Transcription of interview: Jayden
Interviewer(s): Thy
Interviewee(s): Jayden

Thy: So I’m glad you’re here, in fact I really was looking forward to talking to you and Jimmy because out of the whole lot of people I’m interviewing, only 2 of you were from last year and continued.

And not only that, y’all have a slight change in program because it was completely online and then now it’s face-to- face. And obviously a change in tutor as well. So maybe you can help me understand generally how you feel about this year compared to last year? The CDAC English tuition?

Jayden: I would say it’s better but no disrespect to the teacher of course, this year’s teacher is a little bit more interactive. I can talk to him about more things here in general and anything can be free for talking I don’t need to be scared.

Thy: Okay, could it be because he’s a guy?

Jayden: Last year teacher was also a guy, P.

Thy: Oh but weren’t you on the online...

Jayden: Yeah online one that teacher also good. I’m quite open with her also.

Thy: Okay so it’s not a guy girl thing.

Jayden: Yeah no no no sexist here, I’m not sexist. Nowadays a lot of...

Thy: Smart. You’re being woke. But maybe it is also because it’s in person is it?

Jayden: Yeah. I guess in-person it’s easier to talk to rather online, but online I still had a fun time I would say with Ms O. Fun experience.

Thy: That’s very...I won’t say PC I can sense your sincerity. Let’s just focus on the lesson, I mean of course the teachers have a lot to play. How are you using Scribo differrntly this year, if there’s any difference?

Jayden: I guess there’s a little bit of changes in Scribo? I mean I still feel like there should be more improvement because Scribo...I mean Scribo only count word count and then they give you the marks based on how many words you have at this point and actually it doesn’t look at vocab.

Like it looks at your vocab but it doesn’t look at the standard of your essay, like how it sounds and everything. Yeah so maybe it’s impossible to change that? I don’t know but to me that’s one of the problems.

Thy: Okay. So what would be some of the feedback that’s given to you? I mean you say that it doesn’t tell you very much, so right now it’s only telling you word count-

Jayden: About my vocab error, word count add more points, good sentence structure add some more points. This and that, add more points.

Thy: Okay. So you already started using Scribo last year right? The first time that you used it, did you feel the same way as you’re feeling now, or last year you felt...?

Jayden: Definitely not, I think this year I feel much more able to handle it more because I know how to use it now. Last time I mean I still know how use it but I’m not that familiar with it. Now I know basically almost every function of it.

Thy: Okay that’s great. Because last night I was just interviewing some who are completely new so they were saying they need a guide. So what would be the functions that you recommend that they should learn how to use?

Jayden: Definitely the “check”. The “check” is definitely the easiest...it was the first thing I learnt actually, the “check” button, and how to actually change the words. Because it’s easy to know what you’re doing wrong because it gives you the format of it.

So you can basically just click on it and change the word. And you keep clicking “accept” and then everything change and then you get more marks [inaudible]

Thy: Okay so it’s not a lot of mental power right because they give alternatives and you just accept? Okay. Is that good or bad?

Jayden: From a perspective if you really wanna learn English I would say you won’t just click “accept”. So I think it’s based on yourself, if you have the discipline you would actually read through rather than pressing all of them as “accept” and then get marks. Like you don’t know what you are wrong.

Thy: Okay, did you find that what they were telling me last night “press check only”, they found it a bit intimidating, overwhelming, how do you feel about that?

Jayden: Definitely gets some time to get used to. I mean it took me 1 year to get used to it. I am more familiar with it so I’m not that intimidated.

Thy: So do you understand the feedback better this year? Because they were saying there were some things like “huh?”

Jayden: Yeah some features I would say still a little bit confusing but I at least understand what they are saying now.

Thy: Okay give me an example...so you were saying there are parts that are hard to understand, which are the parts that were hard to understand?

Jayden: I would say for me the problem is mostly peer review. It’s kinda hard to understand because you need to find which peer review is on which essay that you were given, like the peer review you have to write for that particular essay.

Because last year I had peer reviews also, I had 2 peer reviews which I don’t know which one is which one. It’s not clearly stated I would say. Maybe I’m just blind, I don’t know? And I press in it, loading interface slow but I think it’s the internet.

