UANL
UNIVERSIDAD AUTÓNOMA DE NUEVO LEÓN
FACULTAD DE FILOSOFIA Y LETRAS
COLEGIO CIENCIAS DEL LENGUAJE
LABORATORIO CERTIFICACION LENGUA INGLESA C1
PIA Portafolio de Actividades
Prácticas de certificaciones (TOEFL, IBT y CAE)
Nombre del alumno: Jennifer Melissa Silva Gómez
Nombre del maestro: Mtra. Laura Alicia Robles Treviño
Semestre: 7mo
Fecha: 03/12/23
Index
Certification practices..............................................................................................................3
Results of practices.................................................................................................................59
Self-evaluation.........................................................................................................................61
Reflection.................................................................................................................................62
References................................................................................................................................65
Certification practices
TOEFL
LISTENING
https://www.examenglish.com/TOEFL/toefl_listening.htm
https://www.examenglish.com/TOEFL/TOEFL_listening_conversation1.htm
https://www.examenglish.com/TOEFL/TOEFL_listening_conversation4.htm
https://www.examenglish.com/TOEFL/TOEFL_lecture5.htm
Reading
https://www.examenglish.com/TOEFL/TOEFL_reading1.htm
https://www.examenglish.com/TOEFL/toefl_reading.htm
https://www.examenglish.com/TOEFL/TOEFL_reading5.htm
https://www.examenglish.com/TOEFL/TOEFL_reading7.htm
Speaking
https://www.bestmytest.com/toefl-speaking/2/97
https://www.bestmytest.com/toefl-speaking/2/83
https://www.bestmytest.com/toefl-speaking/4/23
Writing
https://writeandimprove.com/workbooks#/wi-workbooks/bdc648bc-b760-4bac-98bc-
161a95deff5e/tasks/628c7e9c-8474-40f5-b838-8d1e3de220d5
https://writeandimprove.com/workbooks#/wi-workbooks/bdc648bc-b760-4bac-98bc-
161a95deff5e/tasks/62602bc4-7c99-4de5-8642-51634b02a6ec
https://www.bestmytest.com/toefl-integrated-writing/1
https://www.bestmytest.com/toefl-integrated-writing/36
CAE
Listening Exercise 1
Exercise 2
Exercise 3
Exercise 4
Reading
Exercise 1
Exercise 2
Exercise 3
Exercise 4
Writing
Speaking
IELTS
Listening
Exercise 1
Exercise 2
Exercise 3
Exercise 4
Reading
Exercise 2
Exercise 3
Exercise 4
Speaking
Writing
Exercise 1 and 2
TOEFL Reflection
Doing all of these kinds of exercise about test “TOEFL IBT”, change the perseption that I had
about the exercises that should be in that type of tests. I was able to notice that in the four
different abilities, which are speaking, listenging, writing and reading; my scores were very
acceptable but I need to improve more my english skills.
Practicing different exercises made me realize that they tend to be very different from the
exercises that every person who is studying a second language, in this case English, knows, of
course that everything is in English but I can say that they are not similar to the common
english test that we have done in the school.
I personally think that writing is my best skill, because in this web site called
“Writing&Improve” I did two excersices, in the first one it was talking about some
advertisements of healthy food that I could choose from and I think that having the option to
choose a topic that is very interesting to me helped me a lot in compared to when they given
you a random topic, which I might consider boring, so, I got in my score level B1 and B2 and
that made me very proud because I wrote that review by myself.
In the last three abilities I have to admit that I am not good at them, of course seeing my
results in the speaking section made me feel discouraged but I know that I have to work on it.
That also happened in the section of sepaking and reading; honestly I have never liked that
section because I find it very tedious and it makes me feel a lot of stress and in the speaking
section I usually get many nervous when I have to speak in English but as I said before, I need
to lose my fear and work againg and again until I can get that good pronunciation.
This exercises helped me a lot and of course in the future when I take a certification of level
C1, I will feel more comfortable and of course ready to take the test.
