Writing in Elementary Education - Essay Example

& No Literacy Narrative 25 January Looking back on my early upbringing is always a joy for me and a journey to the past. I learned about the power of language when I listened to my mother telling me wonderful but totally incredible stories about fairies and other myths. Through this first experience, I came to realize how important it was to obtain a decent education. Because of this, I was no longer hesitant to go to school, unlike my other siblings. The first few years in elementary schooling were in our native language or what others call euphemistically as the mother tongue. It was only much later that we got our first rudimentary lessons in English language. It was a bit tedious at first, because our entire class of grade schoolers had to learn all the basics of English grammar. The English teacher we had was quite good although admittedly her own diction and intonations were far from being perfect but it was acceptable anyway to us pupils who did not know any better. I can honestly say that the wonderful world beyond my country started to open up with all those lessons in English literature fit for our kiddies’ class. I still can remember how we laughed and giggled on some of the strange words and sounds we had to master as we went along in our English classes up to graduating from the elementary. I realized the importance of English proficiency when our batch reached high school. This was the time when we had to learn science, mathematics and biology so we need to learn and be proficient at a certain level of the English language to pass our examinations. At that time, there was not much pressure to really master the intricacies of English because we had not yet seen the direct relationship of English mastery to our future careers. In this regard, it can be safely said that all my English learning happened while I was still in my country of birth and therefore, English was spoken only occasionally and only when really necessary. If memory serves me right, it was probably in my sophomore or junior year when the importance of learning the English language first came into sharp focus. We were asked to do a literature essay in English this time and I had a hard time finishing my assignment. It must be borne in mind that our writing assignment need to be finished in an hour’s time or less and previously, I had been overly dependent on using an English dictionary to put my thought into paper. My other classmates had already turned in their papers and I was not yet even halfway through. I was already panicked at that point and my thoughts were a total jumble; one thing I can say is that I always have a lot of creative ideas on my mind. A chief difficulty was putting these thoughts down to a written paper that is understandable and connects to a reader. My high school teacher was standing nearby, all ready to get my paper once I finished. This was because I was the only one still left inside the classroom since I must admit honestly that I always struggled with my English since coming into contact with this lingua franca. The time was up for me and I had wanted to still write some more since I knew my paper was not yet good enough. It was at that point in my life when I realized and resolved to vastly improve my English language skills so I can get ahead in my career and with my life. At that time, my English language skills in terms of reading and writing were terrible and I really struggled. When I entered college, there were plenty of opportunities to improve my English skill in terms of speaking, reading, writing and most importantly, comprehension. In particular, the facility with English was vastly improved with my constant viewing of television shows that were broadcast in English without any native language sub-titles at the bottom of the screen. I knew right then that my English will improve someday but I decided to read a lot of books, magazines and newspapers printed in English precisely for this purpose. Secondly, I had what can be called a more personal motive to learn English: I started to develop a taste for Western or English movies made from glamorous Hollywood and I need to follow its theme and plots. One way to measure my English proficiency was the speed at which I could compose a paper or whatever it was that needed to be written in English. Compared to my skills in our native language, I could perhaps write much faster and with greater clarity than when writing in English. A good comparison would be ten pages in my native language to a single page in English at precisely about the same length of time; this is roughly the ratio of my output. My preference for my native language is quite obvious but I also know that mastering English is a good challenge on my part. Not many people can learn a second language with equal facility as their mother tongue but I have read about famous writers who wrote in other languages. I have every intention to perfect my English writing but not aspiring to become a polyglot. This is someone who speaks several languages equally fluently and is considered a genius. Some people have a certain affinity for language learning. They can easily spot all the grammar rules needed to make a proper sentence, verb tense, use of the appropriate word, the correct noun or even the right spelling for certain difficult words to memorize or remember. It is also unrealistic for me to learn all these things in quite a short time but my move to the big US of A made my English learning much easier and faster. Nothing improves one’s language than speaking and using it every day among native English speakers. In short, living and also studying in an American university gives me all the opportunities to put into practice what I had learned from books since elementary school. Not everyone is given a wonderful opportunity like me to study in America. After all the years I have been here, I realized only lately that I no longer have to think consciously if and when I need to express myself in English, unlike before. It is now approaching almost a second nature that comes out naturally, like breathing that comes naturally to everybody. It is not a laborious process anymore and I know a few more years of diligent study will give me a degree of confidence in English to be at par with native speakers, at the very least. Works Cited Ball State University. “Education Redefined: Literacy Narrative.” 2010. Web. 24 Jan. 2011. . Cathlena.org “Writing in Elementary Education: Literacy Narrative Assignment.” N.d. Web. 25 Jan. 2011. . Read More