Time flies. Our journey in English learning in CELC
has covered half of its distance. Apparently all of us have gained a lot from
this journey. As this journey is coming to its end, I’d like to make some
suggestions on it, which may not be adapted owing to some reasons, but I
sincerely hope that some of them can be taken by us and add great luster to our
memorable journey.
In the morning, we are accustomed to hanging around
in the classroom to kill time that between our alight from bus and the begin of
our class. Half an hour, every day. Actually we can do something more
meaningful during this period. In China, we usually had morning self-learning
lesson before classes, during which we read loudly for reciting essays or
memorizing phrases and words or just for pleasure. Now everyone is shy. It is
not anyone’s fault because before one takes this action, he/she has to consider
others’ reactions. The reason why no one reads is that there is not a “reading atmosphere”.
To read fluently and articulate clearly and correctly, there is a long way to
go. Are all of us expecting that we would magically shift into a native speaker
after we are admitted into NUS? It is, I dare to say, a fantasy. Many of our
seniors are still struggling with their oral English, despite their hard work
in bridging course for half a year. If we mull over their unfortunate resulting
from their laziness or leisure, we should consider over the similarities
between our behaviours and theirs, which are bound to cause the similar
unfortunate in future. Record our voice and see how poor we are reading, then
we must take actions—read more and loudly!
After sitting down, another embarrassing thing
begin. That is, the chair is not of enough height to pose us in a comfortable
position. Trivial as it is, this incident keeps company with us during the
journey and keep us suffering. It can not be adjusted! It afflicts us
especially when we are taking reading comprehensions, when we must bend down
and keep closed to the desk. May it can be a more comfortable one!
The most important part is that we are lack of oral
practice. I realize that time in class is precious so tutors cannot spare so
much time for speaking. However, as far as I’m concerned, some portions of the
class are unnecessary. For example, repetitive simple grammar exercise and tediously
going through textbooks. Perhaps teachers underestimate our ability in solving
grammar questions. We have done a lot of grammar before, and what we are in
dire need of is to put them into practice. Such grammar exercise can be
undertaken by peer-reviewing essays and paragraphs, or choosing some of them
and leaving them as homework and then we can do it individually after school. In
the next class, tutors can quickly go through the answers and explain our
confusions. As a result, we have more time for speaking in class. Speaking
anything is OK. I observed that when I communicated with my peers, here and there
I grasped some useful expressions from their speech, which were applied to use
by me shortly after I memorized. To tell the truth, sitting in such an awful
chair to struggle with grammar and textbook was pushing me to swing between
sleeping and awaking! Nevertheless, I got extremely excited when I could talk
with my friends. Though sometimes it is a great challenge to search in my mind
to get across myself in proper expressions, I still enjoyed myself greatly
because speaking English rendered me a feeling of honour and achievement.
I never intend to complain or mutter about our
study. If we can simply make our journey more interesting and meaningful, why
not?
there is not an atmosphere of reading. that accounts for why nobody read out loudly in the morning. but not what you said "Everyone is shy". besides, i strongly agree with you we need more oral practice. we will have to do much discussion when entering university. thus, spoken is extremely important, otherwise, we have already lost priority compared to local students. maybe we can just find as much time as possible by to try to practice oral english.
ReplyDeleteOral English is really important for us. But according to my experience, only enough loudly reading may not equips us the ability to have a fluent communication with local students. I never got the ability for Chinese communication from the daily Chinese recitng. If you want to comunicate well with local students, directly communicating with them may help you(only from guessing). Reciting is my weakest part, but I still can speak Chinese fluently.
ReplyDeletewell, apparently, you proposed us great suggestions.....
ReplyDeletebut maybe you just dwell on the oral matter too much and neglect the importance of other skills.
in my opinion, the very urgent matter for us ultimately is reading efficiently and frequently.
second,writing--being able to express our original intention without causing misunderstanding--is also important.
then, to listen and speak--to talk about academic issues-- are also urgent..
maybe i am wrong, but oral skills are not the only matter....
Life is a journey, and so is this English Bridging course. Learning doesn't have a period mark. Your have some excellent suggestions, but I think much depends on the individual whether he is willing to make use of his time productively. However, the guy who flops on his chair the moment he arrives in class each morning can also claim to be performing some productive task. He is energising himself for the six hours of ardous task ahead. I agree with you that students should have more opportunities to speak.
ReplyDelete