I think that I’ll be able to apply much of the lessons learnt in this course to my future teaching career.
In the Pronunciation module, pronunciation of long and short vowels and word stresses are two of the key things that I will want to remember. Long and short vowels are something that I’ve already been conscious about, but there are still times when I would make the mistake and would have to correct myself in case my “audience” misunderstood me. Word stresses are also one of my weaknesses in pronunciation, as I tend to stress mainly on the “-ing” of verbs in continuous tense rather than the root word.
In Oral Comm, the written analysis required as part of assessment turned out to be really helpful for me to reflect on my speech delivery. It was clear that my articulation of words was inconsistent, especially when I was nervous and rushing through the speech. This also happens when I speak too fast - faster than I was thinking.
In Written Comm, the main focus was on email writing, which is something that I would eventually have to do on almost a daily basis. I appreciate the guidance in writing the subject line and the first paragraph - things that give the reader the first impression about the email. Being a usually-long-winded writer for emails, I am now more aware about the length of my emails and try to keep them short and concise.
From the e-learning on Voice Production, the revision of efficient breathing, posture and use of easy onsets was useful (I had learnt them during singing lessons). I also realised that drinking coffee in the staffroom could cause me to dehydrate, so I’ll be preparing a water bottle to bring around classes. Relating this module to Oral Comm, I’m reminded that varying my pitch and speech rate can maintain the students’ interest.
Finally, in Classroom Comm, we were tasked to create questions of different levels according to the Mental Operations Model. My group was made up of music teachers, and we came up with many empirical questions because it is common for us to teach concepts by contrast. Productive questions are also common for music (although not reflected in the list) because our lesson are planned to have three elements: listening, creating and performing. Evaluative questions are the most difficult and I’ll have to make more effort to think and prepare for them.
