Nome:  Paula Graciano

Idade:  22

Escolaridade: superior incompleto - Letras

Tempo de aprendizagem: dado não informado  

Narrativa coletada por Francisco Figueiredo

 

 

Well, when Professor Francisco asked me to write this report, I first found it pretty easy, but then, when I realized what I was supposed to do, I went crazy. This is one of (or the most) difficult questions for me to answer: “How did you learn English?” It is that difficult, first because I did not have a “systematic” learning process (I did not go to a language institute to learn it, neither had classes nor went abroad), and second because I do not consider that I learnt it. I think I have been learning it, I am still learning it.

The first contact I had with English (learning it) was when I finished elementary school (4ª série) and then everybody started saying that in 5ª série I would study English and that it was “a monster”, something impossible to be learnt. As I had always been a very good student, with good grades and as I am too perfectionist to accept that I was going to face something I could not learn and which was going to be totally new for me, I went to the library at home (my father used to have a library in my house, with over 2,000 books, of all kinds you can think of) and spent a whole day looking for an English book. At the end of the day I found an apostila named “English for Conversation”. I started studying it compulsively. I read the whole book in one week and during vacation time I “learnt” the basis of the language. But of course, I “learnt” grammar rules and did not know how to pronounce a word of what was written there. I remember that I used to translate everything, and then, as I could not understand things very well, I used to ask my cousin, who had studied at CCAA, the meaning of some words. She used to tell me, but now that I know quite a bit of the language, I see that she was not fluent and “invented” some of the things she said in order not to assume she did not know that (she studied at CCAA, she should know everything!)

Then I started 5ª série. During my childhood and adolescence years my family was quite poor, so I studied my whole life at public schools. I did 5ª série at Colégio Estadual Jd. Europa. My teacher was nice but she did not know the language. I remember that she used to teach us just words, things like colors, names of animals, chunks of vocabulary, but not language itself. I got kind of traumatized with this because I wanted to express myself in the new language but I could not. I remember my first class, she asked the group “O que você sabe falar em ingles?” and people started saying words out, such as hot dog, stop, play, shopping, etc. Then I stood up and said: “My name is Paula Graciano”. Everybody laughed at me (due to my pronunciation, of course, I did not know how to say things in English), and then I sat down and remained silent for the rest of the year.

As it was extremely embarrassing to me, I decided to study hard to prove to that teacher I could learn the language! It was a kind of a challenge to me, and I’ve always loved it! I started “devouring” books and apostilas by myself. I was kind of self-taught.

The next year I changed school and went to “Escola Municipal Eng. Antonio Felix da Silva”, where I had the time of my life! In 6ª série I met teacher Cristina, an amazing teacher who used to treat us as “speakers”. We were “forced” to learn things to be able to communicate. The first sentence I learnt was: “Teacher, can I go to the bathroom?”, and for me saying that was just like winning the Oscar!!! In 7ª série I had teacher Lourdes, an outstanding person. Now, I understand her beliefs and procedures: she believed in us! I remember that at the end of that year we, all of the students were divided into groups, we were asked to act some plays in English to the parents and to the rest of the school. The process of rehearsing and ‘stuff’ is unforgettable to me! I owe teacher Lourdes my desire to be a teacher, and especially an English teacher. I wanted to be just like her! Now I see how important a teacher is in a student’s life and how essential rapport is!

That time I knew many things in English but I was not able to communicate freely.

I became a teenager and the adolescence problems to me seemed to be even bigger and worse. I got into deep depression and kind of gave up everything, even studying, which has always been my motto in life. I changed school again and went to Colégio Estadual Polivalente to do the 1^st year of high school. There I had the worst time of my life, on the other hand, I had an excellent teacher, Marise, who taught me to deduce things from the context and to use my background knowledge to understand texts. I was, until that time, a passive student. I had had only input (very few chances to practice actively the language). That time, as I have said before, I was sick (depressed) and my therapist told me to make a diary as part of the treatment. As I’ve already loved English that time, I decided to make it in English. I still have this diary and sometimes I look through it to see how my English was and how I have developed myself. I think I have improved my English very much by writing it. As it did not mean to be read, I could express myself freely and experiment language.

