LANGUAGE BIOGRAPHY
MY LANGUAGE LEARNING AIMS
Bearing
in mind that I want to be an English teacher, I believe that my language
learning aims are quite clear. In my opinion, it is essential to be proficient
in any language if you are willing to teach it and that is my main aim when it
comes to English.
I
have to admit that when I started the degree on English Studies my main objective
was only being able to communicate effectively in this language but, as time
went by, I ended up deciding that I wanted to teach and thus, my language
learning aims became broader.
MY LANGUAGE LEARNING HISTORY
I
started learning English when I was 4 more or less. My first contact with it in
academic terms was at school. I remember staying there some afternoons because
there were extracurricular English lessons held.
When
I was in Primary, apart from being in contact with English at school, my
parents decided to took me to extracurricular English lessons because they
thought it would report me many benefits in the long run. I combined the
English lessons in school and high school with extracurricular English lessons.
In this respect, I had various extracurricular teachers who were native English
speakers until I started attending the “Escuela Oficial de Idiomas” (EOI) in Gandia
at the age of 16-17. I quit EOI and the extracurricular English lessons when I
started my degree in English Studies. However, I continued preparing for the
certificate exams and during those four years I got my B2 and C1 levels in
English in the “Escuela Oficial de Idiomas”.
Although
English has always been my main linguistic target, I have studied other
languages. I am a native Valencian speaker and this language has been present
during all my years of schooling. Moreover, I have recently got my C2
certificate by the “Junta Qualificadora de Coneixements de Valencià” and the
“Capacitació en valencià”.
When
I was in high school, I studied French for two years (3rd and 4th
of ESO) and I did on year of Germany at university.
MY MOST SIGNIFICANT LINGUISTIC AND INTERCULTURAL EXPERIENCES
I
must admit that intercultural experiences are the ones that have had the
greatest impact on my linguistic interests. Actually, my first contact with
English was through the music of groups such as The Beatles which I listened to thanks to my father, who used to
play their songs for me.
As
I have said, I had the opportunity to attend extracurricular English lessons
with English native speakers and thanks to that, I got to spend 3 weeks in
Belfast in the summer of 2011. I stayed in a school where I had the opportunity
to make friends with people from other countries, attend English lessons every
day and use my English on a regular basis, something that helped me improve it
considerably.
After
this experience, I decided that every summer I would enrol in programmes
similar to this one in order to improve my command of the language. Therefore, I
have been twice to an intensive one-week English course called “Pueblo Inglés”.
These courses are held in summer in Spain and they consist on spending a week
with native English speakers from different parts of the world in order to
carry out English lessons and different activities with the purpose of
improving mainly oral skills in English. I have also been to other summer
intensive English courses. Concretely, last summer I went to one offered by the
Universidad Internacional Menéndez Pelayo (UIMP) where I spend one week
attending English lessons carried out by native speakers which were mainly
focused on improving oral skills.
Apart
from these type of courses, I have had the opportunity to be in contact with
the language in a less formal context. Actually, I have a friend from the
United States to whom I speak regularly. I have visited her in her hometown
(Media, Philadelphia) and she has been twice in Spain, spending some days in my
house during summer. This friendship has given me the opportunity not only to
improve my English but also to be in contact with another culture and to learn
from it.
However,
if there is an intercultural experience which has contributed to the improvement
of my English that is my Erasmus, which I spent in Cardiff in the year
2015-2016. I had the chance to be in contact with the language in a real
context during nine months which were really useful to improve my English
considerably. Also, I could learn not only about the Welsh and English culture
but also about others such as the French one since I shared flat with French
and English people.
MY CURRENT LANGUAGE LEARNING PRIORITIES
In
general terms, I consider that I have a good command of the language when it
comes to writing skills. Thus, my priorities are mainly focused on English at an
oral level. My main aim is to manage with everyday English in the most natural
way possible and that implies being able to use colloquial language and
expressions without any difficulty or effort. Also, I would like to broaden my
vocabulary and apply it not only to the oral skills but also to the written
ones.
DOSSIER
In this section, you would find all the certificates that prove a certain level in the different languages I have mentioned.
LANGUAGE PASSPORT
