My English
Learning Journey
I never knew
the importance of basics until I took the Qualifying English Test (QET) and
subsequently the ES1000 English Course last semester, where I realized that my
foundation of English was weak and I was far behind the rest of the cohort. Coming
from a Chinese speaking background, my command of English tends to be weaker than
those who speak English daily. Moreover, the chances of speaking English
in school with my peers were limited in the past as we communicated mostly in
mandarin. Hence I was not able to improve much over the past few years.
I did not learn my basics well in the past, whereby our English teacher focused on quantity work over quality work. She threw
us with many English essays to train us on our writing skills, however, without the
fundamental skills on essay writing, such as topic sentence, supporting
sentence and concluding sentence, I was not able to deliver a good piece of work. And before
I was able to learn from my mistake, another new piece of work was then given
to train us on the next set of skills. Therefore, with such fast pace. I was not able to learn from
the mistake. Then,
I went on to an engineering course in a Polytechnic after finishing my
secondary education. Essay writings were no longer important because we focused
on technical writing whereby content and data were far more important than
language skills, hence I did not pay much attention to the grammar and sentence
structure while writing reports.
However, I learnt a lot from the English Module I attended
last semester. Not only the lecturer was passionate in teaching and helping his
students, he made sure that his students learnt from their mistakes so that
they would not repeat the same mistake in the next assignment. But definitely
there is still room for improvement, for instance my reading and text editing
skills. This is most probably is due to the lack in vocabulary, thus causing me to have difficulty understanding the passage.
And in order for me to make improvement, I would have to read up more
and expose to more vocabulary and different writing styles.
Si Ying,
ReplyDeleteContent and organisation: Thank you for sharing your English learning journey with us. I am so glad you are able to recognise the most important aspect of learning: practice and feedback. One cannot learn effectively without feedback. So, please make sure you make the most out of the feedback I give you in the next 10 weeks or so. Ask me questions about things you don't understand, ok?
I am so pleased you gave ES1000 a chance as that course is very informative. I am sure ES1000 and ES1102 will provide you with the fundamental writing skills that can help you cope with academic writing at university.
Overall, this is a coherent piece of writing, and you described your learning experience well. Great job!
Language: Pay attention to the following:
1. The use of tenses:
-Moreover, the chances of practicing speaking English in school with my peers in the past were limited as we normally communicate in mandarin. Hence I was not able to improve much over the past few years.
-Not only the lecturer is passionate in teaching and helping his students, he makes sure that his students learnt from their mistakes so that they will not repeat the same mistake in the next assignment.
2. Use of singular/plural nouns:
-She threw us with many English essay
3. Order of wording:
I did not learn my basics well in the past during my secondary education
4. Missing object: Train who?
She threw us with many English essay to train on our writing skills
5. Look at the connection of ideas in this sentence. Can you see the missing link between 'giving you many essays' and 'no fundamental knowledge'?
She threw us with many English essay to train on our writing skills, however, without the fundamental knowledge on essay writing, such as topic sentence, supporting sentence and concluding sentence, I was not able to deliver a good piece of work.
The link may be that she did not teach you the fundamental skills...
6. Connection of idea in these sentences:
-Can you see the parts of this sentence need do not closely relate?
Therefore, I was not able to learn from the mistake when resubmitting of + corrected essay was no longer required.
-There are too many ideas in this sentence.
But definitely there is still room for improvement, + especially my reading and text editing skills, + which most probably is due to the lack in vocabulary, + thus always having difficulty understanding the passage.
7. Word form of 'exposed':
And in order for me to make improvement, I would have to read up more and get exposed to more vocabulary and different writing styles.