Thursday, 23 January 2014

My English Language Learning Journey

Since young, I have never taken a serious approach towards learning English. I have never liked reading, as large chunks of words seemed to intimidate me. This skewed my interest towards picture books or comics that seemed far more interesting and appealing rather than plain text. Growing up with this mind-set, I found writing formal assignments or essays became a chore for me. 

However, the importance of using proper English started to escalate when I started my part-time jobs. One of which was relief teaching in a neighbouring school. I had to help students read and improved their essays. This got me really nervous and it was brain-wrecking as I had to guide them in writing; something that I had no confidence in. This made me reflect seriously on my basic foundation in writing.
Moreover, students love to point out mistakes made by me while conducting a class. I felt regretful that I could not deliver a lesson in a language that I was supposedly comfortable in.

This incident made me realised that a good competency in speaking and writing English is indeed crucial and has motivated me to put in more effort in reading and writing. Learning English has become a process that I will want to improve and master. 
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6 comments:

  1. Elizabeth26 January 2014 at 23:38

    I felt that you reflected well on your past experiences and gave a good analysis of your English language journey. It certainly must have been nerve wrecking to teach English when you are consumed with self-doubt.

    I think there are some minor grammatical errors that can be rectified. Other than that, I felt it was a good reflection.

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  2. PEARL(:27 January 2014 at 00:57

    I'm glad you've experienced that as you might not have had the motivation to want to improve your english otherwise ! (:

    I think the "it was then" in paragraph 2 can be taken out. But other than I couldnt really find any mistakes :D

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  3. Unknown27 January 2014 at 02:03

    Hi yuen han!

    I enjoyed reading your blog post especially about your experience on relief teaching which has motivated you to improve on your language I also agree with you that having a good grasp of English is very important. Although there are some minor tenses mistakes like 'seemed far more interesting and appealing' and 'learning english has became a process that i would want to improve and master.' However, overall i think your language is quite fluent!

    Emily

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  4. Unknown27 January 2014 at 04:24

    Hello Yuen Han!
    I knew how you felt when you started teaching children in neighbouring school. At that time, I also realised the importance of English when I started to teach primary school students as a part time tutor. I was nervous and worried that I could not deliver proper English language to the students.

    Overall, I think your sentence structure is good! I love the way you expressed and wrote your blog. I do not think there is any other mistakes:)

    Cheers!

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  5. Brad Blackstone1 February 2014 at 08:54

    This is an interesting and revealing post, Yuen Han. I especially appreciate the anecdote about your teaching experience. Your newfound motivation is clear.

    In light of the discussions we had in class last week, you should now know what is wrong with this sentence:

    Growing up with this mind-set, writing formal assignments or essays became a chore for me.

    Shall we discuss it in class?

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  6. yuenhan2 February 2014 at 22:28

    Thank you all for reading and editing my post:) Glad that it has been interesting!

    ReplyDelete

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