Nome: Andréa Maria da Silva
Idade: 40 anos
Escolaridade: Bacharelado em Ciência da Computação
Tempo de aprendizagem: 10 anos


I started to study English some 30 years ago. At that time, audio-lingual was the “fashion” method, so that was how I was taught. The interesting thing about may first class is that I still remember most of my first lesson. It was about the Brown Family. I also had English on high school. Although it was more focused on grammar it also had a lot of Audio-lingual method. Both were teacher centered courses, the material some times dealt with real life, especially when dealing with language function. As the courses got more advanced, the material also got more “real” because we started to use a lot of newspaper, music, magazines, films, etc. There was also the question of using the L1. And that is another thing I remember from my first class. The teacher introduced herself in English. Then she said, in Portuguese, the only time she ever used Portuguese in the classroom that everything in the classroom would be explained and said in English, she would mime, draw, do whatever was necessary to explain a point but she would nor use any other language. If on one hand it was instrumental in teaching me how to think in English, on the other hand it was a little bit scaring. I believe the communicative approach to L1 is better because it acknowledge that sometimes it is necessary or at least more effective to use the L1. The one thing that helped me through my learning experience and later on to improve my English were the books. The time I was learning there was no cable TV and no SAP on TV. So reading books and magazine in English were what kept me connected to the language outside the classroom.