FINAL EVALUATION OF 1st BATXILLERAT

I think that there’s an improvement on my level of English because when I started this year I had a good level but there were things like compositions that were difficult for me and now I don’t find it difficult. In my opinion that happens because I have improve my English in many ways and also I am more fluent in speaking and in writing.
If you have a look in my space, you will see this improvement.
On the first term the writings were good but not perfect and on the second and on the third term, the compositions were better and longer.
You can notice in these two compositions. The composition called Books and Films is from the first term and the other with the title Cultural excursions is from the second term.

In my opinion one of my better activities is the podcast from the second term. Because we had to describe a person and I describe my little sister. Describe a person that I know is a question that it’s easy for me, because I know everything about my sister, her habits, her character, her personality… In conclusion, questions that you know are easier than questions that you haven’t any idea.

I have learnt a lot with the compositions because writings are a really good way to learn and improve your English. Also, because when you are making a composition you don’t know all the words, so then you look them up. So, this is also a good way to learn new vocabulary. And I think that making compositions you become more fluent and you learn to think in English. It means that if you start to think in English, you will improve in speaking English.
Another activity that it’s very useful for me is the podcast but only if I make it individual because if you are alone you don’t feel embarrassed and you can express yourself very good. In the podcasts I improve my pronunciation and also I improve to be fluent when I speak.

I think that some activities are a waste of time, like speaking. Speaking is a very good way to learn English but when we go to Aula d'Idiomes, no body makes that because it isn't well organized. I suggest that there could be a foulder with explanations of how to do it or things to talk about. The other activities I think that are useful.

The best activities for me are the podcast because it's a good way to learn english and it's funny because you can do it with more people. Listening to the other presentations, I like it because in this way I can see how they improve, also they can give me ideas and is interesting listening to it. Also when we do games on class and we have to compite with groups, it's a really good way to learn because you pay a lot of attention for the only reason that everyone wants to be the winner. These are the activities that I enjoyed the most but I would repeat the other activities too, because every activity has its pros and its cons.

OPINION ESSAY

We have almost learnt to respect our world. Discuss.

I disagree with the statement that we have learnt to respect our world. In my view most of the people, including governments, should take more action in preserving our world as current measures aren’t enough.

It’s clear that governments have promised to reduce everything that damages our planet, but these are only lies because they are the first who don’t keep it. Moreover, if they do not do that how do they pretend that we preserve the world?

In addition, we have advanced a lot in the technology’s field. As a result of that, when we become more human, we are further from nature.
Now is late to return to the past, so we have to start to think like primitives in some ways and take care of our world.

To sum up, I would say that people have to realise how important nature is and if we don’t take care of it, it will disappear and without it, we won’t be able to live, because we will destroy the world.

INFORMAL LETTER

Tramonti 32
Roses
24th March 10


Dear Georgina,
This is the reply to your letter. You were asking me if there’s some place to spend the holiday in my country. There are a lot of pretty places but one town that I recommend you is Port de la Selva. My father works there and it’s not really far from where I live.

Port de la Selva is a small town with a relaxed atmosphere especially in winter because there’s nobody in the street. Summer is very different because a lot of tourists come there for its spectacular views and its beautiful coast and beaches. You’ll become friend with a lot of people because as you will be able to see, people are very friendly.

I like it because there isn’t only one beach, there is the main beach which is the largest and it often gets crowded. But there are more little beaches that are like coves. One typical feature of the latest one is that there isn’t any sand, there are stones and different form the other, in these kind of beaches there aren’t many people and they are quite small and also, it’s difficult to go there because the tracks are hidden.
Before to arriving at the centre of the town, if you go with one of these tracks I told you before, you’ll arrive to a deserted land where there’s an old lighthouse which doesn’t work but it’s nice to see and from here you can see impressive views of the town.
There are also restaurants, shops, newsagent’s… There’s a cake shop where I usually go on Christmas because they make delicious wafers.

Besides, if you want to do some sport, you can go to the nautical club where you will be able to do water sports like windsurfing, kite surfing, catamaran, sailing, etc. You only need to go there and choose which sport you want to do and then you will learn or do it with a monitor.

One more thing – If you want to go to the coves you’ll need to bring water-proof sandals because at the bottom of the sea you’ll find rocks and stones that can hurt you. Anyway, if you go to Port de la Selva or to another town you’ll have fun too, so I wish that I have cleared up your mind.

Best wishes


Love,
Júlia XX

MY ORAL PRESENTATION

CHILD LABOUR

THE TRANSCRIPTION


1. What's it?

Child labour is a work done by a child.
This kind of work stops the child’s education and interrupts his develop. It’s a dangerous work for the well being of the children because they have to work in bad conditions, and sometimes they are like slaves. This is considered a human rights violation, but some countries tolerate it.
Child labour can have serious consequences like chronic diseases, wounds or chemical infections.
The children who work in these conditions are between five and fourteen years old, and as you know the legal age to start working is sixteen years old.

2. Unfortunately some countries tolerate it

Unfortunately some countries tolerate it. The countries which are in red have a thirty per cent or more child labour, and these countries are specially situated in Africa. But in orange we have the countries that have between ten and twenty-nine per cent of child labour and there are some of them in America and in Asia.
The other countries have less tan ten per cent and also there are places that don't have any child labour, for example our country.

A lot of countries have child labour but there are different kind of works and this is what we are going to talk aobut now.

3. Different types of child labour

In Africa the children have to work in diamond mines, they don’t wear any way of protection and they have to work with toxic products, they can’t stop of working for 20 hours and nobody pays them a salary. Also when a child is ill or hurt never receives help of a doctor, and because of it, their lives are very short.

