One year down, three more to go

The last week of this semester has finally arrived. I'm so nervous about the final tests and papers, but I hope everything is going to end just fine. I'm happy - because I'm sure I learned a lot this semester! It was a challenge - I learned difficult things, I volunteered as an English Teacher, I studied French... I know I did a good job, after all. It was worth it!

New challenges will certainly have to be faced next year - that's what the university experience is all about!

After thinking about my experience as an English student, I came to the conclusion that the school where I studied based its teaching method in the Communicative approach. Many friends of mine say they learned English with the Audio-Lingual Method, though.
Last week I had the opportunity to talk about this method – which I studied and researched about. The Audio-Lingual method is an oral-based approach that incorporated principles from behavioral psychology. It was believed that the best way to learn a second language was through conditioning – “helping learners to respond correctly to stimuli through shaping and reinforcement”. The teacher is allowed to use only the target language in the classroom (actions and pictures are also used to show meaning). He/she uses drills to help the students learn the language patterns. Students are expected to repeat sentences over and over – when they mispronounce something, the teacher is supposed to correct right away. If they pronounce the sentence correctly, the teacher says “very good” or “great” – by doing so correct habits can be developed. The sentences are not the same – difficulty increases during the class, since the teacher conducts transformation and question-and-answer drills. Vocabulary is limited – the most important function of this method is to provide the students with new linguistic patterns. It is believed that vocabulary can be learned afterwards. There are no grammar rules; “grammatical points are taught through examples and drills”. Written work is limited – speech is believed to be the most important skill in a language. Other skills are also taught, in an order that is like the one we usually learn a first language: listening, speaking, reading and writing. Culture is also taught through dialogs which describe daily activities, everyday behavior, etc.
It’s important to mention that there is no “best method or approach” for learning a second language. After all, we must take into consideration that individuals are very different and, as a consequence, methods will work differently with each person. Besides, most schools are usually a mix of different approaches: every method has interesting and useful ideas that can be used effectively.

Having learned about second language acquisition theories, now I can reflect about my experience of an ESL (English as a second language) student and teacher. The input, interaction and output theory, for example, made me think about the negotiation processes for acquiring meaning. I realized that, as a teacher, sometimes I don’t use these processes as much as I could – and if I did that, my students’ learning would probably improve. Last class, when we discussed about some hypothetical situations involving SLA, we agreed that input is extremely necessary – every single theory considers it an important part of acquisition. In this sense, I believe my experience as an English student was very positive: my teachers used to advise me to watch movies, listen to music and read books in English. I learned a lot from that – even more than what I learned in class, I dare to say. The Monitor Theory explained things I had always believed to be true – although I couldn’t explain why or how it happened. The Monitor hypothesis, which is a part of the Monitor Theory, says that second language speakers monitor their production all the time. I think it always happens to me: I’m always asking myself “are you sure this is correct?”, “what’s the best way to say that?”, etc. In conclusion, this module of Applied Linguistics was very important to me, since it gave me theoretical support for my practices as a teacher and also as a student. In addition to that, I was able to reflect about my actions and try to improve them.

I finally presented my paper on “Rimbaud” (a French poet) at my Poetry Class. I was feeling so nervous and so insecure, but I think I got pretty confident about myself during the explanation. It`s always like that: I’m too anxious, too worried… But there’s always a happy ending (fortunately!). I was talking to a friend and she told me I probably improved my speech because of my experience as a teacher. I agree: I still remember the first day of class. I was so scared with all those students! Now it feels like most of them are my friends.
This week I also spouted a poem written by “Mário Quintana”. It was very nice and I knew it entirely by heart. Here it goes:

Recordo ainda

Recordo ainda... e nada mais me importa...
Aqueles dias de uma luz tão mansa
Que me deixavam, sempre, de lembrança,
Algum brinquedo novo à minha porta...

Mas veio um vento de Desesperança
Soprando cinzas pela noite morta!
E eu pendurei na galharia torta
Todos os meus brinquedos de criança...

