JOURNAL 1 LEARNING ENGLISH: MY THOUGHTS AND ASPIRATIONS

Honestly, when I was a child, I never know what English is and never heard my father and my mother speak English at home. I never learned English in the kindergarten or even at home. Only few English words that my mother teaches me such as cat, tiger, and car. Those words just simple words and my mother just said those words only if there was cat or car in front of me. Sometimes, I tried to pronouns some words that I heard when watched cartoon show in television such as the title of the show, Dragon Ball and Mickey Mouse. Started from that, I knew some words of English.

While studying in primary school, I was exposed to formal English in the classroom. I got to know several other English words and their use in everyday life. At that time, I feel that English is a difficult subject because I find it hard to understand the meaning of each word as taught by the teacher. I make the dictionary as a reference while learning English in primary schools in an effort to understand the English language words that I learned in the classroom.

My teacher in primary school, Mrs. Devi has changed my perception of English. He makes English a fun subject to learn. I do not just use the textbook as a learning medium, but also make coral speaking and choir competitions as one of the branches of learning. Starting from primary school level two, I began to learn some verbs and nouns to make simple sentences. Step by step, I can improve my proficiency in English primary schools well and gained my confident in writing. However, because I was too confident, I have made simple mistakes and just get a grade B in UPSR.

While in secondary school, I decided to learn English well. I tried to learn English using English songs because my teacher says it is one of effective methods to improve their mastery of grammar and pronunciation. Moreover, they are a fun way. Without a doubt, my mastery of English has improved and achieved grade A in PMR examinations. Afterward, I moved to a boarding school, SHAH Pekan. Apparently, my English proficiency is weak compared with other friends and was placed in group five of the last group.

I began to feel less confident and always thought that I could not reach school targets. But my teacher, Miss Ann, told that we learn English not only for assessment but for ourselves. She had introduced me the English novels and her own module in order to improve my English writing, pronunciation and confident level. She was teach me with patience and never regards why always she got the English last group. It's amazing when all members of the last group achieved grade A in SPM while other groups do not all got the grade A.

Until today, I am still reading the English novel to enhance my vocabulary. Besides that, I always listen to English and wrote the song and sometimes sing. By doing so, I can enhance fluency English pronunciation. I also still keep the modules provided by the Miss Ann and until today I still use it as the main reference in studying English. Learning English is not difficult and exciting if we know which way that is really suitable and help us lots in order to mastery English. I hope, with the knowledge about English and teachers training in IPG, I can be a first-class English teacher that will change the negative perception of English and provide exciting moment in English class to my future student.