Critical Reflections

Since I was younger, I have never scored well in my languages. Although people always say that they are able to express their ideas freely through writing, thus the many creative writing programs in our syllabus in primary education, yet, to me writing was as restrictive as there were many rules to follow such as grammar, subject verb agreement, and tenses etc. This just made me dislike languages even more.

Initially, I dreaded taking the ES1102 module, as I thought that this module was probably similar to General Paper lesson I had in junior college, which generalises students’ way of writing and forces a systematic structure onto every student. However, I was wrong.

ES1102 took on a very different approach of teaching the English language using different mediums such as blogs, small discussion groups, and Facebook and Ted videos. Apart from these, what took me by surprise was that this module did not force a systematic structure of writing, but rather we were given general guidelines and were free to write in our own styles. This made it more significant when I was able to review my peers’ writing, making it more relatable as a student.

Moreover, with useful parts of the module such as the presentation of the essay has allowed me to see strengths and areas for improvement for myself and my peers. This chance has definitely validated certain things I do, and improve of my areas of weaknesses.

Even though the course is coming to an end, the learning does not stop here. ES1102 has provided me with relevant resources and materials to improve myself further, and I will use them to help me in the future.

P.S.

Thanks Brad for the kind guidance and effort~

Should presenting be added as an official component in ES1102?

Presentation has always been one of my biggest fears. 

I never liked speaking in front of a crowd as it makes me much more self-conscious than normal, causing me to be nervous. Thus, I am very thankful that ES1102 has allowed me a chance to present my essay in which helped me extract the main points of my essay. Furthermore, it has allowed me to understand my essay better when trying to condense the content and contextualize the problem, bringing it to the level of my peers.

Therefore, my answer to this question would be: Yes, if a presentation segment was to be added into ES1102, it would definitely give students more practice and room to make mistakes in order to improve. Yet, I do not feel that it should be graded as this would only add pressure onto students considering that the module has many other required assignments. I feel the main purpose of the presentation should be to let students gain a better understanding of what is written, as normally people are able to relate better to talking about the topic that interest them, and a form of exposure to presentation rather than a graded presentation.