Week 8 - Journal 3

Last week was really busy a week. I spent most of my time implementing my plans and doing my homework which is for other classes like sounds, academic reading and writing and human development project. In each of these Homework I found something that related to my plans. For instance, I found many new vocabulary words when I did my human development project, such as cognitive which is related to the mental and linguistic which is related to the language. However, I have done two things this week. Firstly, I have written ten words from what I learned in sentences. For example, I used “custody” in this sentence which is “Children who doesn’t have parents can stay in the custody center to have care”. Also, I practiced a filling gap exercises which is really useful. It was kind of fun and helpful at the same time.

In addition, I have focused more in reading this week. I bought Gulf newspaper to read it and started with headings and the bold titles. Then, I have read the articles which attracted me first. Also, I annotated these articles to make them easier. Then, I felt that was a good method in particular, with reading and I will do this plan next week because it worked with me. Moreover, I wrote three summaries this week. Each one took about 10 minutes. I noticed that I really improved in writing summaries because I didn’t spend much time in. However, I felt that I’m familiar with reading more than before. I changed my view about reading in English because I noticed my improvement. Especially, with skimming skills, putting headings, main ideas and paraphrasing the words. I felt that I’m more curious. For instance, if I see any books or newspaper that written in English, it’s really attracted my attention even if I didn’t understand what the meaning is.

Furthermore, speaking skill is one of the skills that I would like to improve. Last Friday, I stayed with my family after the launch time. Then, I asked them to share our ideas about any topic. My little sister who is in grade five suggested to talk about success. But, I told them that our discussion will be in English and this is our term. However, my father asked me to start talking. I gave them a little introduction about the real meaning of success and what should we do to be a successful people. It was really a great day because it was the first time we stay together and talk about something in English. My little brother said, that was a great idea and he needs to improve his English too. So, he will be the guide of the next Friday’s topic. I did well in last Friday even small errors and short pauses at the beginning persisted. Also, I have tried to use new vocabularies which I learned during the last two weeks. For example, I used “optimistic”, “flexibility” and “challenge” which related to the success. These words took my family’s attention. And I noticed that I can use a strong vocabulary when I speak. So, this activity was working a lot. However, it was a nice week with this great improvement!