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INTRODUCTION.
I have been studying English during a long time, some way or another. But if I really wanted to assess my abilities and my competence when it comes to making use of my English skills - where would I find myself? How secure and confident do I find myself when I use my English in practice in the different fields of listening, reading, speaking and, of course, writing? How well do I perform and how do I manage when I use my English in real life? 
	This evaluation will be highly subjective, since it will give my own judgement about the question. I will try to evaluate my English skills and weaknesses in the areas mentioned above - listening, reading, speaking and writing. I will start with a short summary of my English educational background.

MY EDUCATION IN ENGLISH.
I started to learn English as a ten- year-old girl at school. I do not recall that I had problems with the language. I think I was quite an ordinary pupil and throughout my school-time I managed with the language fairly well.
	I did not go to the upper secondary school. I married, worked and when I got my second child I studied English at Kom-vux, upper secondary level. Now I just loved it and I managed well with my studies.
	The following years I used to read English books to keep my English skills in order. Last year I studied English, course B, upper secondary level. I also made the test to get access to university education and I passed the test quite good. That is my educational background, and it could be of some use to summon it up in order to evaluate the present state of my English abilities in the provinces listed earlier in this essay.

HOW DO I COPE WITH THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN PRACTICE, THEN?
When I l i s t e n to people who talk English I think I cope quite all right. I have no difficulties in understanding my teachers so far. I can listen to Euronews, for instance, and I understand most of what is said. Even though a single word could be unfamiliar to me, I get help from the other words and in this way I can follow the main theme. It can be difficult with different dialects but in general I think I can handle the listening part good.
	How do I manage the r e a d i n g part? That is similar to the listening part, I think. Reading is even easier than listening because when I am reading, I have the asset of the word remaining in front of me, and I also have time to think - and there are other words, a coherence that can help me. I use to read such books as 'The street-lawyer' by John Grisham without problem. But Neil Postman's book 'Amusing ourselves to death' has a much more difficult language - the book will give me some difficulties to come to grips with. It is a question about vocabulary.
	My talking abilities, the third province in this evaluation, what are they? This is the part I need to develop the most, since I have not had enough opportunity to talk to native English people. They do not grow on trees - not in Sweden, anyway! I still feel insecure when I talk to people. 
	My skills when it comes to writing, then? Perhaps my reader could give a better answer than I. If I would rank my skills I would say I am better in listening and reading than writing English, but better in writing English than talking English. But of course there are a lot of possibilities to do mistakes when you write English: The demands for accuracy are higher when you write than when you talk.

Conclusion.
When I use my English I am best at listening and reading. I think my writing skills are somewhat lower and my talking skills are the weakest part of my English competence. It will be thrilling to see how much I can improve during my first term at the University!
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