Assignment Two (Reflective Academic Writing)
Title: "My

Question

Assignment Two (Reflective Academic Writing)
Title: "My personal learning experience with using English as part of my education"

MANZER KHAN[T] · Accepted Answer

My personal learning experience with using English as part of my education

For many college students, the semester is coming to a conclusion. The majority of us have had to spend a large part of college life online, which has significantly changed the way we live and communicate. Even after the harshest situation of the pandemic, the aftereffects are still lingering (Dorn et al., 2021). It has been difficult for me to adjust to the new normal, and this new type of digital academia has made me change how I generally operate in a classroom setting, particularly in my usage of English. I have experienced significant changes over the course of my college life, both intellectually and emotionally. These changes have positively enhanced some traits and made me more aware of the areas in which I still need to grow. But it has also affected how I use English and how much importance I place on it.

I learned English in a variety of settings, including locally, internationally, in-person, online, one-on-one, in monolingual and multilingual classes, with and without books, English courses, ... I even communicate with my partner in English. I have spent an incalculable amount of time learning English. I was able to achieve a lot in my restricted social life while taking English as an extra online course, especially by asking for help from my fellow students. Eight students who had a hard time with English, including myself, made a Discord server to use when we needed assistance in this class. Discord is a well-known program for group chats, and our tiny server was quite helpful when major projects, like essays, were approaching. When the deadline for the essay was approaching, my friends and I really swapped writings, proofread them, and then discussed what worked and what didn't work. This was one situation that truly helped me. It was a fantastic method to strengthen my essay and get to know another student. Some of us would also summarize the content of the optional Zoom sessions for the benefit of the students who couldn't attend as well as to serve as a reminder to the participants.

I also made a larger Discord server as a method to solicit assistance from others (Kruglyk et al., 2020). And while this isn't specifically related to aiding in the usage of English, I think it's important to highlight because of how it has helped us stay connected during difficult periods. The Discord server now has 149 users, ranging from first-years to some third-years. I was forced out of my comfort zone by having to communicate in English with people I would not have spoken to otherwise, and I frequently wondered aloud whether it was strange of me to approach strangers in order to improve my speaking skills. I don't regret approaching anyone, even if it did cause me some concern in the beginning. It really connects with me to see everyone talking about their interests and debating over issues, and it gives me a sense of community. Overall, despite the existing social constraints, both Discord servers have made it possible for me to ask for help from others and have helped me individually. I found that people of different languages can find a common ground and use English for communication.

My English skills helped me improve in another area of my life: I was able to finish and turn in all of my assignments by the deadline. In the past four months, a lot has happened; among other things, my grandfather was given a serious mental health diagnosis, I lost a close friend to a personal matter, and I had to balance the multiple shifts I worked at my part-time job. Despite the tight deadline, I managed to turn in assignments on time and with respectable grades. Although students are expected to act in this way, I am nonetheless proud of myself for being able to handle all of these circumstances well. In the beginning, it was hard for me to type a page in a day, but as I got used to English and with the aid of the Discord servers, I was doing 20-page assignments in a single day. I used to wake up and then start working on whatever project there was with a huge cup of coffee next to me because I wasn't fast enough. I found it hard to search for scholarly articles and such at the beginning. Even though this was really taxing, looking back, I can't help but feel proud of myself for managing everything with tenacity and accuracy. I'm proud of my individual efforts in managing the several assignments I had because this helped me develop my English skills.

English is without a doubt the most crucial common language in business. High-quality occupations require excellent listening and speaking skills. As a result, businesses may easily expand abroad, and these businesses typically hire graduates who speak English well and in a structured manner (Rogerson-Revell, 2007). In my job, I have found that a graduate of an institution that offers English as a major would do better or get higher-quality employment than other graduates who don't possess a sufficient command of the language. In other words, a student who is proficient in English is able to utilize information from websites and sources in different countries, which makes him or her more effective at work. He can use these details to plan his assignments and duties. His bosses would undoubtedly appreciate the work or tasks he has completed. Additionally, a lot of high-quality occupations are associated with global data exchange and international communication.

