SEKOLAH KEBANGSAAN SERI UTAMA ENGLISH LANGUAGE PANEL TELIC (TOTAL ENGLISH LANGUAGE IMMERSION CAMP)

PUPILS IN UPPER PRIMARY SCHOOL GROUP (YEAR 4 AND YEAR 5)

ROHANA BINTI MOHAMED D20102043360 K/P 740606105768 Hana043360@siswa.edu.my

TELIC: TOTAL ENGLISH LANGUAGE IMMERSION CAMP

1. Introduction

English Language has been acknowledged as one of the important agents in realising the aims set by the National Education Philosophy (Falsafah Pendidikan Kebangsaan) and the target to make Malaysian education stands at worlds class. However, it is a shame that both teachers and pupils have low proficiency in English Language. Effective measures and steps need to be taken in order to cease the fact that English Language is the barrier to communication amongst teachers or it might as well deemed as a killer subject in Ujian Penilaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR) every single year. One of the strategies that has been designed to uphold the dignified National Education Philosophy is named Total English Language Immersion Camp or TELIC for short.

2. Rationale

Based on the observation made on pupils all over the country especially the rural and remote areas, it is found that there are not many pupils who have high fluency in English. It is almost rare to find them to be speaking the language as a medium of daily communication. English Language has only been used in the classroom during the teaching and learning process, whenever certain English-related programme is conducted at school or during the implementation of PPSMI. According to language acquisition principle, the aspect of listening is highly important in building the other language skills which are speaking, reading and writing. Therefore, both teachers and pupils need to be speaking the language as often as they can.

The programme English Language Immersion Camp has all the elements that have been created into several activities to stimulate the pupils to use more English in informal situations, rather than only classroom purposes only. The exposure and experience this camp offers can reduce the shyness and boost the confidence in our pupils hence enhancing their vocabulary and sentence structure so that they can communicate in English language easier. More importantly,

this programme has been proved to be a success in Sekolah Kebangsaan Seri Utama in the English Language teaching and learning process.

3. Aims and objectives of programme

The English Language Immersion Camp has been carried out with the purpose of increasing pupils self-confidence consequently enable them to speak in English with ease. The approach that has been used in this programme helps teachers in varying the methods, strategies and techniques in teaching English Language. The final goal of this programme is to make bilingualism a healthy culture that could also contribute to the increase in the upcoming UPSR achievement.

The objectives of this programme includes to promote frequent use of English in daily communication amongst pupils, to create a vast vocabulary that expands wider through time, and to encourage the interest in the pupils to read more English Language materials. Another objective that is similarly important to be achieved is to increase the overall achievement in English Language.

4. Duration of programme The programme has been carried out on 25th and 26th May 2010. The duration of programme was two days, where several activities were spread out to fit the schedule. The reason for the two-days duration is simply to give a chance for the pupils to experience more through numerous activities designed for them. It started off at 7.40 oclock in the morning and ended at 12.40 in the afternoon. Some slots took one hour such as the indoor activities and other slots took more than one hour as those slots included outdoor activities.

5. Target group

This English Language Immersion Camp has chosen the target group that consisted of all Year 5 pupils of Sekolah Kebangsaan Seri Utama. There were 117 participants all together. Year 5 English Language teachers had chosen the participants based on their performance in previous English Language test. This target group has been selected to join the programme as they needed a strong base in English Language fluency before entering Year 6 the following year.

6. Report on implementation On 25th and 26th May 2010, English Language Panel had carried out the English Language Immersion Camp (TELIC) at Sekolah Kebangsaan Seri Utama, Sungai Besar, Selangor. All eight English Language teachers were involved in this programme both as organising committee and facilitators.

