Language Learning History

Hello everybody!

I wrote this report to reflect on my language learning background. In this report I will talk about how I learned English, and the things I have learned so far. Furthermore, I will talk about what I have learned and experienced so far at university and what my future goals are.

I started to learn English at primary school. When I was about 10 years old, I learned a couple of basic words and sentences. We learned for example counting, and telling the time. Although this is very basic, this was my first experience in learning English.

In the first year at secondary school we repeated these basic words and sentences. Moreover we started to learn more vocabulary, and also grammar. We started with learning tenses, one by one. During all my years at secondary school I had to practise these tenses and I had to learn all different kinds of words and sentences to enlarge my vocabulary. There was a difference between the first years and the last years at secondary school in learning English. During the first years we made vocabulary tests and grammar tests. But during the last years we had to do more reading, writing, listening and speaking. In my final year I had a listening exam, and also an oral exam with my teacher. Furthermore, I had to do many presentations and we had to write essays. My final exam was a reading test.

The best way to learn a language is in my opinion to practice a lot in ‘reality’. That is what I did on my vacations. I had a lot of friends on my vacations, and we were all from different nationalities, so it was the best way to communicate in English. And for example in Italy, I also had to talk English when I went to the supermarket or baker. What I have experienced and learned from that is that your English and grammar does not always have to be perfect, because most of the time people do understand what you are saying and what you mean.

Before I came to university I was a little scared that my English would not be good enough because at university it is not anymore common English, but a lot of professional specific economic language. But I experienced that my English has improved a lot since I am studying at university. During the first tutorials for example I was scared that what I wanted to say was not formulated well, and so I chose to be silent. But other people said things that were either formulated perfect, and everyone understood what they were saying, so I thought, ‘Floor, you can see it is no problem, just speak and give the right answers, because having the solutions is the best.’ Furthermore, I enlarged my vocabulary, and especially economic terms, during the tutorials, that made it also easier to say things. I also talk a lot of English outside the tutorials, because most of the time we are hanging out with our group in the hours between two courses, and there are different nationalities in our group. Actually, I did not expect that, I thought I would only talk English when I really had to, so during tutorials.

My major goal is to speak more fluently and academic English in the future. I want to achieve that by practising a lot, like I am doing right now. Furthermore, I want to enlarge my (academic) vocabulary. And although I am not a native speaker, my goal is to become the best look a like!

Enjoy the rest of your day! 

Regards, Floor