Estrada afora após segui... Mas, aí,
Embora idade e senso eu aparente
Não vos iludais o velho que aqui vai:

Eu quero os meus brinquedos novamente!
Sou um pobre menino... acreditai!...
Que envelheceu, um dia, de repente!...


Best,

Happy Halloween!

I can’t believe it’s already Halloween! It means the semester is about to be over – we have only about one month left. In fact, it makes me happy and sad at the same time. It’s great to rest, have the opportunity to travel and read things I’ve really wanted to (but never had enough time to). Although, I am sure I will miss all these papers I am supposed to write, these classes I am supposed to go to… After all, despite my “freaking out” moments, I love my life as a university student!
Last week was so busy: I had lots of readings to do and, consequently, time went by so quickly. On Thursday I went to a lecture on “An experience of translation”, with a man who had the opportunity to translate a book by “Borges”, a very famous and important writer. It was really interesting – since the audience had the opportunity to talk to him, asking questions, making comments, exchanging points of view, etc.
On Friday we discussed about the event we are organizing for the end of November. It’s going to be about “Literature and Childhood” – there will be three lecturers and we (“Children’s Literature students) will have to present our research papers. As I have already said, I am going to write about “A Series of Unfortunate Events”! I think it’s going to be really interesting! (At least I hope so!)
That’s all for now. I gotta go – my books are waiting. And since it’s a beautiful sunny day (which has been rare here in Florianópolis), I intend to go out today. After this busy week, I deserve it, don’t I?

After a very busy week, I am kind of tired. The 7th SEPEX (“Semana de Ensino, Pesquisa e Extensão”) started on Wednesday at UFSC, and I had a lot to do. I subscribed to two courses: “A linguagem nas histórias em quadrinhos: a nona arte” and “O lúdico como ferramenta nas aulas de Língua Estrangeira”. Each course took four hours, and I had the opportunity to learn very interesting things. As last semester I wrote a paper about Dom Quixote’s adaptations to comic books, I thought that taking a course about “HQs” would be a very nice idea. Also, I enjoyed the other course, since I will be able to use many of the ideas in my volunteer work as an English teacher. After all, I am very concerned about preparing fun and enthusiastic classes – I want my students to have the desire for learning!
This week I also had the opportunity to discuss my essay with Teacher Raquel. She gave me very nice tips and ideas so that I could improve my writing. I’m so happy about “constructing my paths towards academic sophistication”!

This week officially started only on Tuesday, so I had more time to rest and specially to write my essay about “Applied Linguistics throughout time”. I really hope it is good enough! So, my week at university started with some classes about Krashen’s Monitor theory (it’s a Second Language Acquisition – ESL – theory), and it was really interesting because we had the opportunity to exchange points of view and practice our English, specially in the class we had on Thursday. We continued studying Poetry and it is really nice! Now we can identify poetry syllables, which are different from the grammar ones.I also had a review in my French class, since we are going to have a test on Tuesday! I’ll have to spend my weekend studying…
I’m so excited about the coming days – I’m going to take some very interesting courses at SEPEX. But I’ll talk about them next week…
XOXO

Poetry is in the air...

We have just had our first poetry classes. Surprisingly, I’ve been enjoying them a lot. I usually don’t like poems: I think they are confusing, unclear and not straight-to-the-point. But in just one week I’ve started to see poetry from a different point of view. Considering that we are going to have more two months to study poems, I believe my interest on them will increase.
Unfortunately, nothing is perfect. While I got very enthusiastic about my Literature Classes, I was kind of disappointed with my volunteer work as an English Teacher. This is because some students haven’t showed up in the last few weeks, and I can’t help to think that there is something wrong about me/my classes. So, I decided to talk to my students about the classes. I found out that they think my classes are nice; they just don’t have enough time to study… It’s a pity, but I totally understand. I think that I am too insecure. As I’m a perfectionist, I’m too hard on myself… But I’ve been trying to change!
This time I’ll end up with a poem I like by Lewis Carroll (the author of “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”, which is the book I am reading for my Literature classes):

Beautiful Soup

BEAUTIFUL Soup, so rich and green,
Waiting in a hot tureen!
Who for such dainties would not stoop?
Soup of the evening, beautiful Soup!
Soup of the evening, beautiful Soup!

