Narrativas coletadas por Francisco Quaresma de Figueiredo

Nome: Aurélio Pinto Araújo

Idade: 22 anos

Escolaridade: 4º ano do curso de Letras Português/Inglês  

Narrativa coletada por Francisco Figueiredo

 

 

I will present my learning process of English dividing it into three parts: the first part refers to the period from 1989 to 1994 when I started studying this language, the second which encompasses the period from 1995 to 1999 when I was at the high school, and the third one which goes from 2001 until the present time, at the university

 

In 1989, I had my first English class at Colégio Exato, in Iporá-GO. I was at the 2nd year of the elementary school. The teacher came to my classroom and started teaching us how to greet someone, the numbers from zero to ten, the English alphabet and it was all. Two weeks later, my family moved to Goiânia and in my new school we did not study English. Fifteen years later, this class is still alive in my memory. I could not understand why I had to study English. I remember I passed all the class long smiling because I found the pronunciation of the words in English totally funny.

 

From 1989 to 1991 I did not study English, because my parents had not money to pay an English course for me or for my brother. In 1992, when I was at the 5th year or the 1st year of high school, I re-started studying English, but I hated my teacher. All the classes consisted of grammar, grammar, grammar and literal translation of the texts presented in the lessons of the book.

 

From 1992 to 1994 all my English classes consisted of doing the same things. My teacher was graduated in Physical Education, but the school’s principal decided that she had to teach English for the high school. It was dreadful and I hated studying English, I became an enemy of my teacher, I hated my classmates. After all, I hated everything that was written or pronounced in English. My marks were as dreadful as the classes I had.

 

In 1995, when I was doing the 7th year or the 3rd year of high school again, because I had failed in Maths, I went to another school. This school used the same method to teach English to the students: grammar and literal translation of the texts, but to learn and to fix new vocabulary and some structures of English, the students had to copy the texts of the lessons in their notebooks three times and translate them three times, as well. At the beginning it was awful, but at the end of the year it was so common and I knew so many words that translating the texts was not a problem anymore, at least for me. It is so difficult to explain, but I have an ability to make analogies with my first language, and I can create new words or to explore the meaning of the things that I want to say.

 

In 1997 I went to another school, but the method was the same, although we had to translate the texts just once. In this period which goes from 1992 to 1999 I acquired a lot of vocabulary, I could read and understand texts, and I could read the sites I accessed on the net, but I could not understand what people said in the films that I watched or in the songs I heard. I felt I was a stupid for I was not even able to understand a song.

 

In 2000, I passed the “vestibular”, a kind of test that Brazilian students have to take to join the university, and I started studying English for the third time. As I said previously, I had a lot of vocabulary and no ability to listen and to speak. I could write some sentences but I was unable to write a paragraph, for example.

 

My first teacher at the university was Maria Aparecida Yasbec Sebba (Cida or Cidinha). She was my teacher from 2001 until the end of 2002. Even today, when I remember Cida’s classes, I feel an emotion that is so strong and different that I start crying. Cida’s classes were so different from the others I have ever had at high school. Her classes were totally in English. At first I could not understand what she was asking me and my classmates to do. I used to follow my classmates, but at the end of 2001, I was reading a book about London to present it to my teacher and to my friends. In a period of just one year I mysteriously started speaking English.

 

At the beginning of my English course at the university, I had to study hard to improve my English because I felt and I still feel that I have to speak in the classroom. So I started joining chat rooms on the net, to write some paragraphs and give them to my classmates read, I started listening to songs and pay more attention to the films that I watched. It helped me and still helps me a lot.

 

But where is Cida in all this process? She is in my heart and in my memory. She vibrated with her students’ progress and she was always encouraging them to improve a little more, to make efforts to improve their abilities on reading, writing, listening, and speaking. She had not an up-close relationship with the book we used. The book was useful in her classes but not the unique resource of teaching; she encouraged the practice of conversation in pairs, she made a very good activity of pre-reading when we had to read a text. She was completely dedicated to her work.

 

Cida was my teacher for two years and I miss her a lot. She became a friend of her students; she was always friendly and willing to help them if they had problems to understand something or just to chat about any subject. With her I studied and learnt a lot and in the very last day of the course, I left the classroom crying because I knew I would not be a student of hers in the next year. I am so thankful to her because she gave me the basis of learning and with her I felt that I am a person who is able to speak English.

 

Today I am an English teacher and I try to give my students the same wonderful classes I have had at the university. I work for Centro de Línguas at UFG and I am trying hard to be a good teacher. I prepare my lessons carefully, I am always looking up new words in my dictionary, I have long conversations with my supervisor about the lessons I teach to my students, I ask for my friends or my teacher’s help etc.

 

Being a teacher at Centro de Línguas has helped me a lot. I am improving my vocabulary because students are always making questions about it. I feel that my speaking has improved because I am less afraid of speaking in the classroom with my students and/or with my classmates or my teacher. And it is helping me at the graduation course as well, because I have to read a little more and I feel a little less shy of asking my teacher about things I find completely foolish.

 

Even doing all the things I presented in this text, I will not stop studying English. I think I can be a good teacher one day and I will not give up trying to improve my proficiency. Nevertheless, I am just at the beginning of my career as a teacher. I have many things to do yet.