Emma's Learning Portfolio

Read and listen to academic articles and other material in your own language. Take notes on what you read and hear. Start out taking notes in your own language, and then take notes in English. Summarize the points in complete English sentences. Ask your teacher to review your writing and help you correct your errors. Gradually decrease the time it takes you to read the material and write these summaries. Practice typing on a QWERTY (standard English) keyboard, if you don't already use one. Listen to recorded lectures in English. Practice finding the main points and taking notes. Stop the recording every 20–30 seconds and write down the main points. Replay the recording to check your notes and add information you may have missed. Use your notes to write out these ideas in fuller, more complex English sentences. Learn important phrases that help you figure out what is happening. Determine who the source of the information is: the speaker someone else the speake...

Develop friendships with people who want to speak English with you. If you can't find a native English speaker, find a friend who wants to practice speaking English, and promise to speak only English to each other for a certain period of time. Record yourself speaking in English. Read a paragraph from an academic course book, and practice summarizing the paragraph aloud. Practice several times, and then record your summary. Listen to your summary again a week later. Transcribe what you said, and review your mistakes. Read a simple paragraph and record your voice. Ask a teacher to give you feedback on the recording. Listen to something spoken by a native English speaker. Record yourself repeating the same information, and compare it to the native English speaker. Practice speaking for a limited time on different topics without a lot of preparation. Write down several questions about various topics. Then, select a question and answer it aloud. Try to talk for 1 minute....

Practice listening to something in English every day, and gradually increase the amount of time that you listen. Listen to different types of materials. Listen actively. Try to answer the following questions: who what when where why how Listen passively to get the general idea of what's being said. Keep a listening log (a list of everything you listen to in English each day/week). Write a 1-sentence summary to remember the main idea of what you heard. Write down new expressions, idioms and vocabulary that you hear. Use dictation and other exercises to help your listening ability. Ask an English speaker to dictate an article to you. Good sources of material are podcasts, magazines or online articles or textbooks. First, write down exactly what you hear. Then, only take notes on the important points that you hear. Do information gap exercises, using unfamiliar content and complex structures. Use the resources in your community to practice listening to E...