Portfolio Presentation

Portfolio Presentation

Good morning everybody. My name is Violetta Belyay, and today I would like to tell you about my accomplishments and results achieved during the process of private studies of the German language. Before having taken the German course at King's College, I usually associated the learning of foreign languages with the process that requires the person for maximum seriousness and concentration. Yet while completing my e-portfolio, I realised how the acquisition of German could be turned into a truly enjoyable and interesting process.

All the tasks introduced in the portfolio allow the students to embrace the foreing language from the completely different perspectives. As such, I was able to deepen my knowledge of the German grammar, as well as improve my listening and oral skills while watching films in German and reading the German newspapers. The process of comparing the world cultures is no less helpful. As a result, I could recognize many similarities that exist between the traditions of Germany and Russia, including the language traditions. This provided me with the further incentive for learning the German language.

Every student was free in his choice of literature, movies and newspaper articles. Yet I believe that my e-portfolio can provide the students of our group with some new and, what is important, truly engaging and interesting tasks. I hope that my accomplishments will be somehow helpful for all of you.I would like to briefly introduce you some of the tasks and useful links I found during the process of private studies.

To my mind, the adequate perception of speech is the essential ability that must be attained by the learners of any foreign language. In order to improve my German listening skills, I did 8 tasks provided in the course textbook “Aspekte Neu”. This practice allowed me to listen to the songs of my favourite German singer Lafee in a more meaningful way. In learning foreign languages, I always try to combine business with pleasure. As such, I followed the German audio version of my favourite cartoon “The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ukzm4qxCVY). Moreover, I listened to the popular German radio station called Deutschlandfunk, what allowed me to get acquainted with a more saturated German speech. (http://www.deutschlandfunk.de/startseite.187.de.html). Time: 2 hours.

The well-developed reading skills are no less crucial for successful acquisition of the foreign language. For this reason, I visited numerous German websites, including the official page of the Federal Government, or Die Bundesregierung (http://www.bundesregierung.de/Webs/Breg/DE/Startseite/startseite_node.html).This helped me to acquire some specific lexis. Additionally, I read a part of my favourite novella “Death in Venice” by Thomas Mann in the German language. Ultimately, I was able to feel the “original” nature of this masterpiece, as well as to broaden significantly my vocabulary range. Time: approx. 1 hour.

No less successful has been the improvement of my ability to speak German. The Forvo website (http://ru.forvo.com/languages/de/) was especially helpful when I needed to discover the pronunciation of various complicated words. With the video lessons (http://deutschhappen.com/german-pronunciation-exercises.html), I was able to indicate several subtleties of German speech. Furthermore, I regularly sang popular German songs of Tokio Hotel and Lafee, what enabled to speed up mu pronunciation. Time: 1 hour 30 min.

In order to become a successful German speaker, one necessarily needs an actual practice, where he/she can apply his/her knowledge in the everyday life situations. I have an opportunity to chat with my grandmother’s sister, which has been living in Austria for more than 15 years. During our communication via Facebook and Skype, I enjoy the constant improvement of my speaking and listening skills. Time: 1 hour 30 min.

The desire of fluency in German made me to embed the practice of this language in my leisure time, including the process of watching movies. As such, I watched nearly half of the film “Perfume: the Story of a Murderer” based on the novel by German writer Patrick Süskind. I watched it with subtitles, as sometimes it was quite hard to follow the actors’ speech. Nevertheless, I succeeded to understand the major storyline. I am going to review this film in order to broaden my vocabulary and advance the pronunciation skills as well. Time: 50 minutes.

A proper acquaintance with the German culture could not be possible without watching some of their popular TV programmes. As such, I watched several fragments from the German version of the worldwide show “The X Factor” (http://www.clipfish.de/special/x-factor/video).Predominantly, this were the episodes from the grand finale dated by 25^th November 2013. Besides a profound improvement of my listening skills, I could easily immerse into the everyday life of the participants and their leaders. The warm and relaxed atmosphere of the show persuaded me that heartfulness and tenderness were the indispensable features of the character of any German person. Time: approx. 40 minutes.

I tried to become better acquainted with the German language by observing the newspapers from the German-speaking countries. As such, I tried to read the December 2014 issue of the Austrian magazine “NEWS” (www.news.at). In particular, I found it interesting to read what Austrian press wrote about the situation in the Ukraine (p.15; p.79) and the victory of Conchita Wurst in the Eurovision Song Contest (p.14). I found it quite difficult to get the idea of the texts from the first time. However, after re-reading them more accurately, I could understand the written things pretty well. Time: 30 minutes.

The process of learning some foreign language will inevitably make you more interested in the culture of the origin countries. I have been taking the German courses for more than three months, and, for this period of time, I have discovered a lot of German national customs, from family habits and ending by holiday traditions. Many of the German holiday customs sounded very similar to the Russia ones. For example, both in Russia and Germany, Christmas is celebrated among the closest family members, while the New Year is usually met in a large circle of friends, when people dance and launch fireworks all night long. The Easter is also celebrated very similarly in both countries. Germans, alike the Russian people, paint eggs and prepare some courses for the traditional family dinner.

In contrast, German family traditions tend to be very different from those in Russia. As such, the family members are not so linked with each other in Germany as they are in Russia; as a rule, German children leave their parent’s families just when they are eighteen, while in Russia, people can keep living with their parents even after they got married and had their own children. Personal characteristics are also very distinct in the both states. For instance, the Germans value every second of their time and thus tend to be much more punctual than the Russian people. Moreover, notwithstanding their well-developed economy, the German people are commonly very thrifty, while the Russians can sometimes spend their money recklessly. Time: approx. 50 minutes.

I recently started watching the BBC Documentary “Make me a German”, which consists of four parts no longer that 15 minutes each (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-kAXqyx9HU). This documentary helps to understand why the German people have been so successful in various life spheres: the highest employments rates, best football players, first to go on holiday and so forth. This film allowed me to become better engaged with the features of the typical Germans and to compare their treats of character and traditions to those accepted in my country. In my opinion, Germans tend to be more community-minded than the Russian people. They have a sense of belonging and sharing responsibilities with the people surrounding them, both at work and in the leisure time. In regard to the average income, German people tend to earn more, while they work shorter hours. This is because, at work, the German people actually “work”; they are not on Facebook or any other social networks, like many Russians are. Overall, the film has helped me greatly to understand the nature of the German success. Time: 1 hour.

I read the article in the Telegraph (www.telegraph.co.uk) about the increasing number of anti-Islam protests in various cities of Germany, including Berlin and Dresden. Their famously known anti-Islam movement “Pegida” constantly grows as the result of periodic terrorist alerts across the entire Europe and in Germany in particular. The Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel, has claimed about her interest that “demonstrations can take place anywhere in Germany, because it is a fundamental right”. I believe that British politicians would have taken the same approach. They also recognize the basic individual rights, including the right of self-expression and the right to be secured. I would love to read about this event in some German newspaper, and I hope that my skills will allow me to do this successfully. Time: approx. 45 minutes.

Overall, I found the task of e-portfolio truly useful, engaging and very exciting. I hope that my studies would serve a great help for all our students. Thank you very much for the attention! Does anyone have any questions?

Дата добавления: 2015-09-28