Personal Development of English Skills - Essay Example

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT OF ENGLISH SKILLS by PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT OF ENGLISH SKILLS A plan for developing my English The most wonderful experience in my life was that of learning the English language. I can remember vividly the first day I encountered English. I was very young and my dad encouraged me to listen to English songs. I would listen to them every morning, even though I did not understand anything. I did this for the next eight years and gradually, I started to understand the individual words in the songs. My mother also taught me some Basic English at home. It included the alphabets and some English words like hello, thank you, fine, good, welcome etc. I developed a passion for English and when I was around thirteen, I started reading English story books. My dad realized my increased interest in learning English and chose to inspire me by buying me children story books and the alphabets. These books helped me greatly. For instance the alphabet by Rolando Merino is an animated story of alphabets. It helped me to master the alphabet letters with ease and it was a lot of fun remembering them. If I encountered a vocabulary, my parents were ready and willing to assist. I thought reading stories in English is more interesting and so, I used to learn every new word that I came across. I then joined an English class with an aim of learning the language both in spoken and written form. I was now fourteen years old. Learning English was not as easy as I make it look or sound. It is such a difficult task; like taking a new adventurous journey. It is more than just learning the grammar and alphabets. It was so challenging especially when I began taking classes. Our English teachers could write new words on the board and ask us to memorize them because they would be tested in exams. For the two years I was in grade V & VI, we were only taught how to memorize the spelling, the vocabulary, their meaning, understand the text and cram the question and the answers to reproduce them in exam . I realize that this was a doing little in terms of helping me since it never moved me to another level in my English learning. I could hardly gain the courage, confidence, reading, writing and speaking power. This was evident during the English speaking exams where I could hardly speak eloquently due to fear or just lack of a suitable sentence. Sometimes I could only hear 45% of the cassette exam. I almost gave up on English because of the consistent poor results. I thought maybe it was not meant for people like me. Our school aim was to pass exams so everything was taught with an exam perspective. My current learning situation has improved greatly. After realizing that my school was helping me in bits, I decided to take a personal initiative of studying and learning English. I took it upon myself to know all the aspects entailing this language. I believe this is the greatest decision I have ever made in my life since it helped me a lot. The first discovery I made was that English involved four language skills; listening, reading, writing and speaking. I chose to pursue English as my career subject. I joined the proficiency certificate level school, and had a chance to explore this language widely. It is now 18 years since I started learning English and I have gained a lot of experience since then. Currently, I want to pursue the study of English up to a higher level of education. Improving my language is a daily practice that I do. As they say, practice makes perfect (Barker & Moorcroft, 2003). Strategy number one is speaking it. I do most of my conversations in the English language. This has helped me gain the confidence of speaking this language without fear and thus make my presentations clearly. Listening is another secret. A good listener makes a good speaker. For instance when I attend an event or a lecture, I am always very keen on how the speaker chooses his words. Listening to other people speak has greatly influenced my mastery of the language. I get to learn new vocabularies and new presentation skills. Reading widely has always had a positive impact on the language (Barry, 2010). The writer’s choice of words teaches me a lot e.g. in poems and literature works. Writing often in English language gives me a chance to improve on my skills (Masters, Wallace & Harwood, 2011). I write e-mails, articles, letters, proposals etc. in English. This has helped me to improve greatly. My personal goals for learning English include: short term goals are-To read, write and speak properly, to write analytically and creatively and express ideas clearly, learn new vocabularies and use them in day to day conversation, be fluent and a good writer. However, my long term goals include improving on my speaking skills and becoming fluent in written and spoken English. Some of the sources that I have found useful in learning English include websites like englishagenda.britishcouncil.org,www.funkyenglish.com,www.experienceenglish.com.Another website that helped me improve my spoken English is the talkenglish.com, which gives the learner efficient lessons in reading ,speaking and writing English. I have also read books like integrate English, progressive English, Excel in English and others. This led to improvement, of my grammar. Reflection on communication In my study of the English language, I have experienced various incidences of unsuccessful communication. Communication is only effective if it has a message which the receiver can also interpret. I was really struggling with the English language. I remember that day very clearly when I first attended the English class. The teacher welcomed me happily. Then she posed a question that left me totally confused. “Do you mind me teaching you English? “She asked with a very broad smile, perhaps expecting a positive response from me. Wishing that my answer was correct, I smiled back and said “Yes, I do mind “.Everybody in the class was astonished at my response. I did not even understand what I had said. The teacher asked to pardon my answer. “Sorry, did you just say yes? “She asked sarcastically. Everybody laughed at me and I felt disappointed with myself, even though I had no idea what I had done wrong. But later I learnt that a positive response to a ‘do you mind question is no’. Barriers to successful communication include language, culture and physical barriers. In my case, language barrier was my main barrier. This leads to unsuccessful communication whereby the recipient is not able to interpret what the sender is communicating, hence resulting into a wrong or unexpected response (Ricketts, 2011). I recommend that the recipient should be humble enough to admit that she has not understood the message, and confidently ask for clarification. This will prevent many faults that come with unsuccessful communication. I have experienced several incidences of successful communication. For instance, when I stepped on my classmate accidentally, he was mad and furious at me. I had to figure out what to tell him in English language to show that I was sorry. I thank God because this round everything worked on my favour. This is what I told him ”Ken, I am