At the middle of the first half-term, we had our further oral activity (FOA) session where different presentations on certain issues were presented. Students were defining attitudes and values of certain communities through analyzing their linguistic features. Despite the difficulties on preparing to the session, this process was very useful for me as I got new skills on language analysis.
First of all, before the FOA process, I didn’t even realize that it is possible to say so many things about a community according to its language. In past, words and the way they are used in a community were not very informative for me. While doing my FOA it was difficult to notice and outline the details which seemed obvious to me. The preparation for the activity forced me to reopen my ideas on text analysis. I have got new skills in understanding language: now I pay attention to every significant word and try to find pieces of evidence in usual expressions: tricolon, satire, juxtaposition and etc. It became easier for me to define a discourse of a community, identify its attitudes and values and determine the biases if there are any.
Obviously, as any other school task, FOA made me keep myself more organized and make a work plan for the period till the deadline. Of course, the plan was not ideally followed. I even could do most of the parts of my FOA presentation only on the last night before the deadline. Preparing the FOA presentation challenged me to manage my timetable and work more wisely.
But not only doing my own FOA helped me. I also received some skills from other students’ FOA presentations. Comparison gave be an ability to estimate my own work. Through analyzing other’s FOAs I could mark mine more precisely. Furthermore, most of the FOA presentations are applicable for an analysis in their turn. That’s why the performers themselves gave me a new object to review the language use.
In general, FOA is a very good way to develop critical thinking. This skill is useful not only in literature but also in many other subjects and areas in humanities and science.