Blog 6 - Breaking it Down

Since I'm halfway through the internship, I believe it is the perfect time for me to pause and to supervise my learning. Therefore, during this past week, I took time look back to see how much I improved since the beginning of my internship. 

Improvements

I realised that my listening and reading comprehension of English has improved significantly. For listening, before I had a lot of difficulties to understand speakers with other accents than the American one, since the latter is closer to my pronunciation of English. However, my host speaking with a Brazilian accent forced me to adapt and to familiarize myself with his different pronunciation. At the beginning, I had trouble understanding him, even if he spoke slowly. And I realise that now, I understand him a lot better. I don't need to ask him to repeat sentences. However, I still use the strategy of repeating what he said to make sure I understand everything. Therefore, my comprehension of accents has improved.

My reading comprehension has also improved. I'm able to read a lot faster in English than I used to six weeks ago. I need to pause less and less to guess the meaning of words or to search them in a dictionary. And when I do, it takes me less time to figure out their meaning using the context of the sentence. I was able to achieve this improvement because of the academic level of English of the website and with the help of my host who has always given me clear explanations of expressions and sentences, but also using professional language. Being totally immersed in advanced vocabulary has allowed me to developp and to improve my reading comprehension and my writing skills.

Challenges

What I find difficult is to apply my learning into oral communication. I have a wide vocabulary when it comes to writing, and I am a great listener, but I still search my words when I speak. Academic words don't come has fluently as basic words in my head when I speak spontaneously. I will have to practice more to become more fluent. 

Vocabulary

Finally, I learned new words and expressions this week:

• Discrepancy: It is a divergence, a difference between facts or claims. For instance, there is a discrepancy between the Infant Mortality Rates of indigenous and non-indigenous people.
• Illiterate: It is a person that is unable to read and write, or had no formal education.
• To draw talent: It is to find good professionals with knowledge and talent. I had never seen this expression and couldn't find an equivalent in French.