ELC 121

INTRODUCTION
TO LIRA
LIRA
LISTEN.INTERACT.RESPOND.ANSWER
‘WHAT IS A PERSONAL REFLECTION?’ 

•“a Personal Reflection is a response to a

particular stimulus. Often, it is written by
an individual to explore personal
experiences, feelings and events. A
personal reflection is an opportunity
to reconsider events, thoughts and feelings
from a fresh perspective”.
 GOOD PERSONAL
REFLECTION?
• The key to write a successful personal reflection is to
remember that a personal response is made by you.
Therefore, your responses are usually different from
someone else’s. Your response will be influenced by:

• 1) Your opinions, beliefs and experiences

• 2) Similarities or contrasts to your own life (i.e.
experiences you can identify with)
• 3) How real or believable a subject / text is
• 4) Your emotional state at a given moment
• 5) Sympathy or empathy with characters
 JUSTIFY!
• Even though you have been asked to provide
a personal response you will still need to justify  your
opinion. This means you need to give reasons why
you developed your ideas. You can support your
response through:

• 1) Examples from the text

• 2) referring to specific events within a audio text
• 3) referring to specific quotes within a audio text
 EXAMPLE 1
Question 1: Elaborate TWO (2) lessons learnt from the story.
From the story, I have learnt that love could be unconditional. This could be seen through
the sacrifice made by the blind girl’s boyfriend. Personally, I think that the boyfriend’s
sacrifice is too big which would not be done by everyone easily. If I were to donate my
eyes to someone, it would only be for my closest family members, however, it is only
after consideration. Therefore, the boyfriend’s action shows me that unconditional love
without expecting anything in return does exist. The second lesson that I learnt from the
story is we should accept others’ physical appearance just the way they are. I know that
in today’s context, we tend to judge others by look. This is shown through the blind girl
character. She leaves her boyfriend because she thinks that he is imperfect. Little did she
know that the gift to be able to see again is because of the boyfriend. That is why I think
that judging someone from look is the biggest mistake we tend to make. To conclude, the
two lessons that I have learnt in this story is love could be unconditional and we should
not be judging someone based on their physical.
 EXAMPLE 2
Question 2: With the reference to the story “The Blind Girl”, do you think unconditional love exists?
Justify TWO (2) reasons for your answer.
Even though “The Blind Girl” emphasises unconditional love, in my opinion, I do not
think that unconditional love exists. Firstly, unconditional love could only happen in
unrealistic world such as television series, movies or fictions. I do not think realistically,
someone would donate eyes for a person, unless, organ that is being donated will not
harm the donor's life. For example, after giving eyes to the blind girls, the boyfriend
would be living as a blind person for the rest of his life which would later trouble him in
performing his job. Also, people will always expect something in return. For example,
when you love and care about someone, you expect the person to love and care about
you the same way because that is how you maintain a healthy relationship. I think this is
similar to the blind girl’s situation, the relationship does not work when the blind girl
does not accept her boyfriend the same way. Hence, I strongly believe that
unconditional love only exists in an unrealistic world and people will always be
expecting something when they love someone.
 EXAMPLE 3
Question 3: In your opinion, how did the girl blind feel after she knew it was the boyfriend who donated
her the eyes? Would she regret breaking the promise to marry him? Explain what her feelings might be
and justify your answer.
Personally, I do not think that the blind girl would regret her decision. This could be
seen when the blind girl dumps her boyfriend after she knew about his condition. If she
is sincerely to accept her boyfriend as he is, she would have agreed to spend her life
with him the moment she see the world. I am sure that the boyfriend would have been
very nice, kind and considerate towards her before she could even see, but just because
of his blindness, she just turns him down. However, I think the blind girl would feel a
bit shocked and embarrassed by her action because she has already sworn to marry that
guy before. Based on my personal experience, people would usually end up being regret
of what they have done, however, this does not mean that she would actually change her
decision to marry that blind guy because he might end up being a burden to her later.
Hence, I strongly believe that she is never regretting the decision that she has made.
 SCORING GUIDE

1) Content
i. Appropriate & clear (main points & supporting
points)
ii. Examples given
2) Language
iii. Appropriate language
iv. Suitable vobulary
3) Organization
v. Points are well-organized
vi. Use of linkers/transitional words
 LIRA (20%)
1) Week 5 and 9
2) LIRA I (10%) and LIRA II (10%)
3) Practices will be given
THANK YOU ☺