Thy: Okay so peer review is somebody giving you feedback, but you don’t know where they gave the feedback?

Jayden: Yeah you also don’t know who it is, it’s kind of intimidating, you don’t know who is it. Mysterious.

Thy: Okay, I guess it’s good and bad right?

Jayden: I mean of course if you know the person, then I think you will give her a peace/piece? of mind but if you don’t know the person it’s kind of awkward that they’re giving you this type of review? But at the same time if you’re too mysterious about it it’s like...you know you feel uncomfortable.

Thy: Would you want your classmates to know that you’re the one who reviewed their work?

Jayden: Yeah definitely. I would say I have friends to learn with, to learn from and to learn with.

Thy: So you don’t mind your friend knowing that remark came from you?

Jayden: Yeah. If its in the class I don’t mind. Maybe if more unfamiliar person then maybe there will be some awkwardness. I wouldn’t say after school I’ll beat them up, it’s just awkward.

Thy: Okay. That occurs to me how does that compare with face- to-face peer review? Do you do it in school? Peer review in school?

Jayden: Normally teacher just ask the class what did the person do correctly and what did the person do wrongly. Like she flashes the thing when you’re presenting, and then just like that, “peer review”. It’s just everybody, but most of them don’t talk because it’s the class you know.

Thy: Okay. Because so many people. So you’ve never experienced having the teacher say “you and your shoulder partner exchange papers and give each other reviews”?

Jayden: Not really, not yet?

Thy: Okay, so how does both last year’s teacher and this year’s teacher...last night’s group actually very fun they were saying “we call him cher.” So how do the chers prepare y’all to give each other peer review? Just give to you or?

Jayden: The teacher definitely try to make it anonymous but-

Thy: But how do you know what to write?

Jayden: Because teacher gave us a list of things to write, and then we just kind of complete the sentence? But because the sentence is just halfway, so fill in the blanks kind of thing. So we did the complete the sentence, and then the rest of the part you just self-think what you think.

Thy: Okay your initiative, what you feel. Do y’all use rubrics? Do y’all compare your friend’s work with the rubrics?

Jayden: Not really.

Thy: Okay. What else does the cher help in your composition writing apart from this peer review thing?

Jayden: I would say the teacher...very helpful. He actually gave a lot of tips like how to write introduction paragraph, and use what tactic to do it, then you will write a kind of complete introduction. I would say that the teacher gave a lot of stepping stones, he is very good. I feel I can follow the class because you know what to do.

They just don’t throw you into an empty room and then just tell you to do things.

Thy: Okay. Let me guess, this doesn’t happen in school?

Jayden: I mean yeah there’s too many people.

Thy: Okay. So in school your teachers don’t give you like “step 1 do this, step 2 do this”?

Jayden: I wouldn’t say that they don’t, but they rarely do it. Mostly they just go through some steps and ask you to do a composition and then like...I feel like they either go too fast because there’s no time, or too fast because too much students to ask questions.

Thy: Okay. It just occurred to me, when he gives y’all the tips it’s embedded in Scribo right? It’s there part of the lesson in Scribo?

Jayden: Yeah.

Thy: Because he doesn’t give you paper...no right? It is parked within Scribo. And then when you’re lost you can go back to the Scribo.

Jayden: Yeah, to Scribo and find out what the question is. And I don’t know if it’s Scribo or the teacher but there’s a lot of helpful words in there to use.

Thy: Okay so it’s all parked there, whatever help that you need is there. In school if you’re lost where do you go to for help?

Jayden: They just fly over, the lesson just finish, end, and next lesson you have no time to actually clear all your doubts I would say. That’s why there’s this thing called tuition.

Thy: Okay so this is what happens before you start writing and when you start writing. So talk me through when you are writing for the teacher here, this term you had quite a few right, there was one where it’s for teenagers making a stand on climate change.

Do you remember that one? It’s expository writing. So he says- was that writing a speech?

Jayden: That one is other one if I’m not wrong.

Thy: Olay so let’s say whether it’s writing a speech or expository, what do you do when he says “start to write” ?

