Bachelor of Science (Honor) in Architecture
English
Introduction
English 2 is a compulsory module for the students in FNBE semester 2.
The intention of the module is to equip us with sufficient language skills to demonstrate English Language proficiency at both the pre-university and tertiary level. We will be trained to communicate according to the situation and purpose as well as demonstrate accuracy in the 4 language skills. The emphasis of the module is on the development of academic reading and writing skills, as well as techniques to answer the listening and speaking components both accurately and appropriately. The course is also designed to equip learners with sufficient communication and interpersonal skills and techniques. At the end of the module, we should be able to demonstrate English Language Proficiency at both the pre-university and tertiary level.
In this module we were asked to complete two task, which are the class assignment,'The Tool, the Genre Analysis and compare/contrast essay on movies and the class debate' and the research assignment.
Task 1 - Class Assignment
Aim and Accomplishment :
The intended learning outcome of this assignment is to let the students spend time on observing and analysing an object, after that students have to explain the object in clear and logic English in essay form.
For this assignment, I have choosen the sieve as my tool to explain about. I spent about an hour to really understand about this tool. Throughout the process I explored the sieve using my five senses, I touched it and spend time feeling the material used to make this tool, I smell it to rewind where the sieve was put at, I looked at it carefully, worrying that I might forget to look at one of the detail of it.
Reflection :
The Tool is an essay that is assigned after our lecturer, Mr. Woon teaches us the topic 'Look at Your Fish' in the first chapter in our text book. When I first saw the story I thought that it was quite a stupid action, looking at the object for hours, or even days in order to understand it. But after this assignment, I realize that it is possible, in order to write out an essay which explain clearly about the object, we need to spend time to look at it. After this assignment, I realize that i started to look at things more clearly and in different kind of view in order to understand it more.
A. Observing The Unfamiliar - The Tools
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B. Compare and Contrast Essay
Aim and Accomplishment :
The intended learning outcome of this assignment is to test the ability of a student to 'read' the genre movie. Other than that, the student's ability to list out the common and difference between the two movies is also tested.
For this assignment, students were to choose either romance or sci-fi genre movies to talk about. I have choosen Sci-fi genre, and after days of interpretation finally I have picked two of the movies which I think that there are quite a big differences.
Reflection :
The movies are Riddick and Total Recall. Riddick is a movie that I have just watched a few weeks before this assignment was given where else Total Recall is a movie which I have a deep memory about it although I watched it last year because the storyline was quite special.
In order to write out this essay, we were to follow the notes that were given by our lecturer, Mr. Woon. It take quite some time to write out this essay because in order to understand the movie that I have choosen, I have to watch back the movies. But, the whole process is quite fun because I get to have a reason to rest (by watching movies) at the same time doing my assignment.
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C. Class Debate
Aim and Accomplishment :
The intended learning outcome of this assignment is to test the ability of a student to explain the basic ideas of the chosen topic with reference to the related theories learned in this course and to prove mastery of the topic clearly and accurately in the form of a debate.
This group debate consist of three person in each group, My group members are Chan Boon Haw, Lim Pui Yee and me, Soo Xiao Wen. Our topic for this debate is 'There are too many cases of theft, robberies and other crimes in Malaysia due to the uncontrolled number of illegal immigrants in the country.'
Me and my group members have done some research about the topic before we started the debate.Other than that, we had also looked at both sides of the issue so we will able to do a more comprehensive explanation of the topic. We have selected Chan Boon Haw as the first speaker, me as the second speaker and Lim Pui Yee as the third speaker.
Reflection :
After doing this assignment, I am able to explain the basic ideas of each chosen topic with reference to the related theories learned in this course, applying the principles of communication and behavior in analyzing interaction with others, both at individual and at group levels, prove mastery of the topic clearly and accurately in the form of a debate and demonstrating an ability to analyse and response to various issues including handling conflict.
Task 2 - The Research Assignment
Aim and Accomplishment :
The intended learning outcome of this assignment is to test the students ability to interview, research and compare between a few businesses in the same industry. Students were to present a formal presentation using a 10 minutes video. Students have to understand and apply suitable rhetorical strategies to a hypothetical target audience as specified to each.
There are five person in my group, Edward, Kelvin, Chee Yong, Boon Haw and me, Xiao Wen. We have choosen to do the research on bicycle shops. We have done our research in a few places like Malacca, Penang and Klang Valley. At the begining of this assignment, we have to fill in the form that our lecturer has prepared 'minute' and we started to divide our jobs among the group members. Later on, we prepare the interview questions and the businesses location, preliminary research and background information of our chosen businesses was gathered before the interview. We contacted the shop and asked for permission if we are allowed to do the interview.
Reflection :
This assignment trained me to speak out to strangers in different languages. As an example, when we were in Malacca, the person that we interviewed was communicating with us using Malay and we have to continue asking questions although our Malay is not very good. It is a new experience for us as we have to learn to communicate with strangers, but the process was fun. With the group work among me and my group members we managed to finish the 4000 words essay on time.
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Cover of the Research Report
Reflection
As a conclusion, I have learnt a lot through out this module. I have improve myself in listening, speaking, reading and also writing. Training like speaking English in the class, doing interview and recording the presentation video really improve my speaking skill. Other than that after learning the ways of writting compare and contrast essays, I am also able to write out essay which is in logic and clear academic English and also in correct format.
This module is quite challenging for me, for my English was not very good in the first place. But after six months of classes, I think I am improving and I really appreciate Mr. Woon for guiding us through out the way. Thank you sir :)