Beau--ootiful Soo-oop!
Beau--ootiful Soo-oop!
Soo--oop of the e--e--evening,
Beautiful, beautiful Soup!

Beautiful Soup! Who cares for fish,
Game, or any other dish?
Who would not give all else for two
Pennyworth only of Beautiful Soup?
Pennyworth only of beautiful Soup?

Beau--ootiful Soo-oop!
Beau--ootiful Soo-oop!
Soo--oop of the e--e--evening,
Beautiful, beauti--FUL SOUP!

(Source: http://www.poetry-online.org/carroll_beautiful_soup.htm)

"Don't worry, be happy!"

This week was very different, but in a very good way. As we didn't have some classes, I had more time to write my Literature essays (the deadline was postponed for next week) and my week was 'over' on Thursday evening. These calm days really helped me to relax and organize everything in order to start all over. In Linguistic we continued studying Phonetics. It keeps getting more and more interesting! We learned the phonetic alphabet and we had a lot fun while practing it. In Applied Linguistics we watched a video about the Human Language. It was very interesting, since it made me think about the language from very different points of view. We discussed the video in class and also listened to a very happy song performed by Marti'nália, a Brazilian singer. I specially liked the music because it was very relaxing. It was a very good way to finish my week!

This is the song's video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QV27stMslmw

It's already the middle of the semester - there are only two months left! I can hardly believe it!
=]

"Estresse faz adoecer

Amor rejuvenescer...

(...)
Don't worry, be happy!"

Last week started with a Morphology Test. It wasn’t difficult, but I’m insecure and I hope the teacher corrects it soon. By the way, I wish I weren’t so insecure. I always feel that I need someone else’s opinion or that what I do is not good enough. But I’ve been learning how to deal with this characteristic I have.

We have reached the second module in the Applied Linguistics classes: we learned some very important definitions, such as theory, hypothesis and constructs. I believe these definitions will be very useful throughout our academic life.

On Wednesday we had our first Phonetics class. I was kind of scared - all those names and types of sound made me get very confused. But I think it’s really interesting – and important as well!

We had another test scheduled for Friday, so this week was all about studying until late at night! But when we arrived in class, we had a surprise: instead of a test, the teacher asked us to write two essays for Monday! As I’m very worried – I keep thinking about the things I’m supposed to do -, I arrived home and started writing. The first drafts of the two essays are already ready!

I started reading “Infância”, a Gracilianos Ramos’ romance, for my Literature for Young People class. It’s very nice, but I must finish it soon, since I have many other things to read for next week.

That’s the life of a language student: studying, studying and studying… The funny thing is that I love it! =]

This week's quote: “The difference between school and life? In school, you're taught a lesson and then given a test. In life, you're given a test that teaches you a lesson.”

“To accomplish great things, we must dream as well as act.” Anatole France (1844 - 1924)

Dreaming and thinking about the future is very pleasant and healthy. But that’s not enough. We have to act! That’s what I have had in mind: I try to do my best in order to achieve my goals.
Last week was full of activities: although I had no time to relax or hang out with my friends, it was worth it. I learned a lot! It was the “Journalism Course Week” at UFSC, and I subscribed to a course of “Cultural Critic” that took four days (from Monday to Thursday). I have always been very interested in the communication area (after all, I study language!), and Journalism has attracted my attention. Each day we had a different professor, and they talked about critics in literature, movies, music and theater. It was quite interesting! I specially liked the day we learned about theater critic, because it helped me a lot to think about the essay I’m supposed to write for the Drama class: a kind of a critic about the play we watched (As Troianas).
We had a review in the Linguistic Studies class, since our first test (about Morphology) is going to happen next week, on Monday. It will be my first test this semester, and I hope everything goes right!
The Applied Linguistics classes were very nice: we always learn a lot. People usually give their opinions and very interesting discussions always come up. I have learned a lot, not only from my professor, but also from my colleagues. I feel I am part of a very nice class which is full of students willing to learn!
On Wednesday we went to an open seminar conducted by Anna Camati (a post-doctorate student) about Shakespeare’s play “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”. Anna talked about the plays’ adaptations, and made me think about things I had never thought of while I read the play. On Friday we had a close reading class of the play, and it was funny. I was Demetrius, the one who loves Hermia (and then falls in love with Helena).
I only regret not having had enough time to study French. But my friend gave me a very nice idea: there’s a group of students that gets together every day of the week (except Tuesday) at half past midday to talk to each other in French, discuss grammar topics, watch French movies, etc. It’s for free and I think I would learn a lot from this! Next week I won’t have time (I have two tests to study for!), but the week after next week I will certainly join this French group!
I’ve written too much again! See ya!

