English Language Carnival 2011 ^^

by Jabar Ainal

The English Language department of IPG kampus Ipoh is always searching for ways to help students improve their Englsih.

On the 19th July 2011, an English Language Carnival was organised to provide the opportunities for students to come together make friends and practice communicating in English in a natural environment. The event took place in the Dewan Sri Tanjung.
The one day carnival was attended by the students year 5 and 6 from SK Polis Hutan, Hulu Kinta.

The carnival also was organised to encourage students to improve their command of the English language through a range of activities and exhibitions.
The activities provide the space and opportunities to students use the language in a stimulating environment with a conducive atmosphere by using the language in an authentic and interesting manner.

The students were enjoyed with a series of activities including public speaking, chain story, montage competition and many more.
Besides, there were few participation and presentations by primary school students.
They were given the chance to speak out their mind in public speaking session and were psyched up about learning English.
Students also enjoyed 'E-learning-video-conferencing', which was handled  by K-TESL unit.
The exhibition was prepared to give some information about how technology can enhance the usage of English language in an interesting way.

Mr. Muhammad Yusni, Head of language Department said, the carnival is one of the ways to let the trainees gain experience on how to conduct a carnival and exhibitions when they were in school later. "The carnival is beyond my expectation and this is also serves as a platform for the campus community to know each other better and foster a rapport between students and lecturers," he said.

"Besides, learning English shouldn't be only in the class room, students also can gain knowledge and increase their vocabulary through all the activities conducted," he added.

At the same time, the English language lecturer and organizing committee, Mr. Lim Chin chye, in the interview said, "The carnival should be organized each year and I would expecting a bigger partcipations from all the students including the non-TESL units".

"Every students of this college should take pride in the English language and make a special effort to excel in it, not just to speak English, but to read and write it", he said.

Many students from major and minor program of English language presented their works in the exhibitions such as language games, which includes tongue twister, word puzzle and literature quiz. Moreover, there were several exhibitions conducted by the students like TESL-studies exhibition, Activities and Achievement exhibition of English studies unit, English Language (MBI) theme-based exhibition, Self-Access Learning (SAL) corner, "Macbeth" props exhibition, and as well as book sales.

A week before the carnival started, there were fund-raiser activities going on around the campus. In order to raise fund for the carnival, the J-TESL unit decided to do some activities such as car wash and jumble sales. The fund raiser was guided by the lecturers, Mr. Lim Chin Chye and Mr. S.Ahmad Suhaimi. The car wash activity had a very good turnout. The collection money was used for the carnival purposes.

The organizing committee, with their years of experience as English lecturers, put together as lively carnival that encourage participation of all the students.
The carnival was all serious business as the motto of the carnival was "English to Explore, Experience and Excel".

It was indeed a beneficial and an eye-opening event. The English Language Carnival should be organized every year in order to boost the usage of the language among college students.
It will also develop the talents of students in particular and the campus community in general through the activities conducted. The most important thing is to provide space for students to excel in English language.

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