Sunday, November 13, 2011

Final Reflection on Learning


I have already taken four English modules before I came to Singapore, but it was the first time for me to have an English class with native speakers. It is a challenging task to communicating with them. After the peer teaching, mock job interview and oral presentation, I felt much confident with my spoken English.

I would like to talk about peer teaching first. I have not had any experiences of teaching others in English before. In my part of teaching, a discussion was initiated. I did not expect the discussion to happen. Luckily, I managed to discuss with my “students”. It was the first time for me to have a live discussion with others without any preparation. Although my performance was not as good as my teammates, I came to realize that I could express my idea clearly.

Then the mock job interview came. This time I felt confident to speak with my “interviewers” since peer teaching helped me to build my confidence. I was surprised by myself that I could finish a job interview in English. Instead of giving yes or no to a question, I could speak out a long sentence fluently. This kind of ability could only be tested under a certain condition. I began to feel lucky to select this module. I have never got a chance to know my level of spoken English.

The oral presentation was the most exciting event. I did not do well in the mock presentation and I worked hard to prepare. With some presentation experiences, I was quite sure that I can perform well. I think I showed my confidence and presenting skills.

I got unique experience from this module. It helped me to test my English skills from different aspects and gave me confidence. I built friendship with my classmates through the process of learning. The most important is that I have acquired useful skills for my future.

I would like to thank Brad and all my classmates for giving me feedback after each activity. You helped me a lot in this module.

5 comments:

  1. Hi Michael,

    I am glad that you learnt a lot from this module. And, yes we can see your improvement as you progress through the course.

    It’s nice knowing you. (Keep in touch in FB k)

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  2. Michael,

    I really hope that through this semester and this course, you have overcome your inhibitions. Remember that communication is not just one way, but a two way process happening simultaneously.

    Somebody once told me "when you feel uncomfortable, it's time to step out of your comfort zone". Basically what it means is that change only happens when yous step out of your comfort zone. I wish you all the best in your development as a more confident and outspoken individual.

    (ok, rest of you, this is where i give my mushy thank you speech to my project mate, so you can stop reading from here)

    Getting to know you has been a been a real pleasure. You came off a little quiet at first, but i feel we really hit off. To tell you the truth, towards the middle of the semester when we were discussing random stuff like "the post office" and all my bad chinese quotes I really didn't feel like you were quiet all!

    One thing I didn't want to mention on my blog(for fear that the rest of the class would get a shock of their lives) was that your level of intelligence borders on genius! Not only do you have perfect grades in your home university, but you actually feel electrical modules here in NUS are quite managable!

    I really hope you can build up a confidence and personality that will compliment your intelligence, so that people will get to know the Michael that I have come to know.

    Anyway,hope enjoy the rest of your exchange.Keep in touch ok! :D

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  3. Hey Michael, I hope you didn't take it personally when I pointed out some 'habits' you had when speaking publicly. I won't say that you did very badly in the mock presentation. In general, I thought you speak rather fluently and clearly for a non-native speaker. It's just that when you stand beside English speakers, you seem less confident. Maybe you can inject some enthusiasm into what you are speaking about :) Anyway, thanks for being an awesome classmate. Best of luck,
    Ning

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  4. Hello Michael!

    It is great to know that you have gained a new found confidence to speak and present in English, despite it not being your first language.

    Most of us can see the improvement that you have made throughout the module, as I still remembered that you did not speak out much on the first lesson (maybe due to the lack of confidence in English?). However, during our last lesson together, you were very outspoken about your thoughts and ideas! :) Only then did I realise that you could not understand me initially! XD

    Continue to practice and hone your spoken English and presentation skills which you had acquired here back at your home university! :D All the best!

    huixin.

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  5. Thank you, Michael, for this detailed reflective post. You've covered a number of our speaking assignments, and I appreciate how you connect each to your developing confidence levels. We could all watch that growth process, for when you first entered the class you seemed very shy, but by the oral presentation you had overcome your fear and presented with ease.

    I appreciate the effort you made these last three months, linguistically and work-wise. I'm happy that you could also bond as well as you did with your classmates.

    Bet of luck in your future endeavors!

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