My Personal Statement: My Passion For English

MY PERSONAL STATEMENT

“I LOVE ENGLISH”

Those were the words what I proudly wrote on the board of my classroom on my secondary school graduation day. From the day I learnt my ABCs, my passion for English has always been strong. I used to seek attention from others by constantly trying to prove my skills - it was a way of showing my love for the language. However, as I grew up, others’ approval was no longer the most important thing in the world. It is not about me and just me anymore. Now, loving English means spreading the love to all those around.

At age eleven, I was taught my first words of English. My teacher was a newly-graduate (just like me right now!). The class was small and intimate. The intuition fee was cheap, but the teacher

During the early years of childhood, I attended a normal primary school in my neighborhood. Being able to have a high rank in a city-ranking contest gave me a chance to study in a top secondary school in the district. In my secondary school years, I had chances to study in special classes that taught advanced knowledge of English to prepare me and other "gifted" students for other provincial exams. Sometimes, students choose to be placed in these class not because they are interested in learning about these subjects, it can be just because they are "good" at it, or more precisely, they have good marks for it. Some students who are good at many subjects, they sometimes choose subjects that are more likely to be in the graduation exam than ones in which they are more interested. If students are enthusiastic about the subject and are good at it, they can benefit a lot from these classes. However, if students are not and come to these classes because of external pressure, learning in such an environment will only cause them a great deal of burden. As the goal of these classes is to prepare students for a specific kind of exams, they can be very harsh. They often have weekly of monthly exams to eliminate students who cannot keep up. These special classes "choose" their students. This observation led me to my initial personal

Before I applied for the program, my parents and I had decided that TESOL, which was my major at University of Education, would be my major for the Houston phase. At first, I did not consider other majors. After looking into the program, I become interested in the idea of majoring in Literacy Education. I have always been fascinated by literacy in general. The problem is, despite my enthusiasm for literacy, my knowledge of it is very limited. At the time of hesitation, I chose to ask for advices from Dr. Kim D. Nguyen, the coordinator of the program. She provided my useful information and answered all of my questions, especially those regarding the potential of being hired at universities, international schools or language