OUMH1303: Reflective Essay on Oral Communication, May 2020 Semester

This reflective essay, submitted for the OUMH1303 English for Oral Communication course, details a student's experience creating a video presentation. The essay focuses on the challenges encountered, particularly in video production due to limited equipment and time constraints. The student reflects on the process of planning, scripting, and editing the video, highlighting the importance of time management and problem-solving skills. The essay also discusses the integration of technology in education, emphasizing creativity and innovation in learning. The student analyzes their strengths and weaknesses in public speaking, identifying areas for improvement such as nervousness, the use of stories and language, and incorporating effective gestures. The student also incorporates feedback from a friend to improve the overall quality of the presentation. Ultimately, the essay underscores the value of practice, preparation, and audience engagement in effective oral communication and the student's commitment to continuous improvement.

Faculty of Business and Management
May 2020 Semester
OUMH 1303
ENGLISH FOR ORAL COMMUNICATION

OUMH1303
CONTENTS
1. Task 1 , Video presentation link………………………………………………………2
2. Task 2, Refkective Essay………………………………………………………… 3~ 8
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Task 1
Task 2
Reflective Essay
Education is the key components that bring stable, growth and progress into our society. The
more people in a society are learned and educated, the more they can contribute to the society.
Today’s children are the adults of tomorrow. Brighter future is only possible with a more
intensive and personalized education system. Yet there is still lots of space to improve the
awareness on education which should begin at Home.
The famous Chinese phrase from Book of Rites - “From ancient times, those who want to
promote great virtue to the world, first need to govern their states; in order to govern their states,
they need to first manage their family; in order to manage their family, they need to first
improve themselves.” I love this phrase very much, this phrase was a pillar of the traditional
Chinese education, where my idea of the title of this video assignment (Education begin at
Home) came from. However, these special type of assignment has bring some serious challenges
for me, as video editing skills and video production knowledge which needed for this assignment
are considered a restrictive models of literacy in school curricula for the course that I currently
take. Furthermore, this is my very first time in my life for producing a video assignment which is
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pretty new for me. “What was challenging to me the most when integrate video production?
Three themes emerged in this category: limitation and availability of equipment, issues with
locality, and the influence of time. Limitation and availability of equipment. These issues posed
obstacles for which adjustments had to be made during implementations. These obstacles
included incompatibilities associated with video devices and computers, incompatibilities
associated with computers and video editing software, use of equipment that proved to be too
complicated for student use, or an insufficient number of video devices. Issues with locality- to
find an appropriate space for filming was difficult. Locating spaces with adequate lighting and
quiet areas for single use proved to be problematic. Time was a challenge for which they needed
to develop adaptations. Rather than rejecting video production as a time consuming activity, By
the way, I took all these challenges positively. The challenges were perceived more as problems
to solve than barriers preventing use of video production. To overcome these challenges, I strive
to overcome the challenges step by step with setup of timetable, For issues with equipment, I
managed to bought a tech-savvy laptop and install with good video-enhance software. For
locality issues, I managed to borrow a nice and decorative meeting room from my boss for video
taking, For Issue with influence of time, time management is essential as I strive to overcome the
challenges step by step with setup of timetable which I strive to follow strictly. Before I started
this video presentation, I really didn’t know the amount of work that would go into a
presentation. I thought I could put together a presentation in 15 minutes and look over it once
and be ready to present it. I now realize that this isn’t realistic if you want to make a good
presentation. As I look back on my presentation and the preparation that when into it I am
amazed by the amount I’ve learned from the process. This was my first proper video presentation
in a long time therefore I didn’t have much practice presenting in short period of time and had to
do a lot of work preparing for it. Although there was a lot of work in preparing for this exercise,
improvements can always be made. Initially I take about two week times to planning the speech
text, script for speech, subsequently I take another one week time to test a few video-editing
apps, and I finally choose ”CyberLink Power Director” for its user-friendly features and its
video enhance ability and I spend another two more weeks to familiarize and practice on the said
software. I have taken total 4 videos along the practice, I have carefully evaluate it all and chose
the better one. Eventually I have no choice but to decide myself as a sole director and sole
producer for this video assignment due to the precaution on pandemic threats of Covid-19.
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As I sat at a computer screen, scrolling through countless journal articles, deeply entrenched in
my research for this assignment which required to submit in video format. It became clear to me
that integration of technology into the classroom is absolutely essential if we, as students are to
receive the best education possible, and it will only continue to be more important as our world
continues its trend toward increasing technological advancement. Creativity and innovation are
both important in this task because they are an essence of learning including in the speech and
presentation. Creativity and innovation bring about interest and motivation to learners of English
as well as English teacher-trainees, which eventually lead to learning. Innovative and creative
ways of disseminating, sharing and facilitating knowledge development in students. Goodman
(1996) stated, “The power of technology is unleashed when students can use it in their own
hands as authors of their own work and use it for critical inquiry, self-reflection, and
