Alghamdi 1

Abdulrahman Alghamdi
Professor Rebecca Agosta
UWRT 1101 035
9 October 2015
My Trip in Literacy
There are many methods that helped me to build my literacy. All of these methods added
a quality to my literacy. The first method is reading. I was one of these who did not like to read
excessively and I always escaped from long reading, but in the school I was forced to read
because I always get lost between lines. Therefore, picture and videos are my best friend. With
the passage of time, I came to sort of like reading, but in the subjects that I like, for example, I
love to read about technology. It was the gateway for reading. I started to read the definition of
anything that I was curious about because it gives me the direct information without going into
the details such as Wikipedia and any website that gives me a simple definition within 300
words. Also, I started to buy some small book that had 60 or 70 pages big to encourage my self
to read more books. There are a lot of motivators that have contributed my passion for reading,
for instance, my cousin. He loves reading so much and he always ask me to go with him to the
library. He showed me to how to pick a book that I like. It was too boring to me at the first time,
especially when he bought some psychology books which I am not really into it. Another thing
that motivated me a lot is the Japanese culture. As they said the reading has affected our life and
it is the reason for development. They can not live without books. They are most literate people
in the world because of reading. Therefore, So I have gained from this culture that reading is
equal to the development.

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Another method that assists me to build my literacy is writing. I like writing somewhat
but not those long and distinguished writing that makes me work in the newspaper. The big
problem that it faces me is brainstorming. It is really hard to find ideas and make outline. I
developed my writing essentials in the school, especially in the composition writing class. I
remember the first class was about writing a paragraph introducing myself. It was pretty easy at
the beginning but later on I started learning how to write a story and how to choose characters. It
was pretty hard. However, I prefer a free writing because I have a lot of information in some
topics. I can write pages about it. Next stage was the hardest one ever. Last year of middle
school, my teacher asked us to write a speech.
English language was not considered as new literacy for me because I was learning
English since childhood. When I was in Kindergarten, it was a first time for me to see English
alphabet. I found myself I can pronounce them easily. It was very interesting class because I was
singing and composing some songs. One of them I remember it until now the sun is shining the
bird are singing in the sky is blue. In General, the kindergarten was very helpful for me to get
started in first grade. In the third grade, I started to see some English vocabularies which helped
me to create and read a few sentences. For example, I learned vocabularies about months, week
days, weathers and so on. It was pretty challenging for me to link worlds with each other,
especially, when I study Arabic language and English, I get confused because the Arabic
language start reading and writing from right to left. Also, I was learning how to write English
letters by retyping them in special book.
In the middle school (Grade 6 - 8), I began to take some basic English grammar. Most of the
time, the teacher was asking me to spend more time to do conversation practice. The teacher

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divides the students into groups and each group has two members, and then he distributes
conversation transcripts for each group.
The second year at middle school, I was taught by one of the best teachers in the school. He was
very interactive with students by doing some class activities. After I finished middle school, I
started to take some complicated lessons in English in high school. Also, English books in high
school focus on particular subjects in particular fields such as kind of jobs, kind of major at
university such as medicine, engineering, management, information technology and so on.
Sometimes our teacher would ask us to use the vocabularies that we learned and practice them
with foreigners in any place. Although we have good English teachers in the school, I still had
some difficulties to understand some grammar lessons in the English language books. So I
decided to take some courses in special English language institute. We were taught by native
English speakers. It was very helpful for me.
After I graduated from high school, I decided to choose one of the industrial colleges that taught
in English language. Students at this college have to take two intensive English courses. These
courses were focusing on the English that we will use in the industrial field such as factories and
oil refineries.
There is another way that I learned the English language through which is the internet. There is
no doubt that the Internet has become an effective tool for distance learning. I have used this
source to learn English. There are many amazing websites which I can learn fluent English,
whether through video lectures, or through some interactive programs. There are many people
learned English literacy via internet. After I have completed my studies at college and got an
associate degree in mechanical engineering technology, I decided to complete my studies in
United States. Prior to travel, many people advised me that I should study English again because

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my English was not sufficient to interact with people there. Also, most American universities
require students to pass English language proficiency test (TOFEL, IELTS..) to be enrolled at the
university. I learned a lot of technical writing at these two tests because I was taking them under
time pressure. Furthermore, one of the ways that I followed to practice speaking skill is that I
have lived with an American family so I can speak English and know the culture of this country.
After I finished studying at English institute, I moved to the university. Now, I am in the first
semester and I started taking classes. It is a new experience to me because I used to study at
small college. Also, it is very heavy load to me although I just signed up 12 credit hour only. One
of these classes that I must accomplish is Writing and Inquiry in Academic Contexts. This course
is really good because it teaches us how to write an academic researches. This is my trip of
learning English.
In conclusion, each step in my life serves as a new adventure and I learn a lot from it. Each
literacy gives me many opportunities to succeed in my life as reading skill. By reading, it opens
many paths to me to get to know many fields in the life. On the other hand, by writing skill, I can
earn a lot of advantages and communicate with others by writing whether to look for friendship
or to search for a job. And finally, learning English language helps me to communicate with
world and gives me many job opportunities. This is my trip in literacy.