I am noticing significant advancements in my skills, such as my capacity to locate academic materials. For my first and second essays, I struggled a little to find the right sources. However, for my third essay, I utilized five more reputable scholarly sources and did a better job of implementing them. I'm quite happy with the scholarly sources I used in my third essay, and after writing it, I definitely have a better grasp of where to go for scholarly sources. I wouldn't struggle as much to find quality articles if I had to write a fourth essay with scholarly references.

I still need to improve my academic skills more than my non-academic ones. For example, I had trouble understanding our essay prompts and writing enough analysis of quotes to back up my thesis rather than just repeating what the quotes said. Because I had no idea what either prompt meant, I was continuously debating what question I should address. Though I had a greater comprehension of the work, I still did not completely understand what prompts like "gender transgressions" meant, so I chose easier ones. I had to first learn what transgressions were, and then I had to learn what gender-specific offenses were. It also took me some time to realize what it meant in relation to my topic. Overall, this suggests that in addition to improving my reading abilities, I also need to concentrate on expanding my vocabulary. Using English is still not easy for me.

Furthermore, after locating the appropriate quotes for my articles, I found it difficult to differentiate between analysis and quotes. We are taught very early on in our schooling that analysis should make up more of a decent essay than quotes, yet I still find it difficult to make analysis the bulk of my writing. All of my past essays struggled to have enough analysis in each body paragraph while I was writing them. For every essay I write, whether it be digitally or by hand, I still use the advice my old English instructor gave me to highlight the quotations in green and the analysis in yellow as a technique to verify my quote-to-analysis ratio (Gilakjani and Sabouri, 2016). However, the problem permeated all the essays I produced, even though I always find that the early drafts include too many quotes and not enough analysis. All of the essays I had written for this class had to be revised and rewritten several times. due to the fact that I was constantly rephrasing the quotes rather than elaborating on how they related to my argument. I'm hoping that with practice, I'll be able to include a suitable quote-to-analysis ratio without constantly highlighting and editing the essay.

In spite of the fact that the past few years have been among the busiest I've had in my life, especially the last few months, I can't deny that they have had a positive impact on my personal growth. I never expected to go from worrying about pandemics to wars, but I'm glad I did since it taught me a lot about myself and what I can do to get better. I've been able to accomplish a lot in my personal and academic life this semester, and this class in particular has taught me what I still need to do in the future. And although I hope that such situations will not happen again, I also hope that I continue to go through the same transition that I did during these four months.

References

Dorn, E., Hancock, B., Sarakatsannis, J. and Viruleg, E. (2021) COVID-19 and education: The lingering effects of unfinished learning [Online] Available at: https://www.echs-nm.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/covid-19-and-education-the-lingering-effects-of-unfinished-learning-v3.pdf (Accessed: 26 Nov 2022).

Gilakjani, A.P. and Sabouri, N.B. (2016) ‘Learners’ Listening Comprehension Difficulties in English Language Learning: A Literature Review’, English Language Teaching, 9(6), [online]. Available at: https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1101226  (Accessed: 26 Nov 2022).

Kruglyk, V., Bukreiev, D., Chornyi, P., Kupchak, E. and Sender, A. (2020) ‘Discord platform as an online learning environment for emergencies’, Ukrainian Journal of Educational Studies and Information Technology, 8(2), [online]. doi:10.32919/uesit.2020.02.02 (Accessed: 26 Nov 2022).

Rogerson-Revell, P. (2007) ‘Using English for International Business: A European case study’, English for Specific Purposes, 26(1), [online]. doi:10.1016/j.esp.2005.12.004 (Accessed: 26 Nov 2022).

Assignment Two (Reflective Academic Writing)

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