Week 13 (Post #6) - Final Reflection

When I sat down to type out this reflection, the first thought that crossed my mind was: “I can’t believe that the module has actually come to an end.” I suppose this feeling came about because I’ve been so busy meeting deadlines for the module that I didn’t really feel the time passing after awhile.

Anyway, thinking back on how I started off at the start of the year, I realised that I have changed certain aspects of my communication practices. I wasn’t expecting much of change since the module only lasted 3 months. However, I have to say the change that I have experienced is quite significant and at the same time, I have also gained a number of communication-related skills.

In the final class, I mentioned that I generally viewed the module in 3 parts but actually it should be 4:

1. Peer Teaching
2. Application Letter/Resume Writing
3. Interview
4. Proposal + Oral Presentation

I feel that the module had a good balance between equipping us with oral communication skills as well as written communication skills. During the peer-teaching component, I realised the importance of creating lesson plans that can not only be used by the creator but also any other person who reads it. It was matter of trying to view the situation from another’s eyes – just because I understood the lesson plan wouldn’t mean that another individual could understand it too. So, minute details which we deemed insignificant and overlooked were actually important and should have been included in the lesson plan.

During the application letter/resume writing phase and the proposal phase, the skills imparted were slightly different. I felt that the focus had shifted to adopting the appropriate tone and writing in a clear and concise manner to sustain the readers’ attention. Marketing myself was one thing I was never good at but by the end of the many drafts I did for this component, this has considerably changed. I also learnt that one who has a good grasp of the English language doesn’t necessarily produce a good application letter or proposal because the skill required for such tasks are not entirely language-dependent. Alot of structure, organization and formatting are involved as well.

Finally, oral presentation skills. I remember being overwhelmed by the number things one had to take note of when the first lesson on oral presentations was conducted. From posture to voice quality to facial expressions – almost everything seemed to matter in such presentations. Being a naturally quiet person as compared to others, speaking in front of any crowd larger than 3 never fails to give me the jitters. And to remember other significant details on top of that only served to add to my nervousness during my peer teaching presentation. However, I feel that this aspect improved significantly during my oral presentation for the proposal. My hands were not shaking badly and my stuttering had reduced very much. I would have to attribute this to a conscious effort to keep my nervousness at bay. Also, the presentation was done towards the end of the module, by which everyone in class was familiar to me and so I did not feel so intimidated.

11 weeks ago, I wouldn’t have imagined myself to be confident enough to stand in front of a crowd of 20 to make any form of oral delivery or competent enough to produce an application letter or resume good enough to be used for a job application. But this module has enabled me to do all these and more. Although it was a very content and assessment heavy module that demanded alot of time and effort, I believe that I have gained a number of important skills and improved my confidence levels at the same time.

On a final note, (although I already mentioned this during class) I feel that the members of our tutorial group play an important role in determining how much each of us learns. The fact that our tutorial group is welcoming and accepting of everyone makes it easier to open up and perform better for components involving oral skills. So, I’m glad I got a great tutorial group (:

All the best to everyone! It’s been a pleasant 3 months with all of you!

Week 12 (Post #5) - Reflection on Oral Presentation

It has been 2 days since my oral presentation and during this time I’ve tried to identify what went right, what could be improved on and what went wrong.

I would say that preparing for this presentation was far from easy. This was mainly because there was so little time between the deadline for the final proposal and the oral presentation and yet, due to our packed and clashing schedules, the 3 of us were hardly able to meet. And it is a well known fact that no oral presentation can be perfected without practice. There was a constant dread within me – the lack of practice might pose as a hurdle to our actual presentation.

True enough, there were certain things that did not go according to plan due to the above fact. For example, I was not very used to the slides and therefore, I had to play it by ear and click. I tried listening to what Jia Lin was saying in order to click at the appropriate time. Though this worked at some points, it mostly turned out pretty messy. However, this situation (where we had to click for the other person) only arose because our wireless mouse refused to work beyond a certain distance from the computer. I suppose if the wireless mouse was functioning, the slide transitions would have been smoother. We should have considered bringing a backup mouse.

Now, moving on to my delivery itself. Although preparing for an oral presentation and delivering it is not new to me (thanks to practice in school and Project Work in JC), I always find myself nervous and jittery before every single one. This oral presentation was not an exception. Due to my nervousness, I felt that I may be spoken too fast at certain parts of the presentation and this may have inhibited my classmates from understanding what I was trying to convey.

Throughout most part of my schooling years, I always held cue cards containing whole chunks of my speech for most of my oral presentations. I realised that this made me incapable of speaking fluently because I became overly dependent on the cue cards. So, towards the end of my JC years, I tried to lose that habit by condensing my speech to points instead. This definitely worked better as I was able to face the audience more and at the same time speak without referring back to my cards all the time. I deployed the same method for this presentation. However, I wasn’t able to prepare as much for the final part of my delivery and therefore, I felt that I started faltering towards the end of my presentation. I guess I have to learn how to take hints from the points on the slides and think on my feet.

However, all this aside, I felt that I didn’t do too badly for the amount of practice that was done. And, I felt that the entire presentation went pretty well. So, I definitely have to thank my team members (: because the success of an oral presentation like this is based alot on the people you work with.

As much as I am relieved that the presentation is over, I have to say that it was definitely a good experience because it has pushed me to improve my delivery strategies. Hopefully, my presentation skills are a bit better than how they were 3 months ago.

On a final note, I know that I have to improve in a number of aspects when it comes to oral presentations. And I am most willing to learn – so if you have any suggestions at all, do let me know (: thanks!