Due to some problems at school, I went to Colégio Estadual St. Sudoeste the following year. There I met my best friend, Lorena. We both are just crazy about music, especially Bon Jovi and Backstreet Boys (that time it was “the fever” among teens). As typical teenagers, we used to collect magazines, posters and CDs. We wanted to know what they said in the songs, so we started translating everything. Sometimes, we translated the lyrics and checked with the translation of a magazine or MTV, but we always did our own translation first and then just compared. By translating the lyrics I improved my English. And as I used to listen to the songs and sing them a thousand times, my pronunciation got incredibly better too.

Well, finally I passed the ‘vestibular’ and entered university, Letras. I consider I had my first ENGLISH class at university. I had never seen a person (in real life) speaking English before, and what is more, fluently. I thought that was possible only for native speakers and that we, “ordinary” people, were supposed to be passive learners: to understand, read and write, if necessary. When I saw Professor Carla and Rodrigo (a student who had lived in the US) talking, I got simply amazed and said to myself: “That’s what I want for me!”. I started studying!

“At first I was afraid, I was petrified”! I could not understand a word of what was said in class and the listening tasks were a tragedy. Rodrigo, this guy who had lived in the US, helped me a lot. He then became my best friend ever! I remember he used to teach me pronunciation, new words and expressions and he used to correct me in a very kind way, repeating what I had said in the correct manner and then I would repeat the right form. As we have a really great friendship, it is just okay for me to be corrected by him. I accept the corrections and even ask him to correct me and be as strict as he can.

I did develop a lot that year at university. At the end of that year I went to CAI (Coordenadoria de Assuntos Internacionais) at UFG and took part in a contest to get a scholarship in an English school. I did not get the scholarship but a friend of mine used to work at British and American, a Conversação Instrumental school, and gave me a scholarship to study there. At this school, I had to prepare the lessons at home (listen to the CD in 6 days, following 6 different steps, then do the homework and the dictation) and moreover attend the classes once a week. There used to be the Lesson Class, a Complementary Class (games, songs, interaction in general), a Movie Class and the Free Conversation Class. I did a one-year course there and then I got self-confident enough to say that I could speak English.

After this period I developed pretty much at university (I guess it was a matter of self-confidence to use the language). My third year was decisive in my academic life. That time I was Professor Francisco’s student and I consider this was the period I learnt the structure I needed to (not only structure of language itself, but theory and system in general). I was able to reflect about the language, and to think about English as part of myself.

That time I tried UFG Centro de Línguas test to be an English teacher. I had already taught before but not really, only at public schools (bad public schools where I could not even ask the students to say “Hi, how are you? Fine, thanks.” because the principal used to say that “Inglês é só pra preencher curriculo”). I was eager to practice what I had been learning and to share my own experience with other people, who I thought wanted to learn as much as I did. I passed the exams (really difficult ones) and nowadays I teach English at UFG Centro de Línguas (CL) and at CNA. Since I entered CL, my professional and academic life has gotten better and better. I’m really proud of being part of the selected group who can teach there. It has been the most amazing experience in my life and I know that I have been learning extremely much there, with the teaching practice, the contact with other and more experienced teachers and with the great help of the supervisors (especially Dr. Rosane Pessoa, who I owe almost all the theory I know about leaning-teaching).

Many other people have influenced my academic and professional life and helped me to be a better teacher and leaner. Professor Francisco is the one who showed me I could be “someone”, that I was able to learn English without going abroad (he often says that, and I did believe I could only learn English if I lived in the US, which now I no longer agree with). Another person who has helped me to build up what I have become is Joelma (Joy), a colleague at university and a true friend who had lived in the US for 4 years and often travels there. She teaches at Cultura Inglesa and really knows a lot about teaching.

Actually I am still not that self-confident to say that I do know English. I know I have millions of things to learn and will always have! In fact, I am even “afraid’ of speaking English to Rodrigo, who is a kind of model to me for being the first one who showed me that speaking English was possible. When I started writing this report, I decided to do so in English as a way to practice it (I try to take all the chances I have to use the language).

Well, I guess my experience with English is all about contact with people, songs and books. As I am a compulsive reader, like music very much and love being with people, I learn a lot by other people’s experiences and by “receiving” input.