CAE Reflection
For the CAE certification in advanced level C1, I practiced the four skills listening, reading,
writing and speaking. While I was looking for some exercises to do for the section of listening
I noticed that these kind of exercises were similaries to the exercises from TOEFL IBT
certification because they followed the similar or even the same structure in exercises where
you must change the word given or in anothers exercises you should hear an audio about 2-3
minutes and then fill the gaps with the word that is missing so you have to pay a lot of
attention and listen carefully; personally these two types of exercises in the skill listening
were the most difficult to me because sometime I don’t understand what the people from the
audio are saying, I mean, it makes me feel anxious and get a lot of stress because is supposed
that I should understand everything but I know that I have to practice and practice.
In the reading section, again as in the TOEFL IBT exercises, I get the most weak score
because read a long text for me is very bored, I don’t really like those kind of texts where you
read so much and then you go to the questions and select the answers from a to d. What I ever
noticed in this skill is that I need to practice as much as I can because that sections is part of
every certification in level C1, so that’s will be my mission, practice the reading section.
In the writing section I expected that I had better scores but the reallity was another, I
expected that I could reach the level C1 one but again I get the levels B1 and B2, which are ok
to me but I also need to make and effort and try to do my best because I realized that when I
finished my review or the essay, the mistakes form my texts were some words that I wrote
wrong and then I corrected them and the level B2 was reflecting; I need to expand an learn
more vocabulary that will help me to write as a person who has the level C1.
In speaking section this time, I realized that I gain confidence because of the practice and as I
work in a college, speaking in English with children has helped me a lot, because basically
that is my practice, being in a conversation with children help me and another thing that I
noticed is that when I am speaking in English, if I feel confident and comfortable I speak
better but it’s for sure that I may practice my English skills, especially the weakest ones.
IELTS Reflection
This time, I practiced different exercises of IELTS certification; again, I practiced the four
main skills that are listening, reading, writing, and speaking.
In the listening section, I did very well compared to the other two certifications, I personally
felt that the exercises in this certification were easier and more understandable in terms of the
people I was listening to during the listening. Most of my scores in this skill were between 7-
10, 8-10 and 9-10, depending on the type of exercise I performed, the corresponding
percentage came out. I really enjoyed the exercises in this certification, and I think it is the
one I will decide on to obtain my C1 certification, but I am not very sure yet.
In the reading section, it was a surprise that also I did it very well, because as I have
mentioned before, the sections of reading in every certification are more difficult for me since
I don't like to read a lot of text and it bores me a little but in the listening exercises of this
certification, I can also say that I enjoyed them, especially because the paragraphs or texts to
be read were not extensive, so That made me pay more attention and not get so stressed when
doing the exercises. Also, the topics covered in the exercises were to my liking so that also
had a lot of influence and my grades went very well. In the speaking section I realized that I
was able to speak more fluently and think more quickly about the words that came out of my
voice, that is, every practice I have done has helped me a lot. Personally, being alone without
anyone watching me and practicing speaking exercises makes me feel less pressure and less
embarrassed when it comes to speaking English, because I know that I know the language,
but it makes me very sad when I speak it in front of someone. So that's why speaking has
always been my weakest skill along with reading, but this time with the exercises I got a band
of 7, which is very good. On the contrary, in the writing section I didn't improve as much as I
thought and although that discourages me a little, I know that I must keep practicing a lot.
Results of practices
TOEFL IBT
B1
CAE
B1
IELTS
B1
IELTS PIA
B2
Self-evaluation
CRITERIA POINTS
1-5
1. ATTENDANCE 5
2. PARTICIPATION IN CLASS 4
3. CLASS ASSIGNMENTS 5
4. SAMPLE TESTS 2
5. PRACTICE TEST ACTIVITIES 3
TOTAL 19
LABORATORIO DE CERTIFICACION DE LENGUAS EXTRANJERAS
5 EXCELLENT 4 VERY GOOD 3 GOOD 2 REGULAR 1 POOR
FINAL COMMENT: Give your comments or suggestions about the class. What you liked,
what you didn’t like, what I can do to improve this class in further semesters.
