47 Discovery Essay: “Read More and Suceed”
Reflection Letter
Smirna De la Rosa
ENG 1003/1013
Dr. Rachel Johnston
October 22, 2023
Dear __________,
How are you doing? I hope you are doing fine! I am doing super well, but I must say, I am super busy with schoolwork, but I am getting there slowly but surely. Now I am working extremely hard on an interesting and fun/challenging project in my English class called my discovery essay/wellness activity. So far, the project has been fun and very advantageous for me since I have learned a lot, you know how I love that!
You might be wondering what a discovery essay/wellness activity is? I will tell you all about it! So, a discovery essay/wellness activity is a personal resolution or goal that one commits to accomplish with the objective of writing all about it. One can write the reasons why one chose to do a particular wellness activity, the goal of doing it, and the steps one took for the fulfillment of the goal, or goals, one plans to accomplish with the wellness activity. Besides, one can also include in one’s writing how beneficial the activity was for oneself in one’s daily life. The failures and successes one experienced when attempting to meet one’s plans should also form part of one’s writing. Moreover, one needs to support one’s writing about one’s wellness activity, with primary and secondary research. As you can see my project was indeed a challenge, but a fun and educational one.
The topic of my wellness activity that I chose was to read more in English so that I can gain a richer vocabulary, get familiar with distinctive styles of writing so that when I need to write a paper, I can do it with ease because I have seen how others have done it. Furthermore, with reading more in English I seek to enjoy reading and at the same time to relax. Consequently, reading more often in English, as a nursing student, will help me to succeed in college.
To figure out what I wanted to do was not difficult for me because I knew what I needed. The help of my classmates and my professor was essential for the development and the actual fulfillment of my project since they gave me good ideas and advice. For example, my professor suggested that I find the audiobook of the book I planned to read so that I can read along without needing to stop and getting frustrated over words that I did not understand, and I did not know how to pronounce. Her suggestion was excellent, and it was what helped me to persevere. My
Smirna De la Rosa 2801 Denton Tap Rd Lewisville, TX 75685
October 22, 2023
classmate suggested that I first try to read books that are at my English level and that I read genres that are of my interest.
The actual writing of my essay was a lot of fun due to my wellness activity. I loved that I was writing about something that I was doing. I felt that I had a lot to tell because I was familiar with everything and that helped me gain a lot of confidence in my writing. In addition, the different activities that we did during class also helped me to be freer in my writing and simply write without getting overly complicated in things that did not allow me to put into words what I wanted to express. Emily, I am super happy that my writing seems to come along and is going to a higher level. I am getting freer, and at peace when it comes to writing an essay, which is a miracle!
Something else that I enjoyed very much about writing this essay was when I went to the Write Site for help. The simple fact of conversing with somebody about what I wanted to do made many ideas flow with ease. Hollyn, the tutor who helped me with my paper, was an excellent help and a great support. It was nice that I needed to interview somebody that might have some experience in the subject and Hollyn was one of them. The other person I interviewed was Jeimy, an ESL classmate, who was great. Her answers to my questions supported my essay’s arguments. The interviews were another source for gaining more ideas of how to develop my paper even more.
Together with this letter, I am sending my essay for whenever you have a chance to read it. If you want and have the time you could also let me know what you think about it, and if you have any feedback, I am always open to receiving it. Feedback just helps me to get my writing better, that is something that I have learned in my process of writing; how important it is the feedback that others can give about your work; it is a great complement!
Take care! I hope to see you soon!
Sincerely,
_______________________________
Discovery Essay
Read More and Succeed
Reading often has multiple benefits in improving your writing and communication skills as an ESL student. It is logical that reading has multiple benefits such as obtaining better writing skills that help to improve grammar. Furthermore, reading also benefits one’s mental health, helping to release stress, and at the same time is a good recreational hobby.
Lee et al. Suggests that learning grammar by reading is a good and effective approach since texts offer a vast opportunity for seeing grammar rules applied in different contexts throughout the reading (38-39). In communication, reading helps to gain new vocabulary which leads you to communicate beyond the basics that you already know. In addition, Christina Mathews agrees that “vocabulary knowledge contributes to academic success at the college level” (1). Another research also suggests: “Learners hoping to move beyond basic oral communication skills (e.g., to read academic texts or to function professionally in English) must read written text in order to expand their lexicons” (Horts 356).