Also, some children work on agriculture and start to work on it when they are five years old. Sometimes they have to go to distant farms and leave their families. They live in a dangerous and stressing way. In the farms, they live in bad conditions and if they try to runaway, they receive beatings. The most of the children work on agriculture.

In Africa, the child labour is based also on childs soldiers: They have to work as cooks of the army, and they have to participate in wars too, at the age of seven. They are too young to support the violence that they support. The children who work in the wars don’t have education and they haven’t got another option apart of the war.

Some children have to work in their homes, but sometimes even thought their parents beat them. It makes that these children can’t go to the school. Some of them receive a good tract, but others become slaves of their families. The majority of the times, they are girls, and some of them are just six years old.

And also there are children who work as slaves, childre who are victims of the traffic of drugs and arms, children forced into prostitution and into illegal activities.


4. UNICEF

*Do you know any organization wich works against child labour?

We think that is important to talk about a solution of this problem, so we are going to talk about an organization called UNICEF.

We suppose that most of you had heard from it at least one time because it’s a very important organization and the football players from the FCB sponsor it.

UNICEF was created on 1946 by the general meeting of the United Nations.
The first objective was help the child from Europe, after the second world war.
Now the main objectives are:
- Prevent the prostitution on the poorest places on the world, specially in Africa.
- In the education’s field the objective is that most of the children will be able to go to school. Specially girls.
- And also guarantee a good health and that they live in good conditions of sanity.

5. CONCLUSION

Finally, we had made a little conclusion to summarize this question:

We think that all the governments should do something for help all the children that is forced to do this kind of work, and make it safe. And they have to solve the sanity problems or stop the dangerous child labour.
The governments have to be sure that the children are far from the wars, because it’s very violent and dangerous. The main objective is that they can have a happy childhood and also a good adolescence, like children who live in develop countries.



OBSERVATION OF MY ORAL PRESENTATION


This term we had done our oral presentation about social topics. My partner, Helena, and I had done it about child labour.

We used a powerpoint that had supported our presentation. Because this thime we hadn't include any text in any slide, only the title of each part. This powerpoint was only visual and in each slide there were more than one photo, so it was entertaining and nice to see.
In my opinion, the time it takes doesn't matter because the real importance is that you spend this time well. And I think that we had done that because we were brief and correct.

The visual contact was good because I was looking to the people all the time. In this presentation I didn't have to look at my notes at anytime, in this way I was really pleased because doing that, people notice that we have worked a lot on it and that we were very self-confidents. In my opinion I was very fluent and moreover I made a lot of movements and gestures maybe too many but, in this presentation less than the others. One gesture that I can't avoid is touching my hair when I'm nervous, I have to improve that.

In my view, the oral presentation was well organized because first we introduced what was child labour, second where we can find it, then the different types of works and we added a solution of this problem, so we talked about UNICEF and finally we made a little conclusion.
We didn't use many discouse makers because the way that the oral presentation was organiszed, didn't need these makers.

Most of the information we introduced was new for the people because I'm sure that they had heard something from it maybe in the news or maybe in the school but they didn't know a lot of questions of child labour.
All the information w put on the text was original because we looked it up from Internet and then we summarized it and also translated it with our words. It's a good way to work because then, you know what are you saying and you understand it.

I think that all the grammar and vocabulary were correct and right we used sentence linkers but in my opinion not too many. Some of the linking words we used were but, because, so, to conclude...
But we didn't use many pause fillers, some times I said well, so, for example...but not most of the time because we were very fluent.

In my opinion, I had a good pronunciation and I prononunced all the words well, well, maybe I pronounced some wrong because when you are talking is easy to make mistakes. In spite of this, I think that most of the words were well pronounced because before doing the oral presentation, I looked up on a online dictionary how to pronounce them.
I changed my tone of voice because I'm very expressive and this is what I usually do.
This time I was better than the other times because I spoke slowly because I was practising it at home and in addition, I didn't speak with breaks or interrumptions.

To conclude I think that I improved my oral presentation in many ways specially in the pronunciation, also in speakins slower, I was less nervous... So, in my opinion I can get an 8.5 or more.

PODCAST

The party's secret

(Sally and Kate are in a café)

Kate: Wow! The party was great.

Sally: Oh, yes, I think so! It was fantastic.

Kelly: Hi girls! What are you talking about?

Sally: About nothing, nothing...why?

Kelly: Because I thought you were talking about a party or something like that.

Kate: Really? I think you are wrong Kelly, we were talking about last weekend.

Kelly: I already know this because I've just seen some photos on Internet and you seem really happy.

Sally: You're right Kelly. We went to the party last weekend. But you weren't invite.

Kate: We don't want you to think that it's our fault because we went to talk with Jimmy.

Kelly: Who is Jimmy?

Sally: Jimmy is the boy who organized the party.

Kate: We tried to convince him but he didn't accept.

Kelly: You're making up excuses.

Sally: You have to belive us. He said that he didn't know you.

Kelly: OK girls, I think you're telling me the truth.

Kate: So, are we making up?

Kelly: Yes, we are.

Sally: Oh, look there. This is Jimmy.

Kate: Oh, oh, Kelly is going to break down.

Kelly: Girls I know Jimmy for years. I didn't realise that you were talking about this Jimmy. Let me speak with him a moment.

Sally: Look he's coming.

Jimmy: Hi girls!

Kelly, Sally and Kate: Get away!!!