My Literacy Journey
My literacy journey has been bumpy in the sense that I have had to work hard and resolve many obstacles in order to equip myself with literacy skills and awareness.
Discovering New Vocabulary
I remember the first time I touched a book with words on it when I was in primary school. It was difficult for me to understand different terms in the books at the time. However, under the instruction of the instructor, I read the text word for word. It assisted me in discovering new vocabulary and getting a general understanding of the story's context. However, after I had a certain amount of words, I began to read the text objectively. It is not a way for me to just simply read the words. I asked my mum to buy me story books that I was to use in strengthening my vocabulary. My mom bought me a few books, and this I used to build my pronunciation and vocabularies.
Meeting Pupils from Different Backgrounds
At my middle grade, I met pupils from different backgrounds. I have never forgotten my friend Elney, a lady with a British background. Elney played a huge role in boosting my literacy skills at the middle grade. Her English pronunciation and vocabularies were remarkable. I spent most of my time with her and with time, my vocabularies improved significantly. However, after her father's death, Elney and her family migrated to Manchester. Her relocation to Manchester left a feeling of pain in my heart but at least I have to say that she played a huge role in enhancing my literacy skills. My adaptation to Elney's departure was the creation of a close bond to the story books. In my seventh grade, I spent most of my time in the library. I chose those story books that were easier to understand. My love for the story books, while at the seventh grade, further provided me with a stepping stone in sharpening my literacy understanding and writing skills. I put the vocabularies that I derived from the story books into practice during the verse speaking competitions that were always organized by mum on weekends.
Reading Novels and Course Materials
When I read novels, I just go over through all text and get the core idea of the essay. Usually, knowing the meaning of the book lets me have the new cognition of an object. However, reading course material is different. It is merely a way to look for answers as I participate in class discussions or find the right answer for my homework. For me, reading course materials means I need to keep taking notes while reading. I cannot just make a summary because course materials include a lot of definition and formula. Sometimes, I need make the whole chapter review to ensure I understand the course materials. When I read, I used to holding a pencil. I learned this from my primary school teacher. When I start having a general quick scan, the pen helps me to circle the keyword. For instance, when I read "the story's background is... and the author writes this story is to...", I know writer's purpose. After I circle or underlined the sentences after the keyword, I can just skip the lines and continue my reading. When author writes, "I am not a reading person...but later, my teacher affects me...", this kind of transition word tells me the author wants to tell us something changes him on making the decision. Meanwhile, after the opposition transaction term, we know the author tries to express the readers there is the clue to show he is doing the contrary point. After reading each paragraph, I will use several words to simplified summarized the main idea of an article. It helps me have a clear mind when I look back the article again.
My Literacy Journey Continues
At my high school education level, I have to say that reading was a part and parcel of me. I spend most of my time at the study room and library. It was during this time that I was able to differentiate between academic and non-academic material. Initially, I used to think that anything that I read was academic. However, this came out clear to me that there was a difference between the two when I started making extensive research at my high school level. I also have to say that, as a part of my vocabularies, I was also able to gather lots of jargons, and this further played a key role in the boosting of my literacy skills.
Literacy Skills in College
At my college level, research has been my thing. My literacy skills that I have learned across the years have been instrumental in making my life easier at the college level. Reading academic work more has been a vital part in enhancing my knowledge base. For instance, I was required to read "The Pride and Prejudice" when I was in my High School. In the beginning, I treated it as homework. However, when my English teacher started to analyze and showed us the movie in class, I gradually loved this story. According to the detail point, I find out how the main characters' emotion had influenced by people around them. Meanwhile, how Jane Austin gets affected by her father. Her talent and unique perspective make her different from other people. Personally, it helps me to shape a positive image and be powerful on how to improve myself to solve problems in my life better. This is just but an example of how literacy skills have been a major influence in my life.
College Level Literacy
At present, In my UWP 01 class, my instructor assigned some reading for me, such as Shitty First Drafts, Seven Element, and Invention Throughout the Writing Process. These readings were selected for academic reasons as they explained some useful skills in writing and reading. For instance, from the reading materials, I now know I need to use different languages based on my audience. When I am writing an academic essay to my professor, I must use precise words, and all my examples needs to be evidence-based, predictable, and abide to research rule such as giving credit to the author through referencing. College life has also opened up a whole new literacy perspectives such as proofreading, essay formatting and paraphrasing. I have also learned about different types of referencing and citation styles and this I on several occasions use in writing my essays. My essay writing skills have since improved. I can now come up with an essay that has a suitable flow and well-formatted and referenced.
Conclusion
In conclusion, everyone has its individual way to get literacy. For me, reading both academic and non-academic bring me a lot of knowledge. Academic ones might help in shaping my future career goals and questioning on depth understanding. On the other hand, non-academic work enriches my life. It not only allows me to be more cherish any relationship in my life. Meanwhile, it let me better to examine self and perfect ego personality. No matter which literacy brings me more fun, when I am a critical thinker, the journal to literacy always enriches my perspective.
