Nome: Juliana Coelho
Idade: não informado
Escolaridade: não informado
Tempo de aprendizagem: não informado
I started studying English when I was 7 years old. I had traveled to Disney World and when I came back, I told my mother I wanted to learn English. I’ve always studied at the same English school, Cultura Inglesa. I study there until today, but now I’m taking a course for teachers.
I don’t remember very clearly my entire learning process, sometimes I just remember some points, but I now I’ve learned and I enjoyed learning.
When I was a child, I remember the teacher used many songs and fun things to help us learn and memorize.
I also remember drills, gap-filling exercises, and I usually liked when the teacher explained me the rules, the grammar - I liked this in Portuguese too, so I know that’s one of the ways I learn.
I also remember pair and group work as a way of interaction. I read many books (even some “classics” authors such as Oscar Wilde), too. One thing I consider important is that I was curious about the culture of England, especially. In addition, I never lost interest for the language. The one time I remember getting less motivated was because I was a young teenager, the only girl in the classroom, and all the boys were teenagers, older than I was. I remember getting really upset and shy during the class. However, that was the only “bad” time I can recall.
Outside the classroom, I was always listening to music and watching movies. I’m sure that contributed a lot with the development of my English skills.
I never liked dubbed movies, and every time I watched a movie, I tried to relate the subtitles to what I could understand the characters where speaking and that was fun because sometimes I could even learn new things from that (I do this until today). Music was also a great way of learning for me. I would try to listen to the music and write down the lyrics (as a listening exercise) and I would translate the songs from which I already had the lyrics.
Definitely, the functional part was important. One example was how I wanted to understand the movies and the songs I liked. I can see the sociolinguistic part when I can “guess” the kind of language people are going to use for example, if I’m watching a movie, I can guess if the characters are going to talk using slangs, formal language, etc. Of course, the most important thing is to know what kind of language I’m going to use. The interactional part is a part I like very much. How you can use other things - not verbal language - to communicate. I like to interact with people, that’s one of the reasons I like this interactional part. Cultural competence is actually one of my aims when learning a language. I mentioned how I like to know about the other cultures. I try to interact with natives, read about the country, etc.