Ignite the Love for English

Camp facilitators with participants

The EXtra English Camp 6.0, organised on 5 August 2017, was an inspiring and fruitful camp for 30 camp facilitators who were English Education (ED) and English Language (EL) undergraduates from UTAR Kampar Campus as well as 96 camp participants who were standard six students from SJK(C) Bandar Seri Botani, Ipoh, Perak.

The camp was fully funded by the Department of Languages and Linguistics (DLL) from the Faculty of Arts and Social Science (FAS) of Kampar Campus.

Present at the event were DLL Head Siti Ummaizah Binti Meor Musa, with three lecturers A. Avene Atputharaj, Viji Ramamuruthy, and Ooi Zao May. They were ably assisted by Lee Chooi Wan from the Department of Soft Skills Competency of Kampar Campus. 

Participant guessing the unseen word on their forehead

Camp facilitator guiding the participants in the listening activity

Participants excitedly furnishing their imaginary house after being rewarded with imaginary furniture

During the camp, the participants enjoyed four fun-filled lessons which were designed by the camp facilitators with the objective of making the process of learning English more joyful and stress-free. The four lessons focused on the four essential skills, which were reading, writing, speaking and listening. The interesting teaching materials were prepared by the camp facilitators who have taken the course “Teaching Materials” conducted by Siti Ummaizah in May 2017. The teaching materials were used to aid the participants in learning a wide variety of new vocabularies as well as the grammatical rules involved in constructing sentences. Apart from these, the participants had the opportunity to explore the kinds of English language specifically used in Mathematics, Science and poem writing through a creative game during their reading session.

Participants posing with the Magic Wheel

Participants reading their questions obtained through spinning the Magic Wheel

“This camp is an opportunity for UTAR ED and EL students to get out of their classrooms and experience the real joy in teaching primary school students. Their valuable camp experience can also prepare them for the real challenge of teaching when they enter the teaching field in future. They cannot learn everything in the classrooms,” said Siti Ummaizah.

Lee highlighted that the stress due to homework and school examinations might have diminished the interest towards learning English among school children. She said, “Without any interest, it could be a daunting task to master the four essential skills of English. It is hoped that this camp has helped to ignite the love for English among standard six students in SJK(C) Bandar Seri Botani in some ways.”

A UTAR student, Mathuri Sahathavan, expressed her joy gained from playing her role as a camp facilitator. She commented, “I would definitely love to participate as a camp facilitator for the English Camp again in the future. Thank you to everyone for their efforts.”