Learning psychology in English is very interesting but it is not easy work. My practice in English class is useful because now when I read psychological researches; it is easier to understand what is written about. In English class at Mykolas Romeris University we have had lots of different tasks and activities to perform.Firstly, I have been writing ESP definition tests. These tests are not easy because you should write definitions of psychological concepts, which sometimes are difficult to understand and explain in your own words. Approximately fifteen minutes are given to write ESP definition tests. Sometimes when definitions are difficult you should think longer than usually but no additional time is given. To sum up, I think that there is enough time to write such tests, as in this way you learn to think more quickly. I do not think that my results in ESP definition tests were excellent, but they were not very bad either.
ESP tests have been written in class, while at home we have been writing moodle tests. I cannot say that it is easy to write moodle tests even though you have module which should be taken as basis while writing this test because statements are not easy and very understandable. Before writing moodle tests, the module should be read several times in order to understand and think over what was active in it. While writing moodle tests, I had several occasions when I wrote a word correctly but the computer checked it and it turned out that it was incorrect. Such situations were not pleasant. I suppose that my results in writing moodle tests are quite good because sometimes my results were better, sometimes worse.
One more task which had to be done at home was writing summaries. Writing summaries has been the most difficult work for me, because at first it was not easy not to use words such as “you” or “we”. Also, in writing summaries advanced dictionary has to be used because copying sentences from a text cannot be done. Sometimes, when a text is more understandable it is easy to write a summary, however, occasionally when a text is complicated, it is really hard to summarize it. Although I think that summary writing is hard and my results were not excellent, I am positive about them. Writing new posts in my blogger has been also difficult work for me, because it was not easy to write information online , as the computer checked it and turned out that it was incorrect.
Power point presentations have been very interesting for me because you can choose the topic which is the most interesting for you to discuss. While doing presentations you can choose what you would like to talk about, which tasks you want to mention in the presentation. It is also possible to choose how a presentation should look like. However, not everything in power point presentations has been excellent. Sometimes when you are doing presentation, it is difficult to find mistakes which are made at home, but you could see them in the class. Besides, one more thing which caused some problems was to write references correctly.
Talking about work in class, we have also been practicing listening. Listening in class is not easy because you should focus just on listening while sometimes it is not easy if you hear someone talking. Listening is a very good practice to check your English skills and it helps to understand how good you are at listening to the English language. Personally, my skills at listening are not very good because sometimes it has been difficult to understand some dialects and to focus just on listening.
During English classes at Mykolas Romeris University, I could also practise my speaking skills. We have been practicing speaking skills by talking impromptu and presenting short talks. I think that talking impromptu is very good for checking vocabulary, and for learning talking without practicing at home. It also helps to think in English and think quickly if you want to say something. What is more, speaking skills are practiced by presenting short talks which could have been learnt at home. You could check your spelling, you could learn some new interesting words, and you could also practise before a mirror to see how your talk looks like. My results in speaking impromptu were not excellent because sometimes when I wanted to say something quickly I made a lot of mistakes. While results in presenting short talks were neither good nor bad.
To sum up, I think that all activities are useful because they all have helped me to practice my English and to understand what I could do better in English and what I should practice more.
References : http://www.mclibrary.duke.edu/about/news/books1.gif
