The end of ES2007S

‘Congratulations! You have survived through a 13 week ES2007S ordeal!’

This was the very first thought that occured to me when I stepped out of the seminar room on the last ES2007S lesson. Indeed, these 13 weeks of learning were both painful (in terms of all the assignments and blog posts) and tiring for me. Nevertheless, I would still like to say that I enjoyed ES2007S!

To be very honest, my initial intention for taking up this module was not about improving my oral communication skills, but to reduce the total number of examinable modules for this semester. I had to admit that all along I was hesitant on whether I should enroll myself for any ES2007S class. The lack of confidence in my oral communication skill had impeded me from doing so.

As mentioned by Brad, those people who need communication skill modules will never consider taking them. However, I am glad that I have taken my first step in becoming a better communicator, and embraced the challenges along the way.

In ES2007S, I had learnt the proper way of writing a cover letter and resume. This was in fact a good headstart for me in planning my career path. Previously, I had no idea on how to construct a good cover letter and resume that could make me ‘shine’ and stand out from the other job applicants. Also I had gained an insight on how the actual job interview was like, through the two mock job interview sessions. During these sessions, I played the roles of interviewer and interviewee. When I was the interviewee, I felt extremely nervous and stressed up, and I could not answer most of the questions well. I was totally clueless on what the ‘interviewers’ were looking for in me. When I played the role as an interviewer, I sort of managed to see myself through the actions from some of my classmates - the uneasy facial expression, the not-so-confident look, the long and short pause filters within a sentence etc. These in fact had served as a reminder, telling me the importance of confidence in portraying onself in front of the employers.Also, I had a better understanding of the expectations that most interviewers had for the interviewees. I enjoyed myself very much during these sessions.

I had my first ‘public speaking’ through the peer teaching session. Though I had tried to prepare myself adequately the day before, my performance was still not up to my expectation. Through the valuable feedbacks that both my classmates and Brad had given to me, I became more aware of my weaknesses, and had tried to make improvements on it. Also, I had the chance to hone my interpersonal skills, by working with different people for the research proposal and oral presentation (OP). The OP had served as a second chance for me to conquer my ‘stage fright ‘problem and I was glad that I had managed to overcome it. This time round, I felt more comfortable and confident in standing and speaking in front of the class.

What I liked the most from this module was the dynamic class interaction shared between the students and Brad. Brad was an excellent teacher who had selflessly shared many insightful and interesting experiences with the class. Like what Diana (2) had mentioned, he was also not stingy with his praises and was very encouraging. This made everyone in group 8 to be motivated in mastering the ‘art of communication’ well. The classmates in group 8 were very open and receptive to feedbacks. This had in turn resulted a strong friendship being forged in group 8.
Before I end off for this entry, I’d to say a big thank to everyone in group 8 and Brad, for making ES2007S a fun, enjoyable and relaxing module for me. You guys had made every ES2007S lesson less scary for me to attend. Thanks for being a part of my learning journey. You guys are simply the greatest takeaway from this module.

All the best for the upcoming exams, and in your future endeavour, my dear friends!

My reflection on oral presentation

14^th April 2010 marked the end of the series of oral presentations in ES2007S. My group, Team Invictus, was the last to present our research findings and results to the class. I was glad that everything went smoothly and accordingly to our plan, albeit some technical faults before the start of our presentation – the ‘disappearance’ of the background picture in our slides made us flustered. It was indeed a great experience working together with Glenn, Japser and Rohan, who were always that helpful and considerate towards me, especially during the period when I fell sick. Therefore, I would like to say a big thank you to you guys here.

For my personal reflection on:

Content

The idea of summarizing and presenting all our findings in 3 main points for every section was good. It had made our slides look impressive, clear, structured and less wordy. This in fact facilitated the audience in absorbing and ‘digesting’ all the presented information. However, it posed a big challenge for us in terms of speech delivery, for we had to stay calm and be concise when explaining the large chunks of information to the audience.

For the small video clip, I felt that the name and the job position of the three interviewees should be included for the sake of clarity. Also, the sound quality should be better, for I did hear some muffling background noises, and some of the audience seemed to be ‘stretching’ their ears so that they could hear the words properly.

Presentation

As compared to the peer teaching session, my part of presentation was much longer this time round. As I was not a good speaker, I tried my best to stay calm and be confident, and prevent my voice from trembling. Also, I tried to have much eye contact with the audience. But I guessed that I had failed in the latter part, for I kept looking back at the slide to check whether the slide animations were in pace with my speech (I had the tendency to keep pressing the ‘forward’ button when I was nervous). Hence it created the impression that I was not confident. Nevertheless, I felt that my performance this time round was much better, as I was able to tell my ‘story’ in a nice and smooth flow, and felt more comfortable when facing the class. Also, I had succeeded in preventing myself from regurgitating my script. This is an area which I definitely wish to improve on further.

I liked the ‘good-bad cop’ role played by both Rohan and Jasper, for that was something new and it tended to liven up the atmosphere. I guessed by doing so, they were actually trying to grasp the audiences’ attention, and preventing them from feeling sleepy. This was in fact an essential move, for if they were boring and monotonous, the audience would tend to drift off and no longer paid attention. Hence in the end, they might not understand the underlying concept behind our recommendations. I also liked the way Glenn presented, for he sounded very professional and was calm during his explanations.

Overall, despite the setback that our team had faced for our proposal, I was glad that our presentation had ended off with a blast. Good job, Team Invictus!