As an ESL student myself, I have had multiple difficulties in my journey of learning the English language. My major difficulties were found in my writing and communication skills, which are not as developed, in my opinion, as they should be. I noticed that it is simply difficult to express oneself in writing when one knows and experiences oneself as having an extremely limited vocabulary. What’s even more difficult, sometimes, is the spoken communication; many ESL students will agree with me. But the thing is that if we, as ESL students, do not get into the habit of reading more often in English, our writing and communication skills of the language will not improve. We need to get going, we need to read more often.
Jeimy Perez, an ESL classmate, admits that reading more often in English has had multiple benefits for her, especially improving her vocabulary and an effective way of learning grammar. She shared that thanks to reading more in English she learned how to write new words like “passport.” Jeimy said: “I knew the word “Passport”, but I didn’t know how to spell it. I would mix it with the Spanish vocabulary “Pasaporte” therefore she would write the word in English as “Pasaport”.
Reading often in English is not only beneficial for ESL students, but also for native English speakers as Hollyn from the TWU Write Site shared with me. She does enjoy reading very much because she considers reading as her hobby. The benefits that Hollyn has experienced have to do with her writing and communication skills which due to being engaged in reading have improved. One benefit she owes to reading is how it taught her a lot about writing. She explained that because she has engaged herself into reading, she now expresses herself in a creative way in her own writing. Reading novels, in particular, has inspired her to write her own. Thanks to reading she has also learned “to look at the world from different perspectives.” She is of the opinion that “reading books can help expand a person’s opinions about the world and instills empathy in a person.” Reading more often in English is not only about learning to expand one’s lexicon, but reading also becomes a great school of empathy as Hollyn shared.
When I first started studying English, I had an English tutor, Ms. Alice, that would come to my house to teach me English on a daily basis. On one of the many occasions that she came to my house for my lessons, she brought with her two books and told me: “From today on we will try to do something different.” I looked at her with big eyes and full of expectation, then she said: “We will read these books together, Ann of the Green Gable, and I am very excited,” she added. My tutor introduced me to the habit of reading in English because she believed that through reading, I could actually improve my English and gain a richer vocabulary.
For several months, prior to reading the book, my English tutor taught me a lot of grammar and pronunciation. So, now she wanted to put into practice all that she has taught me since we started the English lessons. We started reading the book. We took turns reading and when a word that I was unfamiliar with came in my portion of the reading, I simply stopped and wondered: “How in the world am I supposed to pronounce this word?” Words with more consonants than vowels, names of people, and places were my stumbling blocks. She then taught me how to pronounce the word, which was good. I enjoyed very much hearing Ms. Alice read to me in English; she was very good at it. She read with much enthusiasm and even laughed when she found something in the reading that was funny. But for me, what I read was not funny because I did not understand how funny what she said was, so I just looked at her and continued with my part. The time of reading with Ms. Alice was really fun; every time we read, I was able to understand even more than before. I felt like the more I read, the more I liked it even if I did not always understand the words. My reading time with Ms. Alice came to an end pretty soon because I moved. I got busy as a bee, having less and less time to spend on reading; consequently, I did not continue reading in English as often as I used to with my tutor. The sad thing was that I never finished Ann of the Green Gable. Years after finishing my classes with Ms. Alice. I decided to pick the same book and continue reading where we left off. When reading Ann of the Green Gable by myself, without the support of my tutor, I realized that there were many words that I was still not familiar with. Many words that I simply do not understand and that seem to go beyond my level of comprehension of the language. I was not able to get the content of what I was reading. That disappointed me and I felt overwhelmed every time I attended to read a little more of the book and I again got stuck in words that I did not know. At the end, I simply gave up my longing for reading and I felt that I was never going to pass over that barrier. Getting stuck on difficult words was overwhelming, it took me a long time to pass to the next sentence and another time even to the next word. I could not read as fast because I was trying to comprehend the message of what I was reading, as well as trying to understand the language. Later on, I understood the reason why I was not able to understand many of the words that were in that book. It was because Ann of the Green Gable was written in 1908 and since then English has evolved very much and many of the words used at that time are no longer in use or not used as often.
My reading experiences with Ann of the Green Gable and my English assignment of engaging in a wellness activity with the goal of writing an essay about it have been what motivated me to try to read more in English. I considered many possibilities for my wellness activity, but I ended up choosing to read more in English because of the benefits and also because now I am in college. My English proficiency needs to be at a college level so that I can succeed.
