Peer Teaching!

Reflections

First of all, I would like to say a word of thanks to my wonderful team members, Cai Fang and Chin How, who were very enthusiastic and committed in making the peer teaching as effective as possible. We showed great teamwork and co-operation to work together amidst the short time period that was given to us.

Being the first group in our tutorial class to peer teach was never going to be easy. We were the ones to set the benchmark for others to imitate or even surpass. I was very nervous leading up to my part on ‘writing good news and bad new letters’ even though I had practised beforehand for the past two nights to make sure I was prepared.

I had collated the slides, which was something that I enjoyed doing. Using Prezi, I believed I had engaged the class in a clear and effective way, with excellent visual aids that improved the learning objectives of the lesson. I also think that I made a natural connection with the audience, with my short funny video clip helping me in that direction. To be honest, I feel that the audience was superb, as they were attentive throughout our lesson and asked relevant questions. They had even provided some useful feedback that is encouraging.

Overall, I am very happy with our team’s presentation. However, as a competitive person, I will definitely want to improve myself, maybe in the area of articulating and pronouncing my words better. In my opinion, I believe we have done our best and it will be interesting to see what the other groups will come up with in the next few weeks to come. I am definitely looking forward for the next peer teaching.

~cheers

Why Effective Communication Is Good For Me.

Being in a multi-racial community, we are often exposed to different languages such as Mandarin, Malay, Tamil and of course, English. In the end, like most Singaporeans, we grew up communicating in the most common language known to us which is ‘Singlish’.

This language is so common to Singaporeans that it is almost innate for us to use the superlatives such as ‘lah and ‘ah’ at the end of each sentence. We will tend to say incomplete sentences or even include other languages in. When I was young, I tend to understand someone better when they speak in Singlish rather than some profound Standard English!

However, as I grow up, I recognise the fact that effective communication whereby the use of good English is very important. Gone were the days where ‘Phua Chu Kang’ was once the idol of most kids. Besides Singlish being regarded as low prestige in Singapore, a good usage of spoken English can command respect from your peers or strangers alike. Effective communication in terms of writing skills is also important for emails, essays and even letter writing where we want to articulate our thoughts clearly and unambiguously.

Being a Mechanical Engineer undergraduate, even though I will be working with machines and computers more than working with people in the near future, I am not oblivious to the fact that effective communication is essential. This is because I will still be communicating with my peers, my bosses and even my clients who will determine my career progression in this industry.

Even though I have come a long way from being the ‘broken-english’ boy, there is still a lot of room for improvement. With hard work, determination and the help of my peers and Dr Radhika, my goal from this course is not just to communicate effectively, but to communicate with a level of confidence that can inspire and move people.  

ES2007S

It is awesome.