UNDERSTANDING & PRODUCING WRITTEN ENGLISH II

Reflective Essay

As a second language learner, I do have tried several ways to improve my reading and writing in English.

When I was a kid, my mother asked me to learn more vocabulary by using a book called “Word Perfect”. Each chapter, it has around 16-20 words and some exercisers that teach you how to use those words. With the usage as reference, I think it is quite effectively for me to remember those vocabularies. Since I understood the meanings and when to use those words, I could use them in my daily life.

Many people may feel frighten whenever they speak to foreigners, so as I. I tried to overcome this weakness by talking more to my native English teacher when I was in secondary school. Through the conversations we had, she would correct my pronunciation or grammatical mistakes. From those mistakes I had made, I could learn something new each time. After years of practice, now I can say I am no long afraid to talk to foreigners even I just meet them on the streets.

In order to improve my pronunciation, I also tried another method. I choose a piece of news each day and read it aloud in front of a mirror. This method is very useful for me because through the “reading” I would learn how to speak correctly and when to have stress on each sentence.

I have a notebook which I had jotted down the unfamiliar words that I have met. I will look at f an English dictionary and write down their meanings and example sentences. At the end of every month I will review them once. Though some words I will not use in my daily conversations, I can use them in my assignments. And I can learn different fields of words by this way.

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