Chiao-Ti, Liu's Pathway Portfolio Site

Pathway Reflection 

During this time since Fall 2015 until Spring 2016, I was studying pathway program in music education-piano. In the last semester, I had EAP 506 class and PROV 501 class. For the EAP 506 class, we learned how to write an academic writing of graduate student level. For my major program, I had piano lesson, accompaniment class and also I attended different concerts. These events was gave me a lot of different experience and full of my first semester. The music program and EAP 506 class will help me into the graduate degree smoothly.

First of all, my field is a little bit different than other fields. It is not only the program but also the students. In the music department, we have a lot of international students from different countries, such as, Taiwan, China, Koran, Japan, Vietnam and so on. Therefore, we have to talk to each other in English and communicate with the national students. On the other hand, we have a lot of activities and classes to help us to make a relationship with the classmates. For example, I took a piano accompany class in the last semester. We have American students, Korean and Taiwan in this class. In the class, we need to shared the ideas of the music and gave different opinions to each other. In addition, my piano lesson is another good example. For my piano lesson we have repertoire class every week. In this class, everyone will play their own pieces and provided the view by other students and professor. It is a direct method to shorten the distance between every student.

Secondly, in the EAP 506, we focused on how to write an academic writing of graduate level. In this class, we read a lot of articles and wrote a summary to each article. Academic writing is really different than independent writing. It has a stable from in academic essay, also we need to employ some professional words in the paper. If we do some research and cited the source for our discipline, we need to paraphrase and make a reference in the paper. For most international students, I think the paraphrase is the hardest part for them in the academic writing. English is the second language, how to use own words to explain the idea clearly, it is very difficult for them. In addition, in the U.S., plagiarism is a very serious matter. Therefore, when we want to refer some sentences or ideas from other article, we need to quote the sentence and indicate its sources clearly. Conversely, in my country, Taiwan. When I was a kid, we would memory and understand some famous sayings in the school, such as Confucius; thence, these sentences just keep in our mind. When we started to write the article or essay, we will use these sentences to support our own paper and nor special marked out its provenance; even if we do not very understand the origin of the sentence. Although in my field, we do not read or write a lot of essay compare with another discipline, we still need to write some academic papers. This class would help me to really understand how to write a professional academic writing and confident of entering a graduate degree.

Lastly, understanding cultural differences is one of the elements for successful graduate study in my field. There are a lot of international students in the music program; therefore, we have a wide range of culture in this area. In my opinion, culture is the most unique characteristic for everyone. Different country has a different learning and life style. Also understanding the different cultural is a key to help people adapt into the environment. For instance, in the writing, we will describe or provide some examples in the introduction and then to elicit themes; however, in the U.S., they will demonstrate the stand directly and give some examples to support themselves. Then, I have some national students in the music class. After the class, we will chat or share some idea in the future and our life. That is another positive way to understand the local and real culture. Considering, understanding culture will support international students not only the academic but also in the local life.

Finally, in the field of music education, we have some personal and group works, such as, practicing our instrument, ensemble class. We need to communicate with professor and classmates very often; therefore, do not be afraid to talk, asking question or make a mistake. Also, to make greater use office hour, it is a good way to communicate with the professor. Although we do not have a significant amount of writing compared with other professions, academic writing still very important for us.

• Return to Home page

Welcome to onMason. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!