31 Oct 12 English Proficiency

Today, I checked my English proficiency of 4 skills according to ACTFL (American Council on teaching of Foreign Language) proficiency guidelines. This guidelines offer us a practical desciption of speaking, listening, reading, and writing proficiency at numerous gradations. (TBP, p.111)

My proficiency level of each skill is discribed below.

Listening - Advanced Mid
At the Advanced Mid sublevel, listeners are able to understand conventional narrativenarrativeThe relating of a story or account of events, experiences, etc., whether true or fictitious, told in a logical and chronological order. and descriptive texts, such as expanded descriptions of persons, places, and things, and narrations about past, present, and future events. The speech is predominantly in familiar target-language patterns. Listeners understand the main facts and many supporting details. Comprehension derives not only from situational and subject-matter knowledge, but also from an increasing overall facility with the language itself. (ACTFL site)

Speaking - Intermediate High
Intermediate High speakers are able to converse with ease and confidence when dealing with the routine tasks and social situations of the Intermediate level. They are able to handle successfully uncomplicated tasks and social situations requiring an exchange of basic information related to their work, school, recreation, particular interests, and areas of competence. (ACTFL site)

Reading - Advanced Mid
At the Advanced Mid sublevel, readers are able to understand conventional narrativenarrativeThe relating of a story or account of events, experiences, etc., whether true or fictitious, told in a logical and chronological order. and descriptive texts, such as expanded descriptions of persons, places, and things and narrations about past, present, and future events. These texts reflect the standard linguistic conventions of the written form of the language in such a way that readers can predict what they are going to read. Readers understand the main ideas, facts, and many supporting details. Comprehension derives not only from situational and subject-matter knowledge but also from knowledge of the language itself. Readers at this level may derive some meaning from texts that are structurally and/or conceptually more complex. (ACTFL site)

Writing - Advanced Low
Writers at the Advanced Low sublevel are able to meet basic work and/or academic writing needs. They demonstrate the ability to narrate and describe in major time framestime framesGeneral periods of time, past, present, or future, however, these may be indicated in a particular language. with some control of aspectaspectA verbal category that refers to some characteristic of the activity or state of a verb. It indicates if an action or state is viewed as completed or in progress (I went/I was going), instantaneous or enduring (The sun came out/The sun was shining), momentary or habitual (They vacationed at the shore/They used to vacation at the shore). Aspect is often indicated by prefixes, suffixes, infixes, phonetic changes in the root verb, use of auxiliaries. . They are able to compose simple summaries on familiar topics. Advanced Low writers are able to combine and link sentences into texts of paragraphparagraphA self-contained, cohesive unit of spoken or written discourse that generally consists of multiple sentences linked by internal organization and connectors. length and structure. Their writing, while adequate to satisfy the criteria of the Advanced level, may not be substantive. Writers at the Advanced Low sublevel demonstrate the ability to incorporate a limited number of cohesive devicescohesive devicesLanguage components that link ideas for smooth flow within and among sentences and paragraphs, such as conjunctions, relative pronouns, pronoun substitutions (subject, verb), adverbs of time, subordinate clauses. , and may resort to some redundancyredundancyThe repetition of linguistic information. and awkward repetition. They rely on patterns of oral discoursediscourseUnit of structured speech or writing. and the writing style of their first language. These writers demonstrate minimal control of common structures and vocabulary associated with the Advanced level. Their writing is understood by natives not accustomed to the writing of non-natives, although some additional effort may be required in the reading of the text. When attempting to perform functions at the Superior level, their writing will deteriorate significantly. (ACTFL site)

30 Oct 12 Learning Style Checklist

I will start to write my English study log from today on. I am always saying that I want to be a great English teacher. But I'm even not a great English learner, especially I didn't think about my learning seriously. I had just been thinking 'Just do it, then it will help in some ways.' I don't want to make a same mistake anymore!
I hope this log helps me to understand about myself and my learning. Furthermore, I hope it could be a starting point of becomming a great English teacher who help other people to learn English effectively and efficiently.

As a start, I checked my personal learning style. I used Informal self-checklist cited from TBP.

Seeing what I checked, I found that I've been trying to find as many opportunities to use English as possible.  I am certainly eager to speak English well. However, I try to make a 'perfect' utterance so that I get easily get embarrased when I speak English.