- Please answer in terms of the communicative skills you have learnt as well as the "blended aspects" - the online and F2F elements of the course.
- Support your answer with examples if possible.
This course enables me to learn how to apply the different aspects of effective communication skills that will sufficiently prepare me for my future teaching career. These aspects include pronunciation, voice production and vocal health, oral communication, written communication and classroom communication.
The 'pronunciation' module helps me as a student teacher to be more aware of myself as a role model for my future students to emulate and so it is important for me to speak in Standard Singapore English. Common pronunciation problems are highlighted during the lessons and I am now abled to refer to the dictionary and the International Phonetics Chart if I encounter any word problems in terms of pronunciation and word stresses.
As for the 'voice production and vocal health' module, the significance and importance of efficient voice production and vocal health are pointed out to me. I learnt to take good care of my vocal cords and to increase voice projection because as a teacher, they are my main working tool and I will be using them for hours in my everyday teaching. Therefore, I must be wary of not overworking and straining them. I also find the detailed and comprehensive videos useful as references for my learning. These videos provides information on breathing, posture, vocal support and vocal techniques.
I remember 'oral communication' to be a nerve-wrecking module. This is due to the oral communication test that we were required to do but it was a good exercise for me to practise giving a speech, which will be something that teachers do often in their teaching career. I learnt how to give more effective presentations and to be clear with the content, purpose and tone. I learnt skills to communicate better with the people whom I will come into close contact with during my school career, such as my colleagues, students and their parents. In addition, I also grew to be more careful not to use fillers in my speech as they tend to distract the audience and will make my presentations seem less professional and ill prepared.
On the other hand, the module on 'written communication' is similar to the 'oral communication' module, just that it is done through a different medium. Here, I have learnt how to draft an effective and proper email and written feedback for our students.
Finally, there is the 'classroom communication' module, which exposes me to the ways in which I can promote inquiry to help students develop critical thinking, scaffold their learning and also provides me with strategies on classroom management. During lessons, I also get to explore various roles that a teacher undertakes in classroom interaction, namely the communicator, leader, manager and facilitator, and how doing so effectively will help promote learning in students.
As a result, I think the skills I have learnt from this course are very essential and invaluable in the daily interactions that I will be experiencing in my teaching career.
