A bittersweet class.

16th September

Title and date

This class was based on the topic language and regional variation, which was explained through a presentation. It was really interesting because of the introduction of new words associated with linguistic geography. I have to say this topic was special for me because I had to prepare that presentation and it was good to do that. Personally, I could get a lot of new vocabulary and understand the meaning of some terms as for example: standard language, dialect, accent, bilingualism etc. Besides, it included many words that I had never heard, as: diglossia, pidgin, creole, among others. The relevant aspect of this class was to know the linguistic richness represented by the large number of languages and dialects in the world. In addition to this, it was good to learn how the place or region affects the speech of those people living there. In this way, two main problems arise from this topic. The first is the relation between prestigious and language, creating certain discrimination and stigmatization among people who speak a standard variation of a language and who do not. The second has to do with language planning. It means the way how governments decide the language that should be considered as the official one of their countries. So, there are some interesting cases that require our analysis and it is not easy to come to a consensus in those situations. These two problems are really concerning with my life because I should consider that no one language is better than another one. On the contrary, the differences among languages do that disciplines as applied linguistics are interested on searching and study the component of languages or dialects that do not represent standard variation but they still are valuable for mankind. As an English language learner I take into account that I have some advantages for speaking Spanish and it is a reason why I should feel myself proud despite the fact that I will never acquire the proper accent of an English native speaker. I have always thought that the main purpose is to learn English and speak it with intelligibility.

Contextualization of the idea you are going to develop in your journal. Description of the situation (in the class) or the topic.

If you are going to mention a topic that we developed in class, then, you can mention what is the topic about, what you learned about it. Remember the theory is also necessary. It is not a descriptive text, but a Reflective one, so your comments, reflections, deductions, conclusions should be constant, not left for the end.

Apart from the content of this class, I want to write about my performance during that presentation. Although, I had understood the topic and I was preparing my speech a pairs of days before, I felt very nervous and I forgot everything. I think my performance was not the worst but it was not so good at all. My partner could not understand what had gone wrong with me. All this situation made me reflect about my learning process and find the possible mistakes that I am making. Perhaps, the main flaws that are affecting me are the shyness and the lack of self-confidence and my duty is to improve this type of situations that are affecting my learning.

Do not forget that your journal is personal, it should be written in 1st person (I, me, my, personally, are common). Therefore your personal opinion and your personal conclusions are the most important.