Assessment 4: Reflective Journal (25%)

Due date:           Sunday, 1 November 2020

Word limit:        1500 words (+/- 10%) 

Submission:      Turn-It-In on Canvas

Assessment Outline:

For each journal entry, students should include their responses to the following
questions:

 What have you learnt this week?

 What challenges did you encounter this week?
 What practical measures did you take to help you overcome those
challenges?
 How did you prepare for your oral assessment tasks (Week 6 and 12)?

Assessment Criteria:

This collection of journal entries should demonstrate the student’s daily voice and
speech practice as well as their preparation for both practical oral assessments in Week
6 and 12. The student should be able to demonstrate:

 The ability to evaluate personal application of practical voice and speech

skills (breathing, posture, word and sentence stress, intonation, connected
speech/linking sounds, pace and pause)
 An understanding of exercises used to develop clear speech
 The ability to accurately distinguish speech sounds in Australian English
 Problem-solving strategies in order to gain clear speech and articulation for
effective communication
 An increased understanding of phonetics and intonation patterns in
connected speech.
Week 1

1. One important lesson: There is nothing wrong with my accent. Nikki said this to us
and to keep in mind that the goal of the subject is to have a clear speech and not
necessarily to have an Australian accent (which most of the students in her tutorial last
week set this as their goal).

And so I think this is a very important lesson for me, to be confident in my own accent,
as long as I speak clearly and communicate effectively.

2.  One major discovery that I've made: The right breathing technique actually plays an
important role in speaking confidently. When I breathe correctly (with the right posture,
opening the rib cage), I will have enough breath, thus I can speak longer and louder,
having a more powerful and clear tone.

3. One or more challenges: I had to be brave and initiative in a new environment (e.g.
put my hand up to read the sentence, participating actively) and the other challenge
would be the long sentence that has a lot of punctuation.

 What have you learnt this week?

 What challenges did you encounter this week?

 What practical measures did you take to help you overcome those
challenges?
Week 2

1. One important lesson I've learned about myself: Apparently I tend to mix

American, British, and Australian accent which sometimes makes people confused. But
thanks to phonetic chart practice, I can be consistent in my pronunciation, thus be more
clear in how I communicate with other people. (So the key point is consistency).

2. One major discovery: I know now how to pronounce "Aunt" both in American and
British / Australian, thanks to Lisa! (Previously I pronounced it as "ant" and this will still
be wrong even in an American accent because according to the phonetic
chart, "aunt" is pronounced ɑːnt whereas "ant" is pronounced ant itself.

3. One or more challenges: Talking to other students is still a challenge for me. The
breakroom in tute was a great tool to encourage us, as students, to talk and collaborate
with each other.

 What have you learnt this week?

 What challenges did you encounter this week?
 What practical measures did you take to help you overcome those
challenges?

Week 3

This week my highlight was articulation. It was very interesting how our lips, jaw, teeth,
soft palate, and other body parts all play a role in articulation.  I learned pretty much the
same as last week, about phonetic charts and how to pronounce the words in different
accents. I also learned between unvoiced and voiced words. I think this one is very
interesting as it emphasizes the importance of articulation and how articulation can
differentiate the same letter but with different articulations (divided into voiced and
unvoiced).
Moreover, I gained more confidence as I was doing my 1st assignment. It was daunting
at first but with practice, I finally got my best self-intro and uploaded my assignment! :)

 What have you learnt this week?

 What challenges did you encounter this week?
 What practical measures did you take to help you overcome those
challenges?

Week 4

This week's content is my favorite so far because we finally learn about articulation!

1. One important lesson I've learned about myself this week: My bad posture (i.e.
stiff neck and hunch shoulders and back) is the main reason I get so anxious when
studying. So thank you, Lisa, for the warm-ups. It really made me realize that stretching
and having the right breathing helps us to be more at ease.

2. One major discovery that I have made: Word stress is super important. I made a
mistake by stressing the syllable "mu" in saying "communication". When Lisa told me to
stress "ca" instead of "mu", it changed my articulation to be better. Though I've always
spoken in English quite fluent, my fluency only comes from imitating the native speaker
without knowing which syllable to stress. So the major thing I've learned is to stress a
word in the right syllable!

