Critical reflection

When I had my first lesson in ES1102, I was expecting it to be a conventional English lesson using paper and pen to do multiple grammar exercises to improve my English. However, Brad surprised me by saying that we would be keeping an online portfolio in the form of a blog and that would be the main platform for us to ‘hand in’ our work. This was very different from the other modules that I have taken, and how I learnt English. Nevertheless, I found this style of learning to be interesting because it is very interactive.

The first assignment that I posted on my blog was a reflection on my English language learning journey. That was the first time I had to comment on someone’s blogpost and correct their use of English. I found the experience to be very new and I did not know what to do because I was afraid I was unable to spot the mistakes accurately. At the same time, I did not want to offend someone I barely knew by criticising their work, so in my first comment on my peers’ work, I only praised them for their work and did not pick out their problems. I now know that it was unnecessary to feel worried or uncomfortable because everyone is learning and they can only learn though constructive feedback. 

On the flip side, the first time I got comments on my blogpost, I was surprised at the amount of mistakes that I had made. I knew that my English wasn't perfect, but I was not expecting to have made so many mistakes in such a short blogpost. The feedback that I got from my peers were positive, however, it was only when Brad commented, then did my mistakes get pointed out. I guess everyone was feeling uncomfortable about criticising someone they barely knew. 

Looking back the subsequent assignments, I think everyone got more comfortable with each other and we all realised that we needed to give constructive feedback that would actually help our friends, so the critiques got slightly harsher, but at the same time, it really helped us to improve on our writing. So, I feel that, the peer reviews were not useful at the beginning but they got more useful as the lessons went by and I feel that both my peers and Brad’s feedback were important towards to improvement of my writing. 

Amidst the blogposts and assignments, there was a lesson on text editing. During the exercise,  we had to pick out grammatical errors in a text and justify it. This allowed us to better understand verb-tense or subject-verb agreement. I found that particular lesson enjoyable, because we did it in pairs and we could help each other out. 

I feel that I have learnt a lot in ES1102 and what I have learnt would really benefit me for the years to come. I found peer evaluation to be very useful because it is difficult to spot my own mistakes. In future, I would ask a friend to read my essays for me before I submit them to minimise the mistakes I may make. I also found writing multiple drafts to be useful, because the drafts can only get better. I will do 2 or more drafts if possible before I hand in any work. I have also become more conscious about the use of English in the essays for my other modules, and I will continue to proof-read my work before I submit them.