January, 2016
When I found out that there would be the subject "British history" in the 3rd semester I immediately decided to buy the recommended book for studying this particular subject. I'm quite interested in British or American history so I don't regret my decision. The book has a lot of pages but it wasn't a problem at all, because through the reading of the book I could kill two birds with one stone. Firstly, I could improve my reading skills and also improve my vocabulary. Secondly, it was very useful for taking my test at the end of the 3rd semester - it really was.
I like reading books and interesting articles on the internet so I didn't have to make myself to do the activity.
I've also read "Robinson Crusoe" and "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" but especially Robinson Crusoe was not my cup of tea. It was so boring, probably because I had read the book when I was young so I knew the plot. I've almost forgotten, I had to read these two books to fulfil all the necessary conditions to "British Literature".
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Reflection:
As was stated above, I'm quite interested in British history so I enjoyed reading the book and I must say that it surpassed my expectations.
At first I read every chapter of the book without using a dictionary ( but I wrote down the words I didn't understand ). Then I read the parts of the chapter where there were words I didn't understand again, but this time with using a dictionary. I wrote down all the words and created a list of vocabulary of the particular book to be able to learn them later. It had appeared to be a very good decision because I needed to know many of them in the final test.
Here is the list of vocabulary: History of Britain Vocabulary.pdf (39640)
Thanks to the reading I realised that subjects as Grammar, Practical language and Syntax are really very useful for my English, because during reading the book I was able to understand better than I had been in the last semester (vocabulary, grammar and so on). I like the feeling when I realise that something I've learned is useful. Moreover, the reading itself is also very useful for improving my grammar and my range of vocabulary.
I amm quite satisfied with my reading skills so next semester I would like to read the novel I am really interested in - Moby-Dick. It's going to be a good challenge for testing my reading but I am looking forward to reading the novel.
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November 2015 - December 2015
"Oxford Illustrated history of BRITAIN - Updated Edition"
History of Britain Vocabulary.pdf
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October 2015
"Sir Gawain and the Green Knight"
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November 2015 - December 2015
"Robinson Crusoe"
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More activities connected with reading:
www.history.com/topics/halloween/history-of-halloween
www.npr.org/sections/theprotojournalist/2014/10/29/359547119/halloween-for-adults-a-scary-history
www.bbc.com/news/magazine-29543708
www.npr.org/2015/11/08/455202525/more-universities-move-to-include-gender-neutral-pronouns
www.forbes.com/forbes/welcome/
www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/planning-1
www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/planning-2
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Quiet_on_the_Western_Front
www.pbs.org/greatwar/maps/index.html
