yes, I think it s. And we have to join us to fight to it.
And to co.. to finish my presentation I leave you this comic vignette and this sentence which is our book in page 73, I think.
Thanks for your letter. I’m happy to hear from you. You were asking me if I knew the best places to visit in ‘Costa Brava’ in summer. Well, this year we aren’t going abroad so, when you’ll come, we’ll be able to do something together. My brother says that Cadaqués is a pretty place to spend the time; it’s near the coast, in Alt Empordà. Ah! And it’s where Salvador Dalí had his sea house.
I can definitely recommend Cadaqués. I like it because it’s a calm village which has all you need. It’s a nice place with a good atmosphere. You can meet people from here or from other countries, too.
Alt Empordà is a great area if you like walking on the mountain and sunbathing on the beach because you can do both things. The beaches and mountains are beautiful and there are normally impressive views to take with your camera. You can try adventurous activities too, like kite surfing in Sant Pere, trekking in Alberes or sailing in Llançà. If you prefer sightseeing you must go to Figueres to visit Dalí’s museum or you could drive to Girona city which is 42 Km away.
One more thing - if you come here, you’ll need elegant clothes because there are lots of parties and live concerts to go to. Remember the weather is hot! Anyway, tell me when are you going to come.
See you soon.
Gisela X X O
P.S. Here are a few photos from Cadaqués and a list of some concerts you can go this summer.