creative expression” (as quoted in Hobbs, 1998, p. 20). Creativity and innovation have been
incorporated in my learning, assessment and supervision. Video assignments enable students to
compile their own materials, to mix and match written and audio-visual materials, integrating
animation, pictures, art, music, different speakers, and of course their own voice into their
response to the open question. The less restrictions imposed through format and technology use,
the more diverse and creative (Schultz & Quinn, 2014; Truong-White & McLean, 2015) will be
the responses. This includes leaving space for different levels of ability for dealing with
technology and compiling audio-visual materials.
I strongly felt that if they were a video shooting team who can help me to decorate more on the
background, put some professional lighting, playing a soothing background music, it will
enhance more video quality, and unfortunately, all this I only manage to do alone due to the
current pandemic threat. It takes a lot of courage to stand in front of the screen and speak to
them. Before the presentation, I was very nervous, but it made me just one minute to compose
myself. I did well in the overall speech but what stood out most is the way I captured the
attention of the audience. However, to improve my speeches, I need to practice a lot next time.
When it comes to speeches and presenting the most important thing is how you present yourself.
Presentation skills are just as essential as the information being displayed. However, for me to be
perfect next time, there are some things that I need to improve:
Nervousness
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Being nervous when making a presentation is normal; therefore, I need to prepare and practice
well before the main event. Every person feels typically physiological reactions like trembling
hands and pounding hearts. The same happened to me, however, to improve on that I have to
practice and prepare in advance. I will be taking time to go over my notes to be comfortable with
what am a presentation. I can achieve this by getting my friend to listen to and critique my
performance.
.Useful language and stories
I believe this is one part I did not achieve the best as I wanted. Speeches need to be interesting;
therefore, next time I will try as much as possible to involve stories and appropriate language. In
the speech I used some humor; however, I believe that the address as it is informative it needed a
lot of seriousness. However, in other statements, I can use humor. This will make my audience
listen to me attentively. In the presentation, viewers will generally like that personal touch and
stories leave them wanting for more.
I showed the finalised video presentation to my friend, John Tang and inquire either the speech is
informative or persuasive type, He then confirm is an informative type, I then escalate my
question to him for suggestion that might help improve my video presentation, He then agreed to
give his sincere comment which is as follow:-
a) Plan appropriately.
Make sure that you plan your communication appropriately. When you do this, think about how
important a book's first paragraph is, the same principle goes for your speech: from the
beginning, you need to intrigue your audience. For example, you could start with an interesting
statistic, headline, or fact that pertains to what you're talking about and resonates with your
audience.
b) Practice
There's a good reason that we say, "Practice makes perfect!" You simply cannot be a confident,
compelling speaker without practice.
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c) Engage With Your Audience
Pay attention to how you're speaking. If nervous, you might talk quickly. This might cause you
to trip over your words, or say something you don't mean. Force yourself to slow down by
breathing deeply. Don't be afraid to gather your thoughts; pauses for a while and that make you
sound confident and natural.
d) Watch Record by review your Speeches
Record your presentations or speeches regularly. You can improve your presenting skills
effectively by watching yourself later, and then working on improving in areas that need to. As
you watch, notice any verbal stalls, Observe your own body language: are you keep straight your
body? Are you keep eye contacts at the audience? Did you smile and speak clearly all the times?
For my personal thoughts of completing this task (the video presentation). I felt there is much
space I need to improve in public speaking which I have summarize as follow:-
a) Effectively organize and clearly deliver my main points. Each main point should be backed up
with effective supporting points and examples to make it more illustrative for the audience. The
steps I would take to improve on this goal are to develop a detailed speech outline and rehearse it
several times while timing it so I do not run out of time.
b) Improve my speech rate. I tend to talk not in constant pace and make very few or short pauses.
It is my goal to improve my speaking pace so the audience will be able to follow it better. This
can be achieved through multiple rehearsals.
c) Last but not least is hand gesture control. Watching myself on the video made me realize that I
hardly use my hands when I speak and sometimes that can be boring for the audience. I need to
work on using my hand gestures appropriately and a way to improve that is through recording
myself every time I deliver a speech and reviewing it as that is something I do unconsciously.
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Overall, I believe that I have many strengths such as the ability to speak without feeling
overwhelmed or very nervous, to quickly think and avoid mistakes without getting frustrated
(mistakes are for human beings), and to deliver my speech with effective voice projection and
eye contact. The main areas for improvement would be to engage the audience as they may relate
more to my speech, use more facial and hand gestures, speak at optimal pace and make
appropriate pauses, and use fewer fillers throughout the speech. However, I think my volume is
still good. I tried to make eye contact with everyone, and I used some gestures. I will try to keep
these for my next presentation. There are many other things to improve and I am confident that I
will be able to incorporate these changes in my next presentation.
Reference for Reflective Journal:
1) Goodman, S. (1996, Fall/Winter). Media technology and education reform: Searching for
redemption in the digital age. Video and Learning, 1-2.
2) Hobbs, R. (1998). The seven great debates in the media literacy movement. The Journal
of Communication, 48(1), 16-32.
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