3. One or more challenges I've encountered: Firstly, I have trouble keeping my

breath long, so I sometimes have to take a breath or pause in the middle of the
sentence. This might be caused by current health (i.e. I'm having acid reflux and
difficulty breathing). But the warm-ups at the start of the tutorial really helps to ease my
breath. Secondly, knowing which syllable to stress in each word is a bit challenging. But
I reckon this can be overcome by a lot of practice and always referring to the dictionary
and the phonemic chart.
  What have you learnt this week?
 What challenges did you encounter this week?
 What practical measures did you take to help you overcome those
challenges?

Week 5

1. One important lesson you've learned about yourself this week: I love how we
finally learn articulation in more depth this week! I've been looking forward to it since
day 1. We also learned about pitch and intonation. The most important lesson I've
learned this week is to have longer deeper breaths and lengthen the vowel sounds
to have better articulation. Because I tend to slip a lot when saying words too quickly
or find myself mumbling accidentally.

2. One major discovery you've made : As the Australian accent tends to have a rising
inflection at the end of every sentence, it sounded like the speaker is asking a question
when they were just making a statement. This tendency to have a rising inflection
has changed my first language intonation to have a rising inflection too. However,
Indonesians barely have an inclining intonation when they are making a statement.
Most people use an upward sound towards the end of the sentence when they are
asking a question. No wonder a lot of Indonesian people thought I was confused or I
sounded like I was asking them questions when I really was just saying a statement. It really
is remarkable how the rising inflection is perceived differently between the two languages,
and how my Indonesian intonation was changed by an English daily usage.

3. One or more challenges you've encountered this week: Our breakout room has a
technical issue where one of my tutorial friends could not connect to the audio so we did
not get much interaction in the tutorial. And it was a shame that they often speak in a
language, that is not English, in the breakout room which I do not understand. So
I kept asking them questions in English to encourage them to speak in English so I
can understand them and help each other out. In the end, we did good work and
discussed our topic for the pitch :)

 What have you learnt this week?

 What challenges did you encounter this week?
 What practical measures did you take to help you overcome those
challenges?

Week 6

1. One important lesson you've learnt about yourself this week: I learnt more about
pausing and connected speech. It is very important because this is often be forgotten in
a speech. Most people (including me) only focus on the articulation. But actually
knowing when to pause and for how long, also when to connect speech so we can
speak more fluently are all important when communicating with others.

2. One major discovery you've made: Pause is very powerful in a speech. I listened

to my recordings for the One Minute Pitch Assignment and picked the best one.
Although I did not rush in all of my videos, I realised that I still need to pause longer than
I did. So I recorded another videos until I am satisfied with the correct pausing.

3. One or more challenges you've encountered this week: Knowing when to pause

and for how long is challenging. It needs trial and error, come back to my videos, listen
to it a couple of times and analyse it, compare it with another video of mine. And then
tried a new approach of pausing in the speech. I eventually got a sense of correct
pausing for my speech. So I'm glad I did the trial and error and finally learnt which
pausing works the best!
The power of pause. Using medium and long pause (0.50 and 1.50 seconds) for my one minute pitch.
  What have you learnt this week?
 What challenges did you encounter this week?
 What practical measures did you take to help you overcome those
challenges?

Week 7

1.  One important lesson I've learnt about myself this week: Lisa gave me very
valuable advice which is her own strategy when practicing her speech: know my content
well and practice it over and over again. So when the time comes for me to do the
speech, all I need to do is to focus on how I convey the message and be present with
the audience, then the script itself will flow automatically.

2. One major discovery I've made: Visualisation is what I've been doing this whole
time before networking events, interviews, presentation, even when planning to go out
and meet new people! I just never realised that what I have been doing this whole time
is visualisation. Apparently visualisation gives huge impact on my communication, it
gives me more confidence and knowing what to say or what not to say. It really is a
helpful tool, more like a simulation tool to asses yourself before you do the actual
conversation/speech.

3. One or more challenges I've encountered this week: Still having problem on when
to breathe, so I can convey the message continuously. But I kept practicing and I think it
is improving!

Also just want to give a quote for you guys who are reading cause I know Week 8 is
coming and it is getting busier!

“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to
succeed is always to try just one more time.”
 – Thomas Edison –

 What have you learnt this week?

 What challenges did you encounter this week?
 What practical measures did you take to help you overcome those
challenges?

Week 8

1. One important lesson you've learnt about yourself this week: I just realised that I
always put a genuine interest to the person I am talking to. By putting my focus on
them, I become an active listener and so the questions keep going. This is how I
maintain a conversation naturally. By doing this, the "small talk" becomes more
meaningful and flows thoroughly.

