Nome: RENATA DEL RIO MEINTS
Idade: 22 
Escolaridade: 3o grau em curso
Tempo de aprendizagem: 6 anos


I have been studying English since I entered Number One english course, when I was nine years old. I have studied there for seven years, and after finishing the course, I took the teaching test at the school (Just like TOEFL exam) and I have been working there since then. After two or three years, I took the entrance exam at UFMG and started studying English here. I can say that I have been going "into" this language for twelve years. As I began at Number One as a child, the method helped me a lot. It is very communicative and playful the way children learn there, but this atmosphere is maintained throughout the course, going along with the person's growth. Furthermore, Number One uses the communicative approach in their method, which, I believe, helped me to develop very well all communicative abilities; Firstly, as a warm-up, a game, a song or other activities (usually in the multimedia) are used to "break the ice" and introduce the grammar point or vocabulary to be worked at that unit. For instance, if we are to study food, there is an activity of a character who is going to the supermarket.The names of fruit, vegetables and other food are introduced. Afterwards, there is the presentation of a dialogue (created for that purpose, but on a real situation). The students are asked to repeat the lines, and grasp by the context the unknown words. Later, the teacher explains them. There is a line in the dialogue which contains the main grammar point, which is called the Microwave line. The students ask and answer questions around this line, what I consider to be a controlled practice. After that, the situation is transposed to the students' lives. For instance, if the line is "I'm going to buy some onions", and the main grammar point is "going to" , a conversation will be induced by the teacher, who asks if the person goes to the supermarket, how often s/he goes there, if s/he is going there tomorrow, and so on. The students also ask each other questions, but often guided by the teacher. 
Then, there is a reading activity, where the students get in touch with the written form of the dialogue previously worked; the teacher asks the students to read out loud, and to make up sentences with the new vocabulary. I personally think this is very good, because I have never been able to memorize words I have never or hardly used. As a written practice, there is a task, which is often to answer questions about the text or yourself using the new structure. To wrap up, usually we were required to role-play a similar situation, but we had to create the dialogues. This is very good because the situation gets into our minds, not only the abstract figure of a character going to the supermarket, but we go to the supermarket ourselves. This helped me to develop all communicative competences, I believe, quite well. 
Apart from studying at Number One, I also loved to listen to music and try to get the lyrics by paying attention to them. This was very good for me to develop listening skills, what I believe to be the most difficult part in learning.