New Challenges

If I had to define this second semester with one word, I would say “challenge”. After half a year at university, I’ve found out that there are many opportunities for those who are dedicated and really want a career in this area (the languages area, I mean). Now I’m sure that I am in the right place! In the first semester, I was introduced to the main subareas of the language area: Literature, Translation, Linguistics and Applied Linguistics. I liked everything – and I still don’t know what I like best. But I’ll have time to figure it out.
Time goes by so quickly, and “all of a sudden” I was already on vacation, excited to start a new semester. I think this semester has been particularly different. Besides those subjects we’re supposed to take (Applied Linguistics, Linguistic Studies and Introduction to Drama and Poem), I decided to study something just for the fun of it – Literature for Young People (“Literatura Infanto-Juvenil”), and I’ve been loving it. I’ve learned several things so far. I was surprised to discover that Applied Linguistics is a diversified area and I’ve been enchanted by it. On the other hand, I’ve been kind of disappointed with Linguistics – these classes remind me of the ones most people take before the university entrance exam. But I understand the importance of studying things like Morphology and Syntax, and I’m sure I am going to like it better pretty soon. Studying Literature is always nice – we have read some plays (now I’m reading Shakespeare!) and we have close reading classes, which are very interesting. We even went to the theater to watch “As Troianas”, a Greek play written by Eurípedes and performed by a theater group from Florianópolis. It was a very different experience, and I liked it a lot! I’ve also been very interested in my other Literature subject (Literature for Young People): now I know that there shouldn’t be such things as “Literature for young people” and “Literature for adults”. This is because children can read Jane Austen novels (even if they don’t understand it), just like adults can read “Harry Potter” (and they don’t need to be ashamed of it). We usually try to protect our children too much from this crazy world – we want them to read only those stories with happy endings and morals. And sometimes we forget that they also like to read scary stories (why not Edgar Allan Poe?), and they need to be exposed to a little bit of reality (at least). In this subject, we’re supposed to write a final paper, and I’ve been thinking about analyzing the books “A Series of Unfortunate Events”. I even dreamed about it!
This year I decided that I would study another language besides English. So I started a French course at UFSC. I’m in the second level, and I’ve been enchanted by this “fancy” language. We recently went to CIC (Center of Culture) and we watched “La Faute à Fidel” (A culpa é do Fidel), a very nice French movie. I’ve also listened to songs in French, and it seems like I’ve been discovering a new world.
On vacation I decided to apply to a program of teaching English as a volunteer (PET), and I was selected. It has been a huge challenge, but I’ve been enjoying it. This course is for university students and the community in general, and they don’t need to pay anything for it. It’s also an opportunity for undergraduate students to learn about teaching by practicing it. I’ve been a volunteer in my city (Rio Fortuna) for five years, and I decided it would a good opportunity to continue working in benefit of my community. With this program, I can acquire experience in teaching as well, which is really important nowadays.
My university experience has been exciting, hasn’t it?That’s all for now. I have lots of readings to do, so I’d better go!

About the writer

My name is Leonardo and I am currently in my first year of university. I study English language and literatures at UFSC [“Federal University of Santa Catarina”]. I have moved some miles away from home and I’m living in Florianópolis.

In fact, I’m already halfway through my first year! This blog is all about my experiences of starting university and how I am settling in – it's a space of reflection about myself and my learning process. Here I’ll share my feelings, fears, ideas and impressions.