really sorry. It was not intentional and I feel so bad for this. Please forgive me.” I tried to sound remorseful and genuine at the same time. He forgave me and asked me to be careful next time. This was kind of successful communication where the recipient is able to interpret and understand the message exactly as intended by the sender. It is therefore important that a sender ensures his message is clearly defined and it will reach the recipient through the right channels without any distortion (Gerngross & Puchta, 2004). This way the receiver will interpret it as intended by the sender hence eliminating any failures. Differences in communication style between UK culture and Libya culture. The official language spoken in United Kingdom is English while the official language spoken by majority of Libya citizens is Arabic. Majorty of UK citizens are Christians while most Libyans are Muslims. These religions greatly affect their communication culture. For instance people in UK may be heard greeting with statements like praise God, while Libyans will say a salaam aleikum. Meeting and greeting in UK is mostly accomplished through handshake, though they may feel formal and stiff at first. Eye contact should not be prolonged during greeting because it makes an individual uncomfortable. Specific protocol is followed daring introduction, according to class. Also an older person should be introduced first before a younger person (Stewart, 1993). Distance is maintained between the two people during conversation and feelings and emotions are not expressed in public. For instance putting your arm around someone’s shoulder or kissing in public is considered disrespectful.UK citizens value their privacy hence no conversations touching on an individual’s private life in public. For the Libyans, handshake is also common as a form of greeting when two people meet. This should be done at the beginning and at the end of the meeting (Sherman, 2011). A woman is expected to extend hands first during greeting. Titles are highly respected when it comes to introduction. For example government officials must be referred to as ‘your excellency’. Most businesses are conducted in Arabic language. They have an open door policy hence you may experience interruption during communication. Other may wander into the room and start a new conversation, so it’s up to you to join or leave but don’t stop the conversation. Respect is highly valued hence no one acts in a way that can bring public embarrassment to another person. Activities for learning I attended the ELC workshop where the main topic was how to write a literature review. The speaker’s main focus was on how to write a good literature review. I learnt that a good literature review must contain different features. They include a careful definition of the topic explaining clearly what the topic wills not include. Previous reviews of the topic should be considered in order to know what has already been reviewed and what differs. Procedures for obtaining relevant literature should be stated. Such procedures should ensure un biasness whereby, if another person applied the same procedures he would arrive to the same literature. An individual should not just go for an easy research but a relevant one. Show how different studies are related by clearly defining the dependent and independent variables. Explain the criteria for evaluating outcome as well as the study of the outcome variation with the study characteristic. A good literature review should end with a supportive conclusion by the researcher. The speaker recommended that we visit this site, www.edutopia.org,for more samples of literature review. I also attended the ELC tutorial where we were taught about the basic of English study i.e. how to use singular nouns and plural nouns. I learnt that a noun is a naming word for concrete or abstract things .The plural form of most nouns is simply adding achieved by adding an ‘s’. For example book-books, cup-cups, school-schools, bottle-bottles, ball-balls. For nouns that end with ch, x or s sounds, the plural form you add es .For example, fox-foxes, watch-watches, bus-buses. Nouns ending with f or fe, change f to v and add es. For example, wife-wives, wolf-wolves, knife-knives etc. Some nouns have different plural forms for example goose-geese, woman-women, child-children etc. Some nouns have indefinite plural especially those ending with y or o. For instance, baby-babies, tomato-tomatoes, toy-toys etc. A pair of something can also refer to plural form of some nouns like, a pair of trousers. Some collective nouns which refer to a group of people or items, can take singular or plural form depending on the prevailing condition. For example, audience, committee, enemy government, team etc. I also attended the talent hub workshop. In this workshop we talked about giving an academic presentation. This was aimed at helping us even in the outside world. We were told that effective presentation and public speaking skills are essential in many areas of life. Some of the suggested ways to overcome fear of public speaking include adequate rehearsal and preparation, in order to gain confidence and control. Experience is another key issue. A person with low experience in public speaking will always fear to do so therefore one should look for opportunities to make presentations. During the presentation, a person should talk naturally to the audience, make eye contact with the audience, prepare a presentation structure carefully, and stay focused throughout the presentation. Engage the audience by allowing them to ask questions Answer the as honestly as you can. Generally, presentation skills requires one to be prepared, give oneself off, stay relaxed, use natural humour, plan your body and hand position and finally pay attention to all details. We also had a language café session, whereby we talk to students who talk native English .They enlightened us on how to increase our vocabulary .They showed us how to use the dictionary and get new words from it. Reflective conclusion on the learning This has been a journey worth taking because I am now good in speaking, writing, listening and reading English. I have gained enough confidence and courage to talk to people. Reference Top of Form SHERMAN, S. (2011). Insight English skills 9. St. Kilda, Vic, Insight Publications. Top of Form Reference Bottom of Form Top of Form Gerngross, G., & Puchta, H. (2004). Cool English. 6 6. Cambridge, Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge in association with ELI. Bottom of Form Top of Form Sherman, S. (2011). Insight English skills 9. St. Kilda, Vic, Insight Publications. Bottom of Form Bottom of Form Top of Form Stewart, G. (1993). Communicating for the professions. Kenwyn, Juta. Top of Form Barker, R., & Moorcroft, C. (2003). Testing KS3 English skills & practice. Cheltenham, Nelson Thornes. Bottom of Form Ricketts, C. (2011). Leadership: personal development and career success. Clifton Park, NY, Delmar. Masters, L. A., Wallace, H. R., & Harwood, L. (2011). Personal development for life and work. Australia, South-Western Cengage Learning. Barry, M. (2010). Success international: English skills for IGCSE. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Bottom of Form Read More