Final task

I went through all my recordings and reflections which I recorded and wrote this semester and I must say I have made some progress. To be specific – at first, I absolutely did not have any idea about the correct pronunciation of words beginning with t. Sounds like θ or ð did not exist for me at high school. Now I know the correct pronunciation and I think I improved my θ and th sound. Maybe it is not perfect enough yet, but it is definitely much better than four months ago. The next thing I improved is to distinguish strong and weak forms of prepositions and conjunctions. Thanks to the self-recording, now I can speak more fluently, because I know what strong and weak forms are. And when I speak English, I focus on strong and weak syllables more. I think it makes my English better. I definitely improved my pronunciation of names of celebrities, titles of series and so on. I remember recording this kind of activity, like pronunciation of these names and I must say it was fun and interesting, too. Now, when someone says a name of some celebrity incorrectly to me, I must smile. And the last thing I improved and I would like to mention is my ability to speak English with some kind of intonation, some kind of sense. It is hard to describe, but I think it is obvious when I listen to my recordings. What I think I did not improve is difference between American and British English. I recognise the difference when I hear both American and British, but when I want read something in both ways, it is hard for me. This is what I need to improve. Generally, I still have some problems with spoken English, but I think the self-recording helped me a lot and it is always good to reflect on what I say and the way I say it.

WEEK 10: individual task

It’s Christmas time, so this week I found a Christmas story on the internet and decided to read it, because I wanted to hear my English when I read some kind of longer text, without any preparation. And I found that I a little improved my th and θ sound, at least I think it is better than in October for example. However, in the word that I say it still incorrectly in this recording. I found that as I concerned on other things, I forgot to put some words together - like for example his ear or his eyes, I said it unnaturally separately. In the end, I said absolutely incorrectly the question Where were you? – I remember one of the lessons where we tried to say exactly this example like it should be and in this recording, I did not pay attention to it and now I can hear it. And now I noticed that I said He’s given us the best possible present to us as well. – It was written in the story itself, but I think I should have said just He’s given us the best possible present as well.

WEEK 10: video talk

Although we were supposed to use the present simple in this type of recording, I used the present continuous sometimes, which I should not use next time I will do this kind of activity. But it is quite hard not to use it. I said the word some many times, which sounds like I don’t know any other words. I said the word argue incorrectly, I said something like [ergju:] and it should be [ˈɑːrɡjuː]. On the other hand, I found out that I always said –s concerning 3rd person singular and it is quite good news, because people often have problem with it. The whole recording and describing the action could be more fluently, I should focus on that next time.

WEEK 9: my correction

WEEK 9: talking about a picture

WEEK 9: individual task

I focused on sounds like ɪ and i:; u and u:; ʌ and ɑː; æ and ɑː and the difference between these sounds. I think it is important to differ all of the sounds like these, because in many cases, just a small inaccuracy in the pronunciation and the meaning of the particular word is changed. I tried to say the words correctly, but I noticed I said the word half with the l and there should not be any l, it should be just ha:f. Other sounds, I think I said correctly, because I found out the correct pronunciation of saying them.