Jayden: Because before he ask us to write, he actually had slides to show us the direction we should be going, so I basically know what I am supposed to write. It didn’t have much of a problem but I realised that I still go off topic sometimes. Maybe it’s just me personally but I went really off topic.

Thy: Okay, once or twice or all the time?

Jayden: Once or twice, not all the time.

Thy: Okay. So he basically gives you like you say, stepping stones, he probably gave you a template, so you write and then what’s the next thing you do? After you write? Then hand up to him?

Jayden: No I use the “check” in Scribo, I change some of the structure and all. Of course you can also easily cheat- I mean I won’t call it cheating if you learn from it, you go to other websites and you copy paste from there to Scribo, and then you might learn something

After doing that it’ll give you more marks, sometimes. But if you have bad sentence structures or words or grammar, then they will just minus marks.

Thy: Okay so last night’s class was telling me some of them prefer to write one paragraph and “check”, some prefer to write the whole thing and “check”. Which one do you are you?

Jayden: I would say the whole thing and then “check”.

Thy: Why do you prefer to write then-

Jayden: I think if you write a paragraph and then check, first of all you’re making yourself busy, you’re wasting more time. In the actual exam you won’t have time to finish because you want to-because after doing one paragraph you need to scan through and check if you did anything wrong.

I prefer to finish the exam, essay, and then go back and check. People that go and check after writing one paragraph mostly all copy from website I would say. Because they copy from website, they paste, and then they check to see how much marks they lose or gain.

Thy: Oh I didn’t know that. Okay, you know what you’re telling me is here using Scribo, but during exams, because you use the word “exams”, during exams do you check through your work?

Jayden: After finishing the exam. That’s why Scribo also I finish the essay then I check.

Thy: Has it always been your habit to check through your work?

Jayden: Yeah always, definitely you need to if not you will lose a lot of marks because of careless mistakes.

Thy: Okay. So after one year of Scribo telling you what the...do you find that you are more accurate in picking out your mistakes? Like checking?

Jayden: Yeah I can spot most of my spelling mistakes now. and sentence structure also. I know what sentence structure actually is wrong, because Scribo actually changes your structure, but sometimes it’s also bad because it changes the words that is not related to the sentence.

Sometimes if you ignore it you minus marks. So it’s not really that good, not 100%, but definitely 90%.

Thy: Can you give me an example of when they change already, and it becomes not...?

Jayden: Different, the whole sentence the meaning all changed.

Thy: Can you remember an example of that?

Jayden: No not really. I mean I can remember that happened last time but I cannot remember the exact sentence.

Thy: Okay no problem. I just remember last year the students tell me “a can of sardines”, then they say change it to “a tin or sardines” so...

Jayden: Mine... was a big change the word definitely changes the whole thing.

Thy: Okay. So the fact that you can spot all this, did your teacher this year notice any change from January to May? Did she notice that you have improved or not improved, or anything?

Jayden: Definitely I’ve improved on my English, 100% I did. My marks all increased and everything. From 50 to almost failing I got to 60 something to grade 3.

Thy: Okay grade 3 would be actually 65 and above?

Jayden: I forgot I think it’s 66 and above, I got 69 on it.

Thy: That’s very good! This compre or compo or altogether?

Jayden: No, only compo. Because WA2.

Thy: Oh because WA2 is a compo. What sort of compo was it?

Jayden: I forgot what compo was it.

Thy: It’s okay, tell me if you were able to apply the stuff that you...

Jayden: Oh yeah definitely I can confidently say that I did apply a lot of methods.

Thy: Okay, can you give me one example of a method you’ve applied?

Jayden: The thing I mostly apply is I will check through everything, sentences and everything, especially spelling which I know minus a lot of marks because of my carelessness. But sometimes I don’t know how to spell that word even though I know it’s wrong.

So I would actually change to another synonym, which I learn from Scribo, ChatGPT or what, all AI. I actually learnt that from Scribo because I said they change some of the words and change the entire meaning, but sometimes they did change the word but it’s the same meaning of the word. It's just changed.

Thy: Okay, that’s very smart. Actually that occurred to me, do you use Scribo for your schoolwork?

Jayden: I don’t think you can do that.

