PERSONAL EXPERIENCE OF LEARNING ENGLISH AND FRENCH
УДК 81-13:[811.111+81.113.1]
ALMETOVA A.
University of Toronto, Canada
When I was a 17 year-old girl, I went to the UK to study the International Baccalaureate program. Prior to that, I had been learning English and French off and on for a few years. In the UK I studied 6 subjects for the two years and obtained my IB diploma in order to enter a university. The course was extremely tough, I had many difficulties with all of my subjects, but it was possible for me to overcome the difficulties.
From the very beginning of the course I realized that the first problems came to me due to the lack of terminology I knew for the subjects. I had to catch up a lot in my biology, economics and even math courses. I worked really hard, asked as many questions as I could, I was learning every day, I could not imagine myself at a lesson without a dictionary. In order to understand and learn each subject I needed to find the logic inside it. Basically, I did not need to learn by heart, but I needed to learn what the IB system wanted me to learn. Moreover, I read newspaper articles every day. The main aim for me was to learn how to think in English.
In my IB diploma I also studied French literature. Our professor used many different methods of teaching. We had debates on specific topics, were listening to the CDs, had oral exams and were writing essays. Throughout the course we read 4 books and wrote our final work on one of them. All in all, my comprehension of French has improved a lot with the help of all the learning methods. This year I realized that at the French lectures and Tutorials I really started thinking in French.
At the moment I am studying in Canada, where I have an opportunity to practice both of the languages. I know that my English and French are not perfect, but in comparison to the previous years I’ve made some progress.
In order to learn a language, it is important to use books, learn specific vocabulary in science, social science, humanities, according to the personal interests. It is useful to prepare oral presentations in different topics and organize debates. At the university, we practice speaking a lot. We have specific lessons called Practical where we talk with everyone in the group and learn grammar. Every two weeks we write small tests. I really like it, because with the help of regular tests I memorize better.
