English B2->C1 log (Language Learning Log) Language Learning Forum

English B2->C1 log
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Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log

sygi Diglot Newbie Poland Joined 5137 days ago 11 posts - 16 votes Speaks: Polish*, English Studies: Esperanto Studies: French	Message 1 of 6 07 June 2011 at 10:31am \| IP Logged
	Hi! I've been reading the forum for some time now and decided to make a Language Log. I've been learning English for a long time now, but not usually doing it efficiently. I checked my English level abilities on dialang (Do you know that?) and it seems to be about B2. And I really feel to be at that level - I can understand most of the articles on the Internet and almost completely understand simplified listening exercises, which are often done at school. Now, I have finished my schoolyear, so have a lot of free time and decided to spend it improving my English and some other languages (esperanto, and maybe start learning Russian). My biggest problem here is motivation. So this thread came to life ;) What I'm going to do is: - read catch-22. I bought the English version of the book and borrowed a Polish one. At this point, I'm going to give a L-R method a try. I have already read the first few paragraphs of it. - listen to BBC World Service while reading articles on the Internet. - do exercises in 'English Vocabulary in use - upper-intermediate' - I have already read the first few paragraphs of it - these containing info about 'how to study'. Even though they strongly recommend to do notes, I'm going to just read the content of the book and do exercieses. - watch 'Heroes' season 1 - I already watched few episodes of it about a year ago. Now, I'm going to remind myself of the plot and watch the next episodes with English audio and English subtitles. My target is to get to C1 level during my holidays. I have also a long-term plan to pass the CAE - but that I'll do probably in the next year. A short-term goal is to be able to understand BBC World Service completely. I hope maintaining my language log will keep me motivated to do exercises. I would also appreciate it very much if you'd correct my mistakes and advise me how to study efficiently. Edited by sygi on 07 June 2011 at 8:06pm 2 persons have voted this message useful
Alacritas Tetraglot Newbie Portugal Joined 4919 days ago 24 posts - 41 votes Speaks: English*, French, Portuguese, Spanish Studies: Dutch, German, Latin, Bulgarian	Message 2 of 6 07 June 2011 at 4:27pm \| IP Logged
	Your English is quite good! Good for you for making a log and setting goals and all that jazz. You said you wanted your mistakes corrected, so here goes: "I was reading the forum for some time and now decided to set up a language log" -----> I've been reading this forum for some time now and decided to make a Language Log. "I'm learning English for a long time now, but usually doing it not efficiently." ------> I've been learning English for a long time now, but not usually very efficiently. "I checked my level of English abilities in dialang (do you know that?) and they seems to be about B2." ------> I checked my English level on dialang (Do you know it?) and it seems to be about B2. "in the internet" ------> on the Internet "read first few paragraphes" ------> read the first few paragraphs "listen to BBC World Service during reading articles" -------> listen to BBC World Service while reading articles" "like previously, I already watched few episodes of it, but about a year ago" -------> I aleady watched a few episodes of it about a year ago. "Now, I'm going to remind their plot" ------->Now, I'm going to remind myself of the plot "but that I'll do probably in the next year." ------->but that I'll probably do in the next year." "I will be also very appreciated if you'd correct my mistakes and advise me, how to study efficiently" ------->I would also be very appreciative (OR: I would also appreciate it very much) if you'd correct my mistakes and advise me how to study efficiently." Well, I must say that the edits I made were pretty minor. Some were grammatical errors in the sense of being ungrammatical in English (i.e. a native speaker would never say that), and others were "grammar" mistakes in the sense of prescriptive grammar rules (i.e. things native speakers also get "wrong" and need to be pointed out by English teachers). At any rate, good job! Needless to say you already write quite well, and are seemingly well on the road to C1! Good luck! Edited by Alacritas on 07 June 2011 at 4:28pm 1 person has voted this message useful
sygi Diglot Newbie Poland Joined 5137 days ago 11 posts - 16 votes Speaks: Polish*, English Studies: Esperanto Studies: French	Message 3 of 6 07 June 2011 at 8:52pm \| IP Logged
	Thank you Alacritas for your nice words and for correcting mistakes I made ;) It's a nice thing there are natives among us who can understand all the complicated gramatical issues and help others ^^ Your post make me feel it was a good idea to make a LL. So, it's time to write down what I have done today and how I feel about it. Day 1: I read 5th paragraph of Catch-22 in English (for a one time). I think I understood general idea of it (if anyone can ever partly understand Catch-22, which is ironic and full of sarcasm). Some parts were pretty readible and while reading others I just felt words going through my mind don't leaving any understanding. Then I decided to try shadowing with that. I've read about that technique few days ago and didn't have time to try it yet. So I took Polish translation of the book and went outside. Firstly, I was trying to repeat after the lector and walk and follow the text in book, connecting what I hear and say with translation I see. And... it was horribly hard. I left the book and tried to do 'blind shadowing' - just repeating after the lector but it was hard either. Actually I found it impossible :P The lector is reading so fast! I recognised it was the most difficult to repeat the words I didn't know - I probably didn't say any of them. Anyway, the shadowing method seems to be funny (imagine few people doing it in one place with other languages ^^ ) so I'm going to try it again some day (when nobody's at home... ;), maybe with English lector and looking at the English book. Even though I had some technical problems with my computer I watched 4 episodes of Heroes (^^) with English subtitles. They were cool ;) And I found it easy to understand them with subtitles. So tomorrow I'll set smaller font (I'm a little bit of a short-sight person) or off them at all to let the exercise be demanding :D I also started to wonder if watching tv series in which they use American English was a good idea, as far as I'm going to learn rather British English. When I'll finish season 1 I come back to that question ^^ This post became much longer than I expected. Hope that this doesn't discourage you to read it :) Edited by sygi on 07 June 2011 at 8:55pm 1 person has voted this message useful
sygi Diglot Newbie Poland Joined 5137 days ago 11 posts - 16 votes Speaks: Polish*, English Studies: Esperanto Studies: French	Message 4 of 6 09 June 2011 at 9:00am \| IP Logged
	Day 2: I've watched next 3 episodes of Heroes. Last one I tried to understand without the subtitles and found it quite hard. I think I'm going to carry on watching this way. I've done only one chapter of Catch-22 using 2nd step of LR, that is - I've listened to the audio and followed the text in polish translation. I think I should do more of this exercise (LR) a day. I've read one topic in 'English Vocabulary'. Though at first I wondered if the level of the book isn't too low, I found exercises demanding. Anyway, I'm going to do more than a topic a day 2 persons have voted this message useful
sygi Diglot Newbie Poland Joined 5137 days ago 11 posts - 16 votes Speaks: Polish*, English Studies: Esperanto Studies: French	Message 5 of 6 09 June 2011 at 9:56pm \| IP Logged
	I've been quite busy today, so I haven't done a lot of things connected with my language-studies ;( Promise tommorow will be a better day. Day 3: I've watched just one episode of Heores without subtitles and understood most of it, but couldn't follow every conversation. I've listened to few 6min English from bbclearningenglish podcast and tried to shadow them - find it far easier than to do it with Catch-22 - probably because I've known nearly all the words. Anyway - I think it wasn't a good exercise and found the podcast quite boring. 1 person has voted this message useful
sygi Diglot Newbie Poland Joined 5137 days ago 11 posts - 16 votes Speaks: Polish*, English Studies: Esperanto Studies: French	Message 6 of 6 11 June 2011 at 11:23am \| IP Logged
	Day 4: I've watched 2 episodes of Heroes I've shadowed one chapter of Catch-22 and read next one I've done 2 topics in 'English Vocabulary' 1 person has voted this message useful

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