The first step I took into accomplishing my wellness activity was to look for the appropriate book that would be at my English level; I searched for the appropriate genre that would help me stay motivated and not give up. Jeimy shared that to keep herself motivated when reading in English she would read books that are of interest to her like fiction, murder, magic, and love. She is of the opinion that if reading in English is difficult for an ESL learner it might be because they have not found the correct genre that interests them, or maybe they are reading something that is far beyond their level; therefore, it becomes difficult for them to read in English. So, I went to the library and followed the advice of some of my classmates and my professor and picked up the book The Chronicles of Narnia. My goal was to get familiar with unfamiliar words and with the style of the book. So that when I needed to write a paper, I could have some ideas of how to do it because I have been exposed to a different way of writing due to reading more often in English.
When actually fulfilling my wellness activity, my major failure was my lack of time management. For example, sometimes I was not able to read as long as I planned and other times I simply could not dedicate the time I wanted to dedicate. Nevertheless, it has really been such a wonderful experience to read more often in English. First of all, I took another piece of advice from my professor of reading with the audiobook of. Her advice actually was of significant help. Reading with the audiobook did not allow me to get stuck in words that I did not understand and that I did not know. Besides, by reading The Chronicles of Narnia with the help of the audiobook I learned unfamiliar words with ease. I no longer focus on the actual pronunciation of the words that I did not know how to pronounce, rather in the overall context of what I was reading. Some of the new words I learned were words used in descriptive phrases throughout the different chapters of the book and at different occasions; for example, shivering, dazzlingly, aghast, sprawl, ghastly, oozing etc. I read with such ease, and it was even hard for me to stop and not continue reading. This book is fascinating because of the way the author writes. The book is full of detailed descriptions that make the reader feel as if he is part of the story which I love.
With this wellness activity I discovered that I really love to read, and that reading is something that I enjoy, and relaxes me. I experienced that the times that I spent engaged in reading my book, I was less stressed about schoolwork. My relationship with my roommate was less tense because I was calm, easy going, able to listen, less annoyed, and functioned better in daily activities. I was so relaxed that when reading I even laughed so hard at the characters and their personalities because I associated myself with some of them and their reactions. I decided that I was going to read one or two chapters per day, but sometimes I enjoyed the reading so much that I could not simply stop when I finished a chapter. I wanted to know what will happen in the next chapter since every chapter ended in a cliffhanger.
In conclusion, reading more often in English has multiple benefits, especially for ESL students. Reading helps to improve communication and writing skills, improves your grammar, and helps you to gain a richer vocabulary that allows you to move beyond the basics that you already know. Reading is recreational and an effective way to relax. Without a doubt I will recommend to anyone, but especially ESL students, that they should read more often in English if they want to enrich their vocabulary and succeed in college. From my experience, the method that helped me the most was to read together with an audiobook, which kept me motivated. I did not stay stuck in unknown words and words that I did not know how to pronounce. I learned a lot by reading more often in English. Something else that I did, and I want to recommend is to keep a notebook where you can write the unfamiliar words you learn through context and because you heard the correct pronunciation of them. At the beginning, reading will not be easy, but once you develop the correct method, you are aware of your level of English proficiency, which will help you to decide which kind of books you should engage in reading, and you know which genre you like the most you will little by little discover the benefits of reading more often English. Reading more often in English will become your cup of tea and a source of joy as it has become for me.
Works Cited
Grizzaffi, Hollyn. Personal interview. October 5, 2023.
Horst, Marlise. “Learning L2 Vocabulary through Extensive Reading: A Measurement Study.” Canadian Modern Language Review, vol. 61, no. 3, 2005, pp. 355-82,
https://doi.org/10.1353.2005.0018. Accessed 4 October 2023.
Lee, Juhee, et al. “Effects of Extensive Reading and Translation Activities on Grammar Knowledge and Attitudes for EFL Adolescents.” System., vol. 52, 2015, pp. 38–50, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2015.04.016. Accessed 20 October 2023.
Mathews, Christina. “Vocabulary Acquisition under Various Reading Conditions.”
The William Paterson University of New Jersey, United States — 2008 New Jersey ProQuest,https://ezp.twu.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/vo cabulary-acquisition-under-various-reading/docview/304367685/se-2. Accessed 4 October 2023.
Perez, Jeimy. Personal interview. October 7, 2023.