Nome: Geraldo Fernandes de Oliveira Filho
Idade: não informado
Escolaridade: não informado
Tempo de aprendizagem: não informado
My first contact with English language was at High School when I was around 16 years old. I really was very fond of English language but did not have any opportunity to study so far. I can clearly remember my first English class, when learnt how to ask the other’s names and how to answer when my name was asked, I really got fascinated with that and, someone who I can not remember, gave me an English dictionary (which I still have!), from that time on I was always trying to understand some lyrics and some texts written in English language – but everything was too difficult for me.
So, I was given a chance to take an English Course at ETIMG, where I studied the levels Junior, Young, Senior, Standard and Scholastic. When I was taking the Scholastic level I was approved at the ‘Vestibular’ for UFMG, and then I continued studying at CENEX till the level Intermediate IV.
When I was studying at ETIMG, the approach was not Communicative. The only activities we had were reading the dialogues on the book and answering some questions which were asked. We also had to study some Grammar Topics and solve exercises on the book. We never had the opportunity of really use the English language in order to communicate our own ideas because the only activities we had were the ones on the book.
When I changed to CENEX I started really talking in English because the teachers were all the time asking me questions about my daily routine and what I had done during the last weekend and things like that. This was my first opportunity to really communicate myself in English language.
In order to conclude, I would say that that period I spend at ETIMIG – in which I did not have the opportunity of communicate in English was not totally useless because it gave me a base to comprehend the approach I was studying with in CENEX. It is because of this that I am used to say that the Communicative Approach is an excellent one and it really works but the structural approach also has it
value.