Final (End of ESP course) Self – Assessment

Writing.

• Summaries:
  Unfortunately, it was not easy to write summaries at the beginning of the first semester and even during whole second semester. I was making the same mistakes and it was also hard to distinguish the main points of a text and not to write anything else, that was not so important. But at the end of the second term I noticed that I get even better marks, at least, it was not very high – from 5 to 6, but anyway I was hoping to improve my summary writing skills. Perhaps I can say that I succeeded, because from the last summary I got 10. I do believe, that the same success will go along with me on exam day.

Speaking.

• Short talks:
  I prefer speaking with preparation than speaking on the spot, but despite that, it was one of the most frightening tasks. I did not feel very confident about my spoken English skills, but when I had an opportunity to prepare for my speech at the home, I felt more comfortable. In my opinion, my marks were adequate to my knowledge and preparation. During both semesters there were lots of interesting subjects to talk, for example cloning or happiness in nations, but discussing the results from various test was not what I exactly enjoyed. It looked hard to me to decide, what should I talk about – only about my results and support them or not, or also about a particular test – for which purposes it was used, who made it and when and so on.
• Impromptu:
  Sadly, there was no progress, comparing both semesters. I was quiet during lectures, because as I have mentioned already, I did not think that I am able to speak English on the spot. I kept the idea, that if I could not say it perfectly, it would be better not to say at all. I must confess, that was not the best idea I had made, perhaps. No wonder, that my performance in this task was the worst from all tasks I had had during whole years.
• PPP:
  Despite all fears of public speaking, making the presentation and showing it during lecture at this semester was not so frightening as at the first time. I knew that the most important point in preparation was the choice of a subject. I took the topic from health psychology theme, because it looked the most reasonable to me. Honestly, I really enjoyed representing it, because in my mind, I done my best: made good slides, without too much text, only with main points, prepared to speak about this subject properly, mentioned not only main, but also an additional information and, to my surprise, even answered to the questions from audience.
  I am very glad with the work I done and of course with the mark I got.

Listening.

• Online materials:
  Listening always was a complicated task, because very often it was hard to follow what I was hearing, speakers used some words that I did not recognize. What about online listening, I have to notice, that it was a little bit easier than traditional listening. The reason is that exercises, related with online listening were clearer, because firstly we had to catch the main mentioned points, then to do fill in the blanks, synonym match and true or false tasks. Doing such tasks (except true or false) requires more grammar skills, not listening and what is more, reproduce or recognize some things that you have heard, is much more easier than to memorize them or to write on the spot during listening task. Sometimes there were easier tasks from cassettes, sometimes from the Internet listening. Perhaps it was linked to the subject of speech, it's urgency and simplicity. Anyway, I still believe, that listening to native English speakers is one of the best ways to improve my spoken English skills.
  To sum up, I am quiet satisfied with my results in online listening.
• Cassettes: 
  Well, the key points were already mentioned, I would only like to add that the most challenging task during traditional listening was to complete sentences, because you need to have perfect listening and grammar skills in order to write missed information correctly.

Esp Vocabulary.

• Formal tests in class:
  Writing ESP tests always was a great opportunity to get a good mark. In order to be honest, I have to say, that I was learning definitions by heart. Not because it was difficult to understand or translate them, but because usually they were too scientific to write in your own words and not change the real meaning in this way. I was surprised, when the form of tests had changed in the second semester. Writing a correct definition became not the main task, it was much more important to remember the material of the topic. Firstly, it looked impossible to do it, but after few failed tests I found the way to higher mark. It was not only learning definitions, but also doing moodle tests and online tasks on each topic of Feldman's online course book straight after reading the module and re-looking everything before writing the ESP test.
  Unfortunately, I had never got 100% again after such turning, but I hope that it was more useful for me.
• Class tests online:
  Doing these tests was very helpful in revising what I had read before. The fact, that we could discuss and share our minds, sometimes led me to laziness and I did not work very hard. I can not deny that it was useless, because as I have said, after some changes I saw the benefit of doing such tests.
• Moodle tests:
  They were very similar to those online tests which we were doing during lectures. The one difference and the main advantage was that we were doing them on ourselves – whenever we wanted and as far as we wanted. The multiple choice part I always done without looking at book, but what about fill in the blanks task, I was not so ensured. Anyway, it was very helpful not only in revising material, but also in preparing for ESP tests. What is more, the results which I got from moodle tests in the second semester were better, comparing with the results in the first semester and I am very glad about it, because I see my progress.