Hi everybody!
…Final post… :-(
As I wrote in the wiki, I wasn’t so enthusiastic to start again in February. I had some problems with my timetable so I considered the exchange ‘another thing’ I had to do. Then, once I started the skype sessions, I started to enjoy the experience.
The exchange has been one of the most exciting and interesting things I’ve ever done at university for two main reasons. The first one is that we got rid of First class and we used other tools such as Skype. The other one is that we had an interactive course. Some teachers tell us we have a bad pronunciation. Actually they don’t do anything to help us. The simplest way to improve it is to speak a lot and listen to native speakers oral productions. This is essentially what we did in this course (for an entire year, not 20 hours…).
Skype gave us the opportunity to have real-time conversations with native speakers and that was great! Besides, we were all in the same boat because both Italian and American students were supposed to speak both in Italian and English. I think that the success of the exchange is mainly due to the final project. I mean, when you work together with a purpose, you cooperate and you must work hard for the group.
In the second semester I improved my culture competence and my language skills. I’ve already assessed both of them in the wiki, but I’d like to add something. Usually, when we talk to teachers, they slow the speed so that everybody can understand. That’s why at first, I was stunned by the speed of Kristen’s words. I found very useful the skype sessions because it was like a face-to-face conversation in which the speed was more or less a normal one!
Finally some suggestions. I think it would be useful for students to have skype sessions all over the year (maybe it’s impossible for practical reasons, I don’t know…) because it’s the best way to improve their oral skills. Besides I think that the period we had to prepare the final project was too short. I mean, we did a great job, but we could do it better!!!
I really enjoyed attending your course; hope to see you soon
Stefania
Stefania