I really enjoyed this class, I liked to know about the different types of certifications through the
presentations given by my classmates during the course. I liked it and it motivated me more that
my teacher only spoke in English even so we asked her things in Spanish, that motivated me in
part to speak the English language more even when I’m out of class. What I would like is carry
out the practices of the exercises of each certification. What I would have like is to have carried
out the practices of each certification in person to be able to clarify doubts with my teacher.
Reflection
The importance of the language certification process for English teachers
Taking the exam for a certification that guarantees that you have knowledge of a second
language is very important when you enter the labor field, since, if you are going to look for a
job that mainly involves teaching a language, that is, working as a teacher, it is essential to be
able to obtain that job, in addition to having the knowledge about that second language to be
able to transmit it to your students; It often happens that people whose mother tongue is
Spanish and studied something related to teaching but know a second language due to
different factors such as having spent some time in another country, either because they have
family there, or having grown up in another country, etc., makes them more susceptible to
being accepted as teachers of a second language, that is, only because they naturally know
that language do the institutions that decide to hire them as teachers believe that they have
sufficient tools and knowledge to teach classes in that second language and as a student who
has already had teachers like this, it is very noticeable that they know the second language but
do not know how to transmit the knowledge to you, however, when you have teachers who
are really specialized in a second language, you notice a big difference in terms of the way in
which they teach classes and by inertia they transmit knowledge to you and really know how
to explain all the grammatical topics, structures, forms, etc
The learning process in practice activities
Last semester when it ended and I reviewed my Kardex, I saw that this semester we would
take the C1 certification laboratory subject, honestly it always made me nervous and a little
afraid (still) knowing that I would take this subject that is intended to prepare us to take the
exam for some certification in C1 since it is a requirement to graduate and obtain our
bachelor's degree. When the semester began and our teacher explained the entire plan and
activities of the subject to us, I felt excited, but afraid because knowing that you are already
preparing to have knowledge of a second language at the most advanced level is very
demanding, it is to further expand your knowledge.
The first practice was for the TOEFL IBT certification, for this we were asked to look for
exercises on different websites to practice the 4 skills which are listening, reading, writing and
speaking; When I started with the exercises for this certification I knew that it was not going
to be easy since they are C1 level exercises and I consider that my level of English is still
between B1 and B2. At first, when I saw what I have to face tomorrow to take any of this type
of certifications, I felt partly unmotivated by my low results, so I practiced more, but even so,
in the sample tests that were given to us, applied, I saw that there was no great progress, I felt
stagnant but I know that I have to practice much more for all my effort to be worth it. As for
the CAE certification exercises, I feel they are the most difficult, at least in my case it is the
one that is most difficult for me and more so in the listening section, and even though I
practiced in the sample test of this, my results They were very low. Finally, in the IELTS
certification, when I did the exercises for this certification, I felt more confident because it is
the one in which I did the best, that is, my results were higher compared to the other two
certifications and that made me I felt like I would do better on the sample test but again that
wasn't the case, I got low scores and I admit that it demotivated me, but I see it as an area of
opportunity to practice and improve more.