2. One major discovery you've made: I love how Lisa gave advice on how to stop a
conversation or "small talk" politely. I never had any problems starting a conversation or
keeping the conversation going, but I have always had a problem in ending a
conversation. Usually, it ended awkwardly because I did not know how to end it.

I'm so glad Lisa taught me tricks to end a conversation politely. It can be saying "nice
talking to you, we'll catch up next time..." or it can be "I had a great time talking to you,
but now I had to......"

3. One or more challenges you've encountered this week: for me, the idioms are
interesting but also challenging to understand. But I'm glad that we went through the
idioms in tute, and even have more examples on using these idioms.

 What have you learnt this week?

 What challenges did you encounter this week?
  What practical measures did you take to help you overcome those
challenges?

Week 9

1. Three important lessons you have learnt so far

- Be present. This is very useful to me whenever I'm feeling stressed. I tried Lisa's
exercise where I tried to close my eyes and identify what I feel from my 5 senses: what I
see, hear, touch, taste, and smell. It helps me to be aware of my surroundings and
release my energy to all different parts of my body, making me more relaxed.

- Pace and pause are very important in communicating with other people. These are the
two things I never paid attention to until I took CSC subject. So I'm very grateful that I
discovered the importance of these two things from CSC. I used pause more often and
monitor my pace when talking to people, so I will not speak too quickly.

- The diphthongs really helped my articulation. It's amazing to know that similar letters
can be said differently. Such as the voiced and unvoiced diphthongs. 

2. What has been your biggest achievement since starting CSC?

- I have become a more confident person, especially in initiating small talks and keeping
eye contact.

3. What has been your biggest challenge this week and how do you plan to
overcome it?

- Maintain eye contact throughout a tiny camera, instead of looking at my friends' faces
on the screen.

 What have you learnt this week?

 What challenges did you encounter this week?
  What practical measures did you take to help you overcome those
challenges?

Week 10


Your 3 favourite voice/speech exercises that you've been using in your
daily practiceI love tongue twisters!! It always warms up my tongue, breath,
and also jaw movement. I also love using the warm up Lisa taught us in class
which is moving our jaw freely as if we're chewing gum. This is not only
making my jaw more relax, but also my face (eyes, cheeks, lips) and gives
me a good mood because it's funny to see my face like this in the mirror! Last
but not least, I love making noises to find my natural pitch, just like the one
we always do in tutorial. This makes me aware of how I sound and gives me
the opportunity to explore my own pitch,.

 Your experience working towards the final presentation (high and low
moments)

It's really hard to finalize my draft. My topic is about me having the courage to get help
in order to 'survive' in 2020. I felt that I have so much things to share but so little time.
So I decided to write the whole thing that I want to say. It turned out to be 10 minutes
long!! So I kept narrowing it down until I got a 3 minute pitch. I also practice this in front
of my friend who's an influencer in a social media. His advice helped a lot because he
gave me feedbacks about my delivery and content, and how to make it better to
influence the audience. I also did some research on how the pandemic has affected
mental health of many people.

 
  Challenges you are still experiencing and how you plan to overcome
them

I still have difficulties looking at the camera instead of my friends' faces on the screen.
So I will practice this daily and also put a sticky note beside my camera "look here" to
remind myself!

Week 11
1. So I’m currently still practicing my speech in front of the mirror and keep working on
my body gestures, also breath, and to not saying “click” sounds as Lisa said in the
speech rehearsal in our tutorial. I also still need to memorise my script and making eye
contacts with my peers through the camera. Other than that, I need to be braver in
delivering my speech, my first take in tute, i trembled a little bit because opening up my
personal story was a bit daunting! But now that I have shared it, I will not be scared
anymore on the day!

2. I love CSC! I became a more confident person. Im brave enough to share my

personal stories through grief and anxiety as the content of my speech. I have better
articulation since I now understand linked words and phonetic chart too. It has met my
expectations on gaining more confidence, better articulation, and the speech made me
reflect on my lockdown experience.

3. Im definitely going to go through all the exercises from tutorial (i.e. the word
documents) such as the tongue twisters, linking words, story telling, just to keep
improving my communication skills. I will definitely stretch and do warm ups multiple
times in a day, because it has improved my focus and mood a lot. Also, i will definitely
be more confident to initiate small talks with other people (in English of course).

Thanks Lisa for being our tutor. I can’t believe the semester is almost over! Definitely
learn a lot of things from this subject!
Week 12

 What have you learnt this week?

 What challenges did you encounter this week?
 What practical measures did you take to help you overcome those
challenges?

One-minute pitch

Final Presentation