English language has always been
my ‘enemy’ since young. I was never good in all aspects of English, from grammar
to vocabulary to writing. I got the lowest mark for English prelims across the
level when I was in primary 6. It was a devastating and embarrassing
experience. At one point of time, English caused me to hate school so much.
When I was a secondary student, I tried many ways to improve my English
language. One of them was to make reading as my hobby. However, there were many
failed attempts. As a result, I got the mindset that I will never improve my
English no matter how hard I try. I lose the motivation to keep going. I stop
trying then. My grades for English were always either a C or a fail. Nothing
above B. So at every exam, rather than aiming to get an A for English, I felt
satisfied when I passed the subject, even with a merely 50 marks.
There were incidents that made me
realized that English is important and that I have to improve on it. As for
example, when I was attending a meeting, I have many ideas and suggestions in
my thought. However, because I could not phrase what I have in mind into words,
I ended up not voicing it out and it was as if, I did not participate in that
meeting. I realized that in order for me to be proactive, I have to work on my
English language. Writing essay is something that I dreads the most. I can
spend the whole day writing just one essay. In NUS, it is impossible to escape
from writing essays. Just 2 weeks of school term and I have four essays to
complete.
I never thought that I will have English
module in my university life. The last one I had was 3 years ago, when I was in
secondary school. I hope that this module will be a platform for me to start
improving on my language especially my writing skills.
Atikah,
ReplyDeleteOrganisation and content: Thank you for sharing your honest thoughts about learning English with me. I hope you will give ES1102 a chance as I am sure you will benefit a lot from the course if you are willing to learn and put in the effort.
Don't feel alone. You are definitely not the only one who has expressed such frustrations with their English learning journey. I have met many students like you in the last few semesters of ES1102. Many students did not know why they did/didn’t do well in their previous English courses (especially in writing). Many have claimed they practised endlessly, but still did not get high marks.
I believe the reason is simple: you did not get/understand the feedback that you needed to advance your knowledge in English. I can guarantee that you will improve in ES1102 through the feedback I give you if you put in the effort. You will get ample feedback in this course. Make sure you ask for clarification if you don’t understand the feedback I give you, ok? Work hard and you will see your own progress in the next 8 weeks or so. I look forward to seeing your progress with you.
I would like you to look at this semester's English learning (and other English essay writing tasks) as a positive challenge. Work hard, be an active learner and ask me for clarification about the feedback I give you, and monitor your own progress. To begin to understand why you didn't do well before, let me make a suggestion. Could you bring 2/3 pieces of English essays from your secondary/ JC/poly in to show me? I can tell you give you some feedback about what/why you did/didn't do well. This is, of course, optional :-)
Overall, your reflection is well-structured, and the ideas flow very logically. You also successfully linked from past, present and future plans, and described your learning experience well. The sentences are also clearly written, and you effectively used transitions between ideas--great job. Sure, there were language errors in your writing and there is definitely room for improvement. However, your writing (at least grammar) is not so bad that I could not comprehend your reflection.
Language: Pay attention to the follow:
1. Unnecessary preposition: Do you know why 'as' is not necessary here?
One of them was to make reading 'as' my hobby
2. You referred to past events and experiences in the following sentences. Therefore, you should have used past tenses. Go through these sentences again and see if you could spot the errors.
-As a result, I got the mindset that I will never improve my English no matter how hard I try.
-I lose the motivation to keep going. I stop trying then. My grades for English were always either a C or a fail.
-As for example, when I was attending a meeting, I have many ideas and suggestions in my thought. However, because I could not phrase what I have in mind into words, I ended up not voicing it out and it was as if, I did not participate in that meeting.
-So at every exam, rather than aiming to get an A for English, I felt satisfied when I passed the subject, even with a merely (INCORRECT WORD FORM) 50 marks.
I realized that in order for me to be proactive, I have to work on my English language.
3. Incorrect use of tenses. The past tense is on 'made me'. Can you spot the error?
-there were incidents that made me realized
4. Incorrect use of a comma. Can you spot the error?
However, because I could not phrase what I have in mind into words, I ended up not voicing it out and it was as if, I did not participate in that meeting.
5. Subject-verb agreement error:
Writing essay is something that I dreads
6. Think about the difference between using 'in' and 'at'
In NUS, it is impossible to escape from writing essays. Just 2 weeks of school term and I have four essays to complete.