English plays an important role in my daily life. The main
language of instruction in Singapore is English which was designed to be the
first language within all local education system dated from 1987. Children
start learning this language by the time they reach preschool and this mode of
education is to encourage all types of people to be able to communicate in a
common language. I myself was enrolled into this education system created for
Singaporean.
I myself come from a Chinese-speaking family where both my parents
seldom communicate to me in English. Definitely without any doubt, I have more
interest in Chinese. Throughout my basic ten years education journey, I was getting
a pass for English only and scored badly for some occasions. One good example
was during my ‘O’ level when I got a grade of D7 for my English subject which
literally killed my chance of getting into any polytechnic. I went to ITE as a
result and I spend an extra 2 years to get to the polytechnic .From that day
onwards, I decided to work hard on my English and started to read different
kinds of English materials like the newspaper and novel so to improve my
situation.
I realize that reading the text aloud has helped me to write
English better on my reports during polytechnic; this was often neglected by
many students in my course as they simply wrote down whatever that came to
their mind and were done with it.
English is a lifelong learning journey. I hope that this module,
Effective Communication, can help me understand more about this language.
(EDITED on 16/9/2015)
Hi Jason, thanks for sharing. I myself also come from a non-English speaking family. Perhaps we should converse more in English? xD Let us improve the language together!
ReplyDeleteHi Jason, I scored badly for my report writing when I was in polytechnic year 2 so I decided to use different approach which was reading the text aloud too. It really helps as compared to just scribble the notes on a piece of paper and key them in.
ReplyDeleteHi Jason, thanks for sharing your method for improving your English. I didn't score really well for English during the o levels either and that made me struggle a little during my polytechnic days. Perhaps we can help each other improve during this period and in the future. :D
ReplyDeleteI appreciate this honest reflection, Jason. From reading it I can see that you have indeed decided to improve your use of English. That is made clear when you describe your effort to read aloud in English. This is good!
ReplyDeleteI also can tell that your language use is, in fact, not bad. Your post is generally clear and concise. You are using English to communicate fairly well at a good level.
At the same time, I find is that, while you have been using English a lot, your writing has many ***fossilized*** ‘errors.’ That is to say, you break many language conventions out of pure habit. See the list below:
1) Throughout my basic ten years education journey, I was always getting a pass for English only and score badly for some occasions. (verb tense inconsistency)
2) One good example was during my ‘O’ level when I get a grade of D7 for my English subject which literally kill my chance of getting into any polytechnic. >>>
(verb tense inconsistency)
One good example was during my ‘O’ level when I GOT a grade of D7 for my English subject, which literally KILLED my chance of getting into any polytechnic. (So how did you get in?)
3) From that day onwards, I decide to work hard on my English and start to read different kind of English articles like the newspaper and novel so to improve my situation. >>> (verb tense / content meaning: a newspaper and a novel are NOT articles)
4) I realize that reading a text aloud has helped me to write English better on my report during polytechnic and this is often neglected by many students in my course as they just simply write down whatever that comes to their mind and done with it. >>> (sentence structure)
I realize that reading the text aloud has helped me to write English better on my reports during polytechnic; this was often neglected by many students in my course as they simply wrote down whatever came to their mind and were done with it.
5) English is a lifelong learning journey and I hope that this module Effective Communication can help me understand more about this language. >>>
English is a lifelong learning journey. I hope that this module, Effective Communication, can help me understand more about this language.
This all adds up to a need for you to simply pay more attention to editing your work. Honestly, many of the errors you are making are oversights that can be corrected with a clear-headed edit.
I look forward to working with you this term.