Welcome back to our Excellence in English Series. This week we have another excellent piece for you to read and enjoy. The Excellence in English appreciation was first initiated by IULI’s English lecturer who was astonished by the English skills of the students through their classwork, however the idea for an ‘Excellence in English’ group came from our students.
The normal English syllabus covers writing and presentation skills, in particular, but a number of students were already proficient in those skills and ready for a bigger challenge. An experiment with one student in early 2019 proved to be successful so a number of students in 2020 took up the challenge of producing either a fiction or non-fiction paper or story.
This week we have a paper by Jevan Nathaniel from Mechatronics 2018 with the title “The past, the present and the future of English”.
“The reason I chose this topic is that I find language as an identity interesting. From what I experience, many people would relate and sympathize easier with others that speak their language. This form of camaraderie in spoken language is very intriguing, as languages are ever-changing,” says Jevan.
In the makings of this paper, he found that determining the structure of this paper was confusing as he did not have the experience of making a properly structured paper. Because of this, he structured this literature in chronological order of the English historical developments. “Choosing a suitable source for this paper was a bit challenging, as many sources could become the foundation of this paper. “I then used more academic-based studies and used academic literature such as papers, educational books, and professor’s websites. I have learned many things in the time I wrote this paper. I learned more English educational books, and professor’s websites,” he adds.
Jevan also learned many things in the time he wrote this paper. He learned more English language history than what he had seen in historical documentaries. He also learned how to structure his paper correctly and how to write a less technical essay. Overall, Jevan feels satisfied with his paper and the journey in finishing it, as it improves his overall English usage in academic writing and adds to his knowledge of English language history.