Module learning
At the beginning of this module, I set two goals for myself to
achieve by the end of it. Firstly, was to practice more on using the language
correctly and effectively in view of improving. My second goal was to be able
to speak confidently in front of a large crowd in a new environment. I was
initially quite a passive and shy speaker to begin with, therefore, practicing
was a tough step for me to take since I would need to speak up constantly and
leave my comfort zone. However, I came to slowly speak out more as the Prof was
always engaging and trying to get everyone involve or to “hear our lovely
voice” at least once throughout each lesson. This has made me realise that
the more I speak, the more ideas I get, and the more comfortable I get in
answering questions and giving opinions even though I was not being called out
to do so. The more mistakes I made, the more I get corrected, and this made me
learn more from it. Despite not fulfilling my first goal completely, I know
that I did improve from where I started, in which I am still satisfied with the
outcome and will continue to work towards improving my language.
In my second goal,
throughout the whole module, we had many mini opportunities provided with small
presentations such as peer teaching, which I sort of dislike and always
pray as much as possible to avoid. However, it was hard to avoid this kind
of situation and my turn did eventually come. Yet, these small presentations did
force me out of my comfort zone which I regretted trying to avoid as it forced
me to step out and experience the “small crowd”. After experiencing it the
first time, I felt that I should have started earlier so I can be more
prepared. It made me understand the importance of getting started early and experiencing the crowd before my Oral presentation. As our initial planned formal
presentation was supposed to be done virtually, the mock presentation we did
was also done virtually. However, after the mock presentation, we got approval to do the formal presentation face-to-face, which means that I will be
presenting in front of the class. Luckily for me, I had experience in the
small presentation beforehand, which makes me easier to face the class as
compared to when I initially started. In conclusion, I can say that during the
formal presentation, despite the nervousness and forgetting my lines, I was
able to speak more confidently than before.
Project learning
During the project,
I got to work with people whom I have never spoken much to in class. This has
allowed me to interact with them. Our group started with 3 members, Tine,
Syahirah, and me. However, after being together for about a week or so, there
was a reshuffling of groups and from there we welcomed Hong Qian to the group.
Together, we came out with a new team name that was unique to us, and hence we
are STAHQ industries. During our times together, I realised that since Tine and
Hong Qian were both quite vocal and always had ideas to add on, I was quite
intimidated as I was a quiet and reserved person and I did not know them well
enough. Many times when I have some ideas which I was unsure if I should
contribute, they would be the ones to initiate, and from there, I would
slowly voice out whatever ideas or opinions I had. Syahirah on the other hand was quiet like me, but she would read up on our topic during her free time and
give feedback and updates on what she read. With everyone on the team being
good at something, from voicing out to giving feedbacks, I felt like I would
need to catch up with them and be on par. Therefore, I started to voice out
more and give more feedback for our presentations and reports during our
meetings together.
I feel that as a
team, we were quite unified and together as compared with the other team. When we
did our presentation slides together, we would help each other out on their
part and give feedback on what could have been better. Our presentation slides
were also on the same kind of theme. Before our formal presentation, we were all
agreeable on coming in a standard theme with a white top, dark bottoms, and shoes,
even to standardizing the colour of our mask. This made me feel that we were
more like a team than just each individual member doing our own thing. During
our rehearsal for the formal presentation, many mistakes were made, but with
these mistakes, we gave feedback to each other and suggested what and how to do
it better. Even on the day of the formal presentation, everyone was agreeable to
come 1 hour earlier to have a dry run and have a feel of what it was like to be
in front of the class. From there, it helped us prepare our mental state
before the actual presentation.
All in all, I
enjoyed this module better than I expected. I have many takeaways from the
importance of teamwork, communication and even being actively involved in the class. Thereafter, it has also motivated me to continuously improve myself in
my communication skills and public speaking, which even after this module, I
hope to be able to finally speak confidently and not get nervous one day. Lastly, I am very grateful to Prof Brad for making the learning experience in this module enjoyable and yet instilling the necessary skills for me to use and to improve myself.
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