Recount: Derek's experience

Speaking & Writing Task

Objective: At the end of this task you will be able to ask questions about life experiences and to write a recount about someone else’s experience.

Task: Interview our language assistant from Fulbright, Derek, about his experience studying and living abroad and then write a recount based on this interview.

Situation: Last week we had a special guest, Derek, who is a Fulbright Language Assistant at our University this semester. As students, having a foreigner guest is an excellent opportunity to learn more about the different chances you have to travel abroad and to practice your spoken English. For this task you are required to interview him about his country and his Fulbright experience and to write a recount based on that interview.

Steps:

1.    Write some questions to ask Derek about his personal information, his country, his experience studying and living abroad.

2.    Come to class and interview our special guest. Remember to take notes on your notebook to write your recount.

3.    Write your recount based on Derek’s answers.

How to write a recount

What is a recount?

A recount tells what happened in a given moment. It usually tells events or experiences in the order they happened.

Its social purpose:

Its purpose is to talk or write about things we have done in the past: a holiday, the weekend, a personal experience, a visit.

In a recount you will find staging:

Orientation: it is always at the start.  It tells us who, where and when it happened.

Record of Experiences: it makes the body of the story. It tells what happened.

Conclusion: it tells how the story ends. You can also write your personal comment about that experience.

Example:

Daniela's experience

Last class we had a special guest, her name is Daniela. She is an electrical engineering student at Universidad Nacional. She has travelled to many places. For example, Daniela travelled to US two years ago. In that country, she lived with an American family during 2 years. In the USA, she studied English; she worked taking care of two children of the family and she traveled to some cities in the country… 

Task:

In the following link you will find a Drive file where you will write your recount about what Derek spoke about last Thursday April 9. The objective is that everybody writes ideas, complete sentences about Derek's experiences and his country.

Derek's experiences


Credits: Task prepared by Sandra Echeverry and Alejandra Jiménez. Adapted by Deisa Gómez