Final reflection
For each sample test of the certifications that we saw during the course we were asked to
practice exercises of the 4 skills which, as I already mentioned, are listening, reading, writing
and speaking. Practicing and performing the different exercises on each certification was of
great help since with this you can see how and what types of exercises come in the
certifications; also, as I mentioned before, seeing my low scores discouraged me but they are
exercises at a more advanced level so I had to practice a lot to get good grades on the simple
tests taken during the semester; in most of them I admit that I did not do well since I would
have liked to dedicate more time to practicing the exercises but with work and tasks from
other subjects they made me have very little time to dedicate time to practicing the
certification exercises. I could notice that my strong areas are listening and writing, at least
when I practiced the exercises, whenever I did exercises on these skills my scores were good
but when I took the sample tests my scores went down; in speaking and reading skills, they
have always been my weakest areas since I have never liked reading long texts and in the
reading sections it is known that there will always be long texts and on topics that you are not
really passionate about but somehow you another you have to understand them, this also
happens in the speaking section where I realized that I need to practice this skill more since it
is the weakest compared to the others, I have to focus on speaking and speaking more and
expanding my knowledge of the language, learning more words, etc., because when we took
this section in the sample tests, I couldn't find the exact words to express what was asked or
requested of me and I have to practice much more. To improve in all these aspects, I want to
take a course on the certification I choose so I can take it and more than anything accredit it
and of course practice more as soon as I have more time.
The certification that I would like to take is the IELTS, since even though I did not do well in
the sample test, I feel that it is the one that would be most possible for me to take, since, as I
mentioned before, as soon as I practiced the exercises my scores were good and that motivates
me to want to get certified in English C1.
References
Reserved, E. E. L. a. R. (n.d.-a). TOEFL® Listening: Conversation 1 : free practice test.
https://www.examenglish.com/TOEFL/TOEFL_listening_conversation1.htm
Reserved, E. E. L. a. R. (n.d.-b). TOEFL® Listening: Conversation 4 : free practice test.
https://www.examenglish.com/TOEFL/TOEFL_listening_conversation4.htm
Reserved, E. E. L. a. R. (n.d.). TOEFL® Listening: Lecture 1 : free practice test.
https://www.examenglish.com/TOEFL/toefl_listening.htm
Reserved, E. E. L. a. R. (n.d.-d). TOEFL® Listening: Lecture 5 : free practice test.
https://www.examenglish.com/TOEFL/TOEFL_lecture5.htm
Reserved, E. E. L. a. R. (n.d.-e). TOEFL® reading test 1: free practice exercises from Exam
English. https://www.examenglish.com/TOEFL/TOEFL_reading1.htm
Reserved, E. E. L. a. R. (n.d.-f). TOEFL® reading test 4: free practice exercises from Exam
English. https://www.examenglish.com/TOEFL/toefl_reading.htm
Reserved, E. E. L. a. R. (n.d.-g). TOEFL® reading test 5: free practice exercises from Exam
English. https://www.examenglish.com/TOEFL/TOEFL_reading5.htm
Reserved, E. E. L. a. R. (n.d.-i). TOEFL® reading test 7: free practice exercises from Exam
English. https://www.examenglish.com/TOEFL/TOEFL_reading7.htm
TOEFL Speaking 2 - Free Mock TOEFL Test | BestMyTest. (n.d.). BestMyTest.
https://www.bestmytest.com/toefl-speaking/2/97
TOEFL Speaking 2 - Free Mock TOEFL Test | BestMyTest. (n.d.-b). BestMyTest.
https://www.bestmytest.com/toefl-speaking/2/83
TOEFL Speaking 3 - Free Mock TOEFL Test | BestMyTest. (n.d.). BestMyTest.
https://www.bestmytest.com/toefl-speaking/4/23
TOEFL Writing - Free TOEFL Test simulation | BestMyTest. (n.d.). BestMyTest.
https://www.bestmytest.com/toefl-integrated-writing/1
TOEFL Writing - Free TOEFL Test simulation | BestMyTest. (n.d.-b). BestMyTest.
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Write & Improve with Cambridge. (n.d.). https://writeandimprove.com/workbooks#/wi-
workbooks/bdc648bc-b760-4bac-98bc-161a95deff5e/tasks/628c7e9c-8474-40f5-
b838-8d1e3de220d5
Write & Improve with Cambridge. (n.d.-b). https://writeandimprove.com/workbooks#/wi-
workbooks/bdc648bc-b760-4bac-98bc-161a95deff5e/tasks/62602bc4-7c99-4de5-
8642-51634b02a6ec