Thy: But you can right? The CDAC people keep telling me that- well is the school stopping you from using is it?

Jayden: Basically any website unless it’s of course homework.

Thy: Yeah homework, do you use it?

Jayden: I mean it’s digital so I don’t use it because if you use it on digital and then you have to write on the piece of paper. I don’t use it.

Thy: Wait your homework is still all paper?

Jayden: All paper.

Thy: Okay which one do you prefer, writing or digital?

Jayden: Of course digital. Nowadays everybody is all on technology.

Thy: Why, what’s the advantage?

Jayden: Advantage is of course first of all you don’t need to write with your actual hand, you can just type the words and it kind of just pops up, like magic. And second is convenient, you can do it anywhere you want. You got to bring the charger but you can do it everywhere.

And it’s fast. You can just type because now you don’t need to look at the keyboard you just type.

Thy: Okay so for you it’s faster? More familiar?

Jayden: For me, faster yeah.

Thy: What about the fact that some people tell me “writing I must think, then if it’s proper then I write, if not I end up using correction tape and all.” But typing you and cut and paste and move things around. Is that one of the factors?

Jayden: I mean for me it doesn’t really affect me that much, because I don’t really think I just write. Whatever pops up in my mind I just write. But after checking then I will do the corrections, like I said change the words type and everything.

Thy: Sure. So as you say, obviously after you’ve done that, digitally is easier to correct compared to [paper]?

Jayden: Yeah because you need to use correction tape which spends money and another thing is that you have no space. If you cancel you have no space, you realise you have no space.

Thy: Okay so I can see that that’s the advantage you were saying. Okay let’s talk about the part where after you’ve submitted your work, then what happens after the teacher here returns you the work versus in school? My impression from school is that teacher just brings out a few examples and-

Jayden: I mean it’s definitely faster, 100%. To my school teacher’s credit, she make the effort to mark one by one our work, and then actually brings out the top scorer’s work and give it to us. Like you said rough examples and ask you to basically learn from them.

But then after that you see WA2 they fail. I would say Scribo is very fast I guess because of the help of technology also? And it spots all your mistakes.

Thy: So you know immediately...okay.

Jayden: Yeah you basically don’t really need a teacher? But some things still need a teacher, some things.

Thy: Okay. Are you required to do corrections for school?

Jayden: No. Somehow I don’t know why, I also thought I need to do corrections but they just basically flash the top scorers paper, and then tell us just look at that, and then that’s it. That’s your correction, but they print out the paper for you already.

Thy: Okay. But over here, you’re obviously...

Jayden: Yeah you need, you do some adjustments and everything. Teacher also went-

Thy: He goes through and after he goes through and gives comments, are you required to re-draft?

Jayden: Yeah change it and he also helps us a lot with different things.

Thy: Okay. So I can see how between school and here there’s a difference in the preparation in the writing as well as the...I’m so reluctant to let you go. Okay I’m gonna ask you 1 or 2 last questions. If I were to ask you, are you more confident in English language now? Would you agree? Disagree?

Jayden: Yeah definitely. Definitely more confident I would say speaking-wise. Because Scribo helped me on writing, I feel like after writing you can actually convert those into speaking. You know more vocab, you know what to say. sentence don’t sound so boring.

Thy: Okay. So you’re more confident, let’s say going forward, have you changed the way you approach your learning of English language? I mean previously students who tell me “cher English cannot study one.”

Jayden: I mean wouldn’t say I changed that much, but I would say I actually read more because I just like reading now. I got into reading. Parents always called me for not reading the news so had no choice. Basically that’s really it.

I mean English...I would say using Scribo is definitely easier to spot your mistakes without your teacher. But you got to be responsible enough.

Thy: That’s great, I think such a good model for the success of the program, especially after you say you’ve benefited from it from one year. We wanted to know if after one year, is there a plateau or does it keep going up. So what do you think? Go up come down, go up plateau, or go up and keep on going up?

Jayden: Slight increase? Because I can say I think it needs a little bit more adjustment to actually help the students because sometimes it’s [inaudible], when you don’t want to change the word it give you less marks et cetera.

Thy: Okay thank you Jayden you have been very helpful!