Hello visitors, my name is Yian Lin. I am a first-year student in University of California, Irvine and my major is computer engineering. If you would like to learn more about me, you can click the following link to view my "me in six word" presentation.(link)
Prior to this class, the last English course that I took was Academic English 22A, which is a reading course that focuses on reading strategies and vocabulary. From AE 22A I attained a better understanding of reading skills and the method of reading different type of texts.
Am I a writer or communicator? Well... This is a good question to me. Even myself feel unsure about this. If I have to choose one, I would regard myself as a better writer than communicator. When writing something, I have more time to think about the choice of words and the composition of sentence. As for speaking, I need to give immediate response in most of the cases. Thus I do not have much time to think about the language. Also, due to the COVID-19, I stay at my home in China for over seven months. In China, there is no environment of practicing my spoken English. I even feel like I am starting to forget English.
Talking about my weakness, grammar might be a great challenge for me in this class. In the grammar diagnostic test, I only got 66 points. This diagnostic test makes me realize that my understanding in grammar is vague, especially the use of punctuation. I got most of the punctuation problems wrong. To get a better performance in this class, I need to spend more time in improving my grammar.
As for my strength, I think practical ability is one of my advantages. I used to be a member of my high school's robotic team and I am fond of building robots. I enjoy the feeling to turn the idea into reality.
In this syllabus, the professor give us an overview of this class. Generally, the syllabus covers fields like course objectives, textbooks, class rules and assignments. In this class, we will try to analyze how Disney films influence the society's view on gender roles. This class will also help us to form a good academic habit and become a well-rounded communicator. The grade contract provides as a detailed explanation on how to succeed in this class. If you want to get a B, you need to complete all the homework on time. If your goal is getting an A, you might need to do better than this class' average level.
Hi Yian,
I also scored poor on the grammar benchmark, the use of punctuation was also a major problem for me, I hope we can prove together in this course, not just grammar but a better writer as a whole.
Hi Yian Lin,
I can relate to you because I am also not a very good communicator. I am currently living in the U.S. but I am surrounded with Vietnamese people; thus, it hinders me in improving my English too.
I have also stayed in China for a long time because of COVID-19. Although I have been taking online classes, no one around me can communicate with me in English. I feel that my English fluency is also affected.