ARTEVELDEHOGESCHOOL
Final Feedback Report Business English 2B Fleur Vanslembrouck 26-4-2014
Table of contents Table of contents ..................................................................................................................... 1 1.
Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 2
2.
Executive summary .......................................................................................................... 2
3.
Achievements ................................................................................................................... 2 3.1.
Goal 1: Improving my pronunciation ..................................................................... 3
3.1.1.
Pecha Kucha ...................................................................................................... 3
3.2.
Goal 2: Reducing the stress and nerves ................................................................ 4
3.3.
Goal 3: Expending my English vocabulary ............................................................ 4
4.
Projects ............................................................................................................................... 4
5.
An assess of the course and the lecturer ...................................................................... 4
6.
Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 6
7.
Resources ........................................................................................................................... 6
Fleur Vanslembrouck
Business English 2B
Pagina 1
1. Introduction First of all I would like to thank Mr. Pollet for the many new aspects of the English language he taught me this year. At the beginning of my second year at the Arteveldehogeschool I didn’t know what people expect when they asked for creativity. Due to a lot of presentations, writing tasks and meetings do I know the meaning of creativity. Furthermore, I know how to be creative. I believe that being creative and knowing how to present in front of a group are two skills I really need in the future.
2. Executive summary Did my English improve? This will be the major subject of the following report. My English should have improved since September 2013. The three major subjects in my action plan were: improving my pronunciation, reducing the stress and nerves and expending my English vocabulary. Due to the many presentations and meetings I achieved the goals of my action plan. A nice and creative outcome always makes me happy. Speaking and reading English well is extremely important to me. The fact that I’m this motivated to pass the course English 2B endorses this claim. There is one thing I learned: “patience is the key to improving your English, so go slowly and focus on your goals. You'll speak English well if you keep to the plan.”
3. Achievements First of all is learning English a long process. The most important thing to do is to create an action plan and follow that plan. This year, I was continually improving my English while keeping my action plan in the back of my head. Action plan September 2013: “During this second year of education, I will speak more English and improve my pronunciation. An important step will be learning how to reduce my stress and nerves. One of the solutions is; learning how to control them. My presentation skills will improve by doing a lot of exercises during the English courses. I must study my grammar on a regularly basis, so I don’t forget the basics I’ve learned in the past. While doing my homework I will use dictionaries to broaden my vocabulary (e.g. synonyms …) this is the only way to expand my vocabulary. I will concentrate on searching business and marketing related words. In my future job I will need more words to explain what I want to say. I have to undertake action, because my English has to improve from B1 to B2.” Fleur Vanslembrouck
Business English 2B
Pagina 2
3.1.
Goal 1: Improving my pronunciation
The first goal I wanted to achieve is: improving my pronunciation while speaking more English. If you want to know how much you improved, who better to ask than the people who live the nearest to you? My closest friends and family endorse the claim that I speak this language better than in the past. My mom and dad were astonished when they heard me talking English. Also my boyfriend Pieter, who spends most of the time by my side, is convinced that I’ve improved my pronunciation. Moreover he told me that I’m less stressed the evening before a presentation. At the end of the day are those facts pleasant to hear. 3.1.1. Pecha Kucha
Picture 1 Pecha Kucha
That improvement didn’t come without exercising. The Pecha Kucha presentation was the start of something new. I wanted to take a different road. Surprising my classmates was the major goal. Therefore I searched a different topic, made a different PowerPoint and presented in a different way. For the first time ever I felt selfassured. People did like my way of presenting the marketing campaign of Miley Cyrus, and even days after the exhibition my classmates talked about my presentation. I felt on top of the world and decided to make every following presentation a masterpiece. Today I can proudly say that I’ve improved my presentation skills. And this wasn’t possible without my Pecha Kucha presentation.
Fleur Vanslembrouck
Business English 2B
Pagina 3
3.2.
Goal 2: Reducing the stress and nerves
My classmates already noticed that I’m a stressed person. In semester 2A I was always stressed before and while the presentations. I couldn’t handle the nerves and forgot things I wanted to say or started making mistakes. Due to the many presentations I gave this year, I started to handle the stress and nerves well. But I also learned some stress management. It starts with identifying the sources of stress in your life. I thought that school was the source of stress in my life but my true source of stress wasn’t that obvious. I had to look deeper into my thoughts, feelings and behaviors. To identify my true sources of stress, I looked closely at my habits, attitude, and excuses. I found out what was giving me the feeling of stress and I learned how to control it. That’s the main reason why I could reduce the stress and nerves this year. I’m relieved that I could achieve this important step in life.
3.3.
Goal 3: Expending my English vocabulary
Just a few weeks after the Pecha Kucha presentation we had to debate. Not the typical debate but it was an oral assignment using modern technology: the video conference. We had to debate for 10 to 15 minutes and the objective was to improve our functional language in discussions, expressing our opinion in a businesslike way and studying a current socio-economic topic. This assignment was very interesting knowing that I wanted to improve my pronunciation and expend my English vocabulary. In order to debate well, I searched a lot of topic related words. I felt well prepared and the video conference went also well.
4. Projects I feel that I’ve improved my way of being creative. Every time they ask me to be different. I try to stand out and most of the time I do this with the visuals. Making a short movie, a website, a blog and creating a promotion clip, designing PowerPoints or Prezi’s… Before the start of this year I was convinced that sales would be my future job. Now I’m thinking about studying creativity and innovation to give my skills a boost.
5. An assess of the course and the lecturer If I’m honest, I was very scared to start semester 2B. Because I thought that the past semester was so hard to keep up all the work. Luckily was semester 2B a whole different way of learning English. We learned how to be creative and spontaneous. I Fleur Vanslembrouck
Business English 2B
Pagina 4
think that the pecha kucha presentation was the eye-opener for me and for my classmates. The level of giving a presentation became higher and better. So according to me, this presentation should be there for the other students of next year.
Picture 2 Video Conference
Secondly was debating via a video-conference also an interesting attachment. I had some nerves beforehand but while doing the debate I thought that this was fun! I learned some important business words and looked at the topic in a different way. My third remark on the English course is also positive. I liked it when Mr. Pollet allowed us to see our own presentation. He filmed short parts of our presentations and also of the video conference. When you hear yourself talking another language or you see yourself presenting, you can at least learn from your own mistakes. That’s why I think filming the presentations was a good way of facing the students with their own mistakes. Taking the screenshots of the units was not interesting for me. I thought that the task was way too easy and that I didn’t learn new things. Finally I would like to write about the innovation pitch. I didn’t present it yet, but I feel that this was a very new and innovative way of thinking. I find this task truly motivating and remarkable because I had to make a small business plan and be creative at the same time. These kinds of attachments are the ones we will need in our future job as a marketer.
Fleur Vanslembrouck
Business English 2B
Pagina 5
6. Conclusion When I have to make a final conclusion of this exiting year then I have one important thing to say. I achieved my goals that I’ve set in my action plan at the start of September 2013. I improved my pronunciation, learned a lot of business words, reduced my stress and nerves and learned how to be creative. I learned from my own mistakes and taught myself a better way of presenting. The many projects kept me going and showed me that the English language is very useful in every business related situation.
7. Resources Erik Pollet. (sd). Dropbox. Opgeroepen op April 2014, 26, van Dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/gwaztz1kx5o5ywr/yVS3fjKFZW#lh:null20140331.avi
Fleur Vanslembrouck
Business English 2B
Pagina 6