Final reflections

This school term has come to an end and so has ES2007S.When i reflect on what i had taken away from this module, i think the decision to take up this module was a good one and i would recommend others to take up in future. I have not spoken so much, probably in my entire university education, of course except for idle talk with friends during lectures. I think this module has adequately created an awareness of aspects of communication like active listening, non-verbals,intercultural and even writing of email or letter correspondences. i have become more aware of all these factors and this would be something for me to take note of and work on in having effective communications with others. The only pity was that the different aspects of effective communication could only be touched on briefly, with the heavy workload that has to be incorporated within a semester of work because the various topics have definitely left me hungry for more in dwelling into them as the art of communication is always so interesting.

This module has also offered many interactions within the class, like the peer teaching and the oral presenation. Through it i get to collaborate with different people and these practices were wonderful as throughout these projects, unknowingly maybe, we got to practice several communication skills like negotiating with members, being assertive when there's a need to,active listening, empathizing and many..

Assignments like application and resume letter writing was useful especially when we shared and saw other letters to gain more perspectives and skills to take note of when writing such formal documents. i thought blogging was a good and interactive way to get people to communicate and share their ideas and we also definitely had to have good time management to take note of the tight timeline with regards to that.

I liked how this module was conducted seminar style and i think i have really seen, heard and learn alot from this class. By observing and taking note of how some really natural and good speakers do in class and on the other hand, taking in positively how some flaws could be corrected, i think i have gained alot from 2 avenues. Also, reflecting back on the very first lesson, where there was perhaps a little of reservation and awkwardness, i thought i had opened up more and tried to become more expressive at the end of this all, with the constant engagement required of us during class. I think its always hard to speak up, the concern if your comments sound right or necessary just makes it easier to just keep quiet and not say anything, and i think this is what draws the line between a confident speaker and an adequate one. I think it is this self-consciousness that eats up into a person's confidence and rather to say that people often make judgements of others, in this aspect, we often first make a judgement on how people will judge us and this is what preventing us from having the courage to speak up.

To end, i want to thank Brad and every classmates for having made this learning experience a wonderful one.
To all those who are graduating: All the best in your career
To all those whom are not: All the best in future exams and hang on!

reflections on oral presentations

First,a sidenote to my group: we survived it! and i think overall, we did fine.
Divya: I think you make a good presenter as you were so natural and assertive. You displayed confidence and fluency throughout your whole part, and the most amazing part was you did it without any scripts!

Xian Rui: your voice projection was great and i feel that you have shown marked improvement in terms of presentation.

Shiting: i think you did well because you presented more fluently than during our numerous practices, and this was great!

Cheers to all. Thanks for all the hard work.

Personally, i think my voice projection was overall loud and clear. However, i stumbled over quite a few words during the presentation and that made my presentation less fluent.I guess nervousness played a part in that and this is something i should take note of and improve on. Also, i think having to rely on the scripts was also something i could work on. Having said so, when i think back on the peer teaching and compare it to the oral presentation done, to see if i have improved, i thought the feeling of nervousness this time was lesser and eye contact with the audience was also more frequent, though i think i could have better engagement with the audience. Also, i feel that dressing really does play a part, with a more formal dressing, i maintain a more formal posture which affects the confidence that i display.

last, i think this oral presentation was a great experience in allowing me to practice my oral presentations and i would definitely need more learning experiences so as to be a better presenter in future.