Critical Reflection

Dear Professor Brad,

First and foremost, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you. This semester is a true reflection of the saying ‘’Time flies when you’re having fun’’. I genuinely enjoyed myself during the delightful and interactive classes, and this has been a fruitful trimester with you. In the first week of this module, we were tasked to write a self-introduction letter which includes the goals that we want to attain by the end of the module. As per my letter, I wrote the following: “I hope to have some takeaways to improve my verbal communication skills, be it writing or conversing in proper English. I wish to learn proper sentence structure, grammar, and learn an abundance of vocabulary. I also aim to be a better listener.” With the groups changing on a weekly basis, I believe I improved on my verbal communication skills as we were given the chance to mingle and interact with different types of people. It was an eye-opener experience for me as I had the opportunity to work outside of my comfort zone. It was fairly difficult to get rid of my old speaking habits such as the usage of slangs/Singlish at first. But over time, being able converse with my peers face-to-face, allowed me to enhance my skills of conversing in proper English. Unfortunately, things took a turn due to the rise in the number of infected Covid-19 communities and safety measures have to be tightened. Home-based learning was made mandatory, and that was my biggest concern. Classes, tutorials, and group discussions were done through zoom, and it was not in my favour. For someone who gets easily distracted and is a selective listener, the adjustments we had to do was hard on me. I was afraid that I would miss out on important information and instructions, or fall behind in class. Despite the change in learning environment, I took that chance to upskill myself in being a good listener. At the same time, I continued to enhance on my verbal communication skills which eventually paid off during the final project presentation. This is in comparison to my first presentation, where I was unfamiliar and had difficulties in presenting. After 11 weeks of lessons, I was able to present with more confidence and portrayed myself better.

Being assigned as the leader for my group project gave me the chance to showcase my capabilities and identify my self-limitations at the same time. Pitching a proposal is something that is relatively new to me. I was never exposed to having to do a formal presentation in front of a large group of audience. In order to successfully pitch a worthy proposal, it requires tons of research, group discussions and meetings. Proper delegation and planning of all the tasks were critical and it was my responsibility as the leader. In all of these, communication played a huge and important role. Written communication was the key for our PowerPoint slides. We had to ensure that even without further explanation, the audience will understand the point that we are trying to make by just looking at our slides. As for the preparation process and the actual presentation, verbal and non-verbal cues communication were the key. As the leader, I had to ensure that all instructions given were clear to my team to avoid miscommunication. During the actual presentation, despite having only myself and Din, it was very important that we remain composed as non-verbal cues such as our facial expressions or body language can send a different message to our audience which will result in a bad impression of our proposal. If there is one thing that I learned about myself through this experience, that is, I am a natural speaker with numerous shortcomings.

Regards,

Tin San