Teacher’s bias towards students, who excel in English, did
not make lessons any more enjoyable. Good students would always receive their
work with detailed markings. Average student like me, would only receive our
work when we asked for it, very often with no details or with illegible
comments. I felt that without the teacher’s help, I couldn’t improve. Failing
to understand that I should take charge of my own learning.
With several bad experiences in English lessons, I felt relieved
when ‘O’ Levels ended, feeling that I had finally freed myself from the
clutches of English. Little did I know that it would come back in the form of
reports and documentations. Worse still, it was the deciding factor as to
whether I need to take an additional module to complete my degree. Perhaps I
was complacent, perhaps I was hoping for a miracle to happen. Studying for
Qualifying English Test never crossed my mind. The reality hit me hard when I
had to overload my first semester with an additional English module.
I am still apprehensive about learning English, and I doubt
it will change anytime soon. However, I will at least change my negative
mindset about learning English, and put in more effort. Hopefully, my
long-standing struggle with English will be resolved once and for all.
English is also not my best subject and taking this module does not mean that our command of English is bad. We just need more to be more polished in it and further improve on our English writing!
ReplyDeleteYou're right, Sebastian! We can all use some polishing for enhanced performance! :)
DeleteHi Shiya. Thank you of such honest sharing. I appreciate that you are willing to cast away your apprehension and dig your heels into learning what you can in this semester. That is a great start! And please rest assured, I'm one of those teachers who give tons of feedback because I want to share so much with my students. So, any time you feel overwhelmed, please let me know ok :)
ReplyDeleteNow, to borrow Sebastian's expression, let us start polishing!
1. "Coming from a traditional Chinese family, everyday dialogue was either spoken in dialect or Mandarin."
This sentence does not have a doer. Who's coming from a Chinese family? A clearer version could be: "Coming from a traditional Chinese family, I spoke only Mandarin or a Chinese dialect."
To enhance the clarity of the sentence, we should specify that it's the Chinese dialect we're referring to, as opposed to the Indian or English dialects.
(**A dialect is generally taken to mean a variety of a language, although some experts say that all the different Chinese dialects are actually different languages!)
2. "Failing to understand that I should take charge of my own learning."
Same issue. Who's failing? This is an example of what English teachers call a sentence fragment, meaning that the subject of the sentence is missing. So, a revise version of this sentence could be: "I failed to understand that I should take charge of my own learning."
More on sentence fragments here: "Failing to understand that I should take charge of my own learning." Here's a nice video on sentence fragments: http://study.com/academy/lesson/what-is-a-sentence-fragment-definition-examples-quiz.html
Hope this helps :)
Anita
Sorry. The first link should have been: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/620/1/
DeleteHi Shiya, i understood entirely how you feel. Here please allow me to share my story with you. I came from a traditional chinese family too, my English was really bad, so bad that whenever i was made to read a passage in English class during secondary school, the whole class burst into laughter. I got a D7 in English the FIRST TIME i took O-level, among all other bad grades in other subjects.However,i did not give up, while serving NS, i spent just 1 month studying for o'level on my own again without any help, took it again and got a b3. I truely believe that, if something is really important to us and we strongly believe in it, nothing can stop us, the only matter is how much we want something. And when we do so, we can always achieve more than we think we can.
ReplyDelete--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Good students would always receive their work with detailed markings. Average student like me, would only receive our work when we asked for it, very often with no details or with illegible comments. I felt that without the teacher’s help, I couldn’t improve. Failing to understand that I should take charge of my own learning."
Please allow me to share another story with you. When i was stuydying in polytechnic, my mentor almost ignored me everytime when i try to ask for his help. I was angry and feeling unfair that he's so patient with some students and help them out but not the others. So one day, i saw him in the canteen and sat with him for lunch, i work my conversation into this issue and he told me one sentence :"If the ship doesn't come to you, swim".
....
....
At the end of the semester, i got a Distinction, while those he paid close attention helping, did not.
After which, i had another conversation with him. He asked :"So have you learnt the lesson i tried to teach you? Do you know now why i did not help you?"
I do.
Swimming makes you stronger than those sitting on the ship, or those waiting for the ship to come.
Kenan