Nome: Carolina Dias Cunha
Idade: 21 anos
Escolaridade: não informado
Tempo de aprendizagem: não informado


I had my first formal contact with English 9 years ago. I started studying English at the age of 12 and I learnt it through a completly different method I teach nowadays. I studied at Wizard and I spent 5 years and a half learning through the structural method, which would make complete sense for me that time. It was pretty simple: Each odd lesson would have 4 verbs, 12 words of vocabulary, 6 expressions and an example box, which was actually a disguised way to present a fairly poor grammar. Each even lesson, on the other hand, would contain sentences and conversation topics related to the previous lesson. There were 30 lessons to be seen in one semestre. 

The classes were mostly the same and most of my teachers wouldn't change a comma in the lessons (they would really follow the teacher's guide). Besides that, we would pay little attention to listening, grammar and writing. The only focus was speaking and that would be acquired through lots of repetions and drills. Another focus of this course was translation. Homework was always the same: On the first part of it we would have to translate some sentences into English and Portuguese. On the second part of it we would have to continue a text but I really don't think that helped me improve my writing skills since there was no brainstorming or any guidance to support me as a student.

Although the classes were boring and all the same, I managed to make the most of them. I have always been a passionate language learner and I guess that this passion for learning helped me become a very autonomous learner. Throughout these 5 and a half years, I would listen to music in English, read magazines, find pen pals on the net, watch films and read books. After I finished my course, I applied for a job at an English school and I couldn't believe when I passed both the interview and training! Before I started teaching, I had the opportunity to go to Canada for 3 months to prepare myself for the CAE. I could not realise how much I was learning (not only about English but about the culture as well) until I came back and put it into practice.

I had heard about the communicative approach but I did not put so much faith on it. After a couple of weeks teaching, I realised it is a very effective method. Some months later, I started taking a foreign language at University. The method the teacher used was the communicative approach and by the end of the first term, I was pretty amazed with how much I had learnt and I compared with my first term in English (many years ago) and how much I had learnt then. I was sold. From that moment on I became a full supporter of the method and I understood that there isn't such a thing as "the best english course" or "the best method to learn English". Everybody has got their own method and way to learn. 

I think that the structural method was quite good for me because I had the common sense and autonomy to look for other resourses outside the classroom, not depending on my teacher to teach me everything I was supposed to know. Nowadays I am a teacher and I see my students with a critical eye. I try to be as much communicative as one can be and I also encourage them to be autonomous and not depend on me for when it comes to their learning process.