IMPROVING ENGLISH WITHOUT ANYMORE BORING GRAMMAR CLASSES

Remember the verbs, nouns, adjectives, adverbs and of course the past, present and the continuous tenses. Many of my students complain that the English lessons in the Uni do not seem to help and is the same old thing, rigmarole as it is described in my days. I tell all my students it is really no pint going for English classes anymore and this is for those who have had English lessons since the primary days. If you are the one who is weak in English and think that English lessons will help even after all the primary and secondary school English lessons, than my advice is do not go for anymore lessons it will make your current level of English proficiency drop further down!


What you really need is interest, energy and discipline to improve your English. I can tell of my experience before I go into the details of how to improve your English without going for English lessons. I remember I was in Form three and I desperately (very interested) in improving my English proficiency both written and Spoken (you need to do both; you cannot work on one and do without the other). So what did I do? I approached my English teacher Mr. Lim Chin Kee and he told me to do three things. READ anything but read a variety of topics and issues, than take down all the words I did not know into an exercise book. Find the meaning of each word and find out whether it is a noun, verb etc. Than write a sentence for each word; a complete sentence. Than use the newly learnt words in my conversations with my friends. I was told to learn five words a day and at the end of the week I was requested to hand in the exercise book to Mr. Lim.


It was tough in the beginning. You can say a lot of hard work is needed so much so that I spent an hour a day to read, writes, find the meanings and write sentences. The thing that tested my patience most was the dictionary, flipping to and fro to find that word almost like finding a needle in a hay stack. And the most fun part of it was when my friends looked so puzzled with the words that spewed out of my mouth. Most of them taught I was  show off but I was just doing what my teacher told me to do, and I even told them that! The other most pleasurable thing is when Mr. Lim marks the vocabulary book and puts in motivating comments like good, excellent, keep it up etc. And just to impress Mr. Lim I started to learn like 10 words a day. And my most favourite word was dilapidated (broken down; run-down place or house).


And guess what after 12 months my English proficiency reached a level beyond my imagination. A big thank you to my teacher, I don’t think he really read all the words and sentences but he truly made me DIY (Do It Yourself) and that made me improve my English language proficiency. And the moral of the story is one must make committed efforts. True teachers are like a lighthouse, they provide the directions and it is up to us to sail our boats. My committed work of reading, finding meanings and writing sentences continued till I went form six and it resulted in a lot of heart-warming achievements such as getting the highest score in the Genera Paper Essay section; won the Pinhorn Memorial Prize for the best researched History paper on the Hindu Kingdoms in South East Asia and School Magazine Best Short story. The fruits of the laborious work I did bore truly sweet fruits. If one take my experience in building English level proficiency one easily conclude that you can master English on your own – So Stop Attending English Classes unless you are from Mars.


Cheers:Thinavan

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RESEARCH AREAS: MASTER OF COMMUNICATION

Research stripped bare of its layers and processes is fundamentally asking questions and finding answers. Media research than is no different except that the research questions are related to the media and elements connected to it. A rich variety of approaches is available to communication researchers. A broad approach to the study of media can be based on Lasswell’s chain of communication. Lasswells broad-based approach towards inquiry into media connects well with a number of media theories and media effects. Lasswell’s approach encompasses five processes namely WHO, SAYS WHAT, IN WHICH CHANNEL, TO WHOM and WITH WHAT EFFECT? Based on the five processes five types of research can be done as shown in the diagram below :