February 2015 - April 2015
BBC NEWS 24
BBC News 24 is a 24 hour news channel broadcast by the British Broadcasting Corporation and features the latest news from around the world.Listening to BBC NEWS 24 is my favourite activity because I love British English really very much, and I can hear pur English when I am watching BBC NEWS. I've chosen the activity because there are many different topics like sport, weather forecast, domestic policy, international politics, culture etc. and I can watch BBC NEWS 24 hours a day. It doesn't mean that I would like to watch it 24 hours a day, it means that I can watch this channel whenever I want to. I prefer British English to American English so this is exactly my cup of tea. There is often a discussion with some people from different countries who speak English and I can compare their English, which is not perfect (just like my English), with the pure English. From time to time there is somebody who is not a native speaker, but his or her English is very good and it always encourages me to continue learning English, because I can see that it is possible to speak almost like a native speaker.
Reflection:
In my opinion, I am quite good at listening, because I've watched a lot of movies in English and most of them with English subtitles. I also regularly watch BBC NEWS and there is the English I understand very well. I was good at listening in the first semester as well, but nowadays I'm even better at it. I think that one of the reasons I'm better at the activity is that I've improved my vocabulary (topics like weather, crime and punishment, the media, town and cities, music). For example, I had to learn some new vocabulary connected with weather in the first semester and now I can understand better the weather forecast when I watch BBC NEWS. I am also able to recognize when the newsreaders use weak forms or strong forms and this activity is also useful for my pronunciation, because they pronounce words properly and then it's very easy to recognise where the words have their stress. I've spent really many hours watching the BBC NEWS and I've also seen so many movies I can't even count them all up, and that's why I don't have problem to understand the sound of English language. The problem is still the same - my vocabulary, but I think that studying at university my vocabulary is getting better and I can see the progress just when I watch movies or BBC NEWS.
When I watch the BBC NEWS I can understand topics like sports news, weather forecast, culture, foreign affairs, but I have problem to understand when there is a political debate, discussion about economy or science.
I also have problems with tests of listening - I remember that we had a lesson of Practical language and we had to listen to a story. I understood very well, but I had problem to remember all the information so I didn't remember what had been said at the very beginning and then I couldn't answer all questions.
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"The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time"
(Audio book)
esl-bits.net/ESL.English.Learning.Audiobooks/curious.incident.of.the.dog/chapter_index.html
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"Annie Hall"
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"Crimes and Misdemeanors"
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"The Graduate"
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"Marathon Man"
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"Game of Thrones"
(S05E01 - S05E04)
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"A Most Violent Year"
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"Whiplash"
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"Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day"
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"American Sniper"
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"Birdman"
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"Inherent Vice"
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"Interstellar"
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"The Imitation Game"
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"Magic in the Moonlight"
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"Unbroken"
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"The Judge"
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