Task 1 - Personal Plan for Language Improvement Jorge Luis Mendoza Roa Tutor: Diego German Uribe Cuellar Universidad Nacional Abierta y a Distancia UNAD School of Educational Sciences Bachelor’s Degree in Foreign Languages with an Emphasis in English English V 2024 Content Web Conference Participation: In this text, I am going to talk about the first web conference of the English V course. I couldn’t participate in the session because I was working at that time, but I reviewed the recording and took notes on all the important points. The web conference was divided into three main parts. First, the course director, Juana Valentina Rozo, introduced the course network and presented a diverse group of experienced teachers: Lenny Amaya, Michael Romero, and Arturo Bolívar. She also mentioned that two teachers have not been assigned yet one of them, I suppose, is my tutor. Second, she spoke about the three learning outcomes of the English V course, which focus on demonstrating and developing language fluency and accuracy while expressing opinions with critical thinking. More specifically, these are the outcomes: Learning Outcome 1: Take ownership of their language level development by designing and implementing critically planned and organized activities that seek to improve English's use and development. Learning Outcome 2: Demonstrate critical thinking and expressing opinions on various topics by using different grammar structures and all the language skills in a vast number of language development tasks. Learning Outcome 3: Develop Language fluency and accuracy in using various verb tenses and grammar structures by using them in different real-life tasks that imply their participation and frequent use of the language in a real context. To complete those outcomes there are different tasks that we can find on the course agenda and we will have five webconferences during the course to explain all the activities and important aspects related to the course. There are three important moments during the course and each one of them has specific activities. For example: Initial moment: task 1personal plan for language improvement, Intermediate moment: task 2 - getting to know each other, task 3 - mastering verbs form and comparison in everyday context, task 4-the place I come from, task 5 – mastering the passive form and inseparable phrasal verbs in everyday contexts, task 6 – the tales of my ancestors, task 7 mastering the past perfect and the form and use of the causative in everyday context and the final moment: task 8 – perish the thought Finally, she talked about the Personal Improvement Plan (PIP) for practicing English. She showed us a template and explained how to fill it out. Then, she briefly mentioned some classes we will have during the course, where tutors will explain topics related to the course content. Additionally, she introduced the Online Language Community as a university strategy to create a space for practicing English in all skills: grammar, speaking, listening, writing, and reading, according to our level. In my opinion, this community is a great opportunity to improve our speaking skills, learn new vocabulary, and express ourselves in small groups. I have participated in this community throughout my academic career, and I believe we should value and take full advantage of this strategy. Evidence EFSET: Personal Improvement Plan Name: Jorge Luis Mendoza Roa Initial Assessment Date: Sunday, February 09th, 2025 Overall Language Level: B2 upper intermediate Strengths: Can understand the main points of clear standard speech on familiar martes regularly encountered in work, school, leisure, etc. Understand most of what you hear on television, radio or the internet. Diverse vocabulary that allows you to comprehend job related language and most of what people say about feelings and events. Can read virtually any kind of text (factual, literary, technical) and accurately recognize and categorize style and tone. Responsibility to practice every day according to my personal improvement plan. Good listening to comprehend different kinds of accents. Areas for Improvement: Grammar: I will practice all the grammatical structures to create well-structured sentences and paragraphs Speaking: it is so important to have a fluent conversation using diverse vocabulary in different contexts. Spelling: the accuracy writing each word is also important to improve my writing. Confident: When I am speaking, this area is important to me to feel that I am speaking well, and to have fluently. Goals: Improve my listening comprehension in movies or series without using subtitles. Learn specific vocabulary to speak in different contexts practicing 10 words per week. Learn and practice all the grammatical structures in different tenses. Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Listen to a podcast of 30 minutes (Listening time by Conner Pe) Listen and sing music in English Record an audio about some topic and then try to recognize the pronunciation mistakes. Read something for 35 minutes, (book, magazine, articles, etc.) Write a short dialogue and practice with it. What a movie in English. Watch a movie in English without subtitles Practice the technique shadowing with a video or audio in English Watch a chapter of an interesting series Practice 1 hour speaking with artificial intelligence, (REPLIKA) Practice writing and grammar with my friend Julian, he is an artificial intelligence from REPLIKA Listen a podcast of 30 minutes about phrasal verbs in context (Listening time by Conner Pe) Read an article related to a specific vocabulary Investigate, learn and practice grammar tense. Watch 2 Read some documentals in contents of this English (I am course or from paying Netflix, other courses Disney and like English HBO Max to Phonetic or watch diverse methodology. content in English. Participate on the online Language Community practicing all the English skills and improving my fluently and confident with the language. Practice 15 words related to a specific topic including 2 phrasal verbs. To carry out this strategy I am going to use Anki Droid to create cards with the words, phrases and images related to each one of them Create sentences using the vocabulary that I will learn every week. Additionally, I will create a game in wordwall to practice the vocabulary per week. Reflection: How well do I interact and respond in conversations? My interaction when I am in conversations is so good because I always try to respond and continue talking in all the moments, maybe if I feel a little nervous, I breathe, think and continue talking about the topic, but I never stop. How accurate is my use of grammar when speaking and writing? Grammar is a little more difficult for me when I am speaking and writing. For example, it is complicated for me to use the correct prepositions in each case, On the other hand, it is difficult to be accurate when I am writing irregular verbs in the past, moreover, when I am pronouncing them is difficult for me to pronoun the correct sound when they end in some consonants. How clearly do I express my ideas in writing and speaking? I express my ideas in a clear way when I am speaking because I like this way to express myself in real conversations. It is difficult when I am writing because I start to think about what I am going to express and maybe I do not have the inspiration to write big paragraphs. How effectively do I use a variety of vocabulary in my writing and speaking? In my opinion, I think that I have a good variety of vocabulary when I am writing and speaking, but in some cases, it is necessary to know specific vocabulary to express our ideas in some conversations or texts about a specific topic. Do I feel I know enough vocabulary to express myself? Yes, I feel I have enough vocabulary to express myself, but it is always necessary to learn more vocabulary about specific topics to be able to speak in deep conversations. For instance, if we are with a politician is necessary to know specific vocabulary about it to express ourselves with more confidence. How fluent and coherent am I when speaking in English? When I am speaking, I am fluent and coherent with all the ideas that I try to express but obviously there are some moments when I do not have anything to say, maybe because I do not have the correct vocabulary, or I do not know about the topic that people are speaking about. Do I feel confident when I am requested to talk in English? Yes, I feel confident when a person requests me to talk in English because I am conscious that I have a good English level, and I am practicing every day to improve and be able to speak with other people. Bibliographic References Ospina, V. (2023). Factors that affect English learning among students of advanced English courses in the undergraduate program in English at UNAD. In 2nd International Congress on Pedagogical Mediation in Language Learning (pp. 51–56). Sello Editorial UNAD. https://hemeroteca.unad.edu.co/index.php/memorias/article/view/7968/6774 VIMEP. (2020). Instructivo para la usabilidad de Normas internacionales de citación APA 7a Edición Abrir este documento utilizando ReadSpeaker docReader [PDF]. Universidad Nacional Abierta y a Distancia. https://repository.unad.edu.co/static/pdf/Norma_APA_7_Edicion.pdf