The first day commenced with registration of participants at 7.30 a.m. Class teachers were involved in this session since they were obliged to take the pupils attendance. Then, at 8.00 a.m., the first slot Ice-breaking session followed. This slot was conducted by Puan Rozihan binti Ismail Fathi. After that, Children Songs which was conducted by Puan Faizah binti Sanusi filled in the second slot at 9.30 a.m. The participants took a break at 10.30 a.m. and the camp resumed at 11 a.m. with the slot Scavenger Hunt and Newspaper Cutting. This was conducted by Puan Puziah binti Mohamed Shariff. The activities for the first day ended at 12.45 p.m.

For the second day of the English Language Immersion Camp, participants were asked to do self-preparation prior to the first slot for the day. At 8.00 a.m., the slot Tongue Twister was conducted by Puan Hajah Halimah binti Ahmad. Next, Cik Hasnidar Marli binti Mohd Ibrahim conducted her slot which was Transferring information into pictures at 9.00 a.m. Then the participants took a half-an-hour break. Later at 10.30 a.m., the most awaited activity Treasure Hunt was conducted by Puan Nur Suhana binti Samingun. This slot had taken two hours as it

involved outdoor activities and several challenging tasks for the participants to face. After the Treasure Hunt finished, the closing ceremony followed after. This was conducted by Encik Daud bin Dasuki. The programmed was closed at 1.05 p.m.

7. Strengths and weaknesses of programme

Through out the programme, several strengths and weaknesses have been identified through observation and interviews. Later after the programme the English Language committee also conducted a post-mortem meeting to discuss the achievements and the weaker points of the programme.

The first strength of the programme is all English teachers were very dedicated in making the programme possible and succeeded. Each and everyone of the English Language Panel worked hard to ensure that the activities were suitable, fun, engaging and beneficial for the participants of the programme.

Another strong point that can be seen through out the programme was the rule of maximising the use of English Language. Pupils by hook or by crook communicated in English through out the programme. This approach was pretty successful in promoting more often usage of English Language by the pupils. Although some may not understand or some simply speak ungrammatically, their willingness to use the language has proven the effectiveness of the programme.

The first weakness of the programme was the budget. To carry out a two-days programme, the panel needed more than RM100. The panel had a source of money that was insufficient to support the whole programme. Hence, the outcome of the programme was not as high quality as planned as many supplies like rewards for participants and handouts had to be restricted to the minimum budget.

Time constraint was another weakness that can be seen. Many activities were cut to avoid over-timing especially when it comes to recess time and end-of-school-day time. The slot Treasure Hunt needed more time for preparation and the implementation had taken way longer than planned.

Miscommunication among organiser is another weakness of the programme. The information given to participants should come from the facilitator in-charge for the slot. However there were series of incidents where miscommunication occurred among organiser and facilitator and it has deferred some part the running of the programme.

Technical problems had also interrupted the smooth running of the programme. Microphones not working or even the LCD projector created technical difficulties for the programme.

8. Suggesstions and recommendations

Below are the suggestions and recommendations for the programme.

Pertaining the budget issue, organiser should work hand-in-hand with the administrator to sort out the allocated budget next time. Perhaps raising some fund amongst the parents and teachers would be one resolution to this matter.

Prioritising and sticking to the schedule is necessary to avoid over-timing and timemanagement problems. Teachers should remind each other to focus on the important things during a slot to make it efficient and do not take more time than they should.

Miscommunication could bring real big problem to a programme. To avoid those incident from occurring, discussions and briefing among organiser before, during and after the programme should be practised. This is important because to run such programme we have to work together and communicate effectively.

As to curb the incidents technical problems, organiser need to sort out plan B should the technical part fail to perform on the day of the programmes. Organiser should not put the responsibility of handling technical parts completely to the technicians or teacher-in-charge and they should at least prepare a back-up plan to ensure the smooth-running of the programme.

9. Conclusion

To conclude, the English Language Immersion Camp programme can be considered as a success since the objective of enhancing the English Language competency amongst the pupils seemed to be achieved as they begun to show some improvement in their classroom and outside of classroom. It is hoped that more programmes such as this one will bloom and be conducted to uphold the noble mission as stated in the National Education Philosophy.

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