KURSUS:

FIK 3042

GROUP: EL-S05

PENSYARAH: DR. GOH SWEE CHOO

SOALAN: ASSIGNMENT 2 TAJUK TUGASAN:

ENGLISH LANGUAGE PROGRAMMES REPORT

NAMA & No. Matrik:
MASLAN BIN MASUARI D20102041207

REPORT ON SK SALIMPODON DARAT PITAS ENGLISH WEEK 2011 INTRODUCTION Every year, the English Department of SK Salimpodon Darat Pitas will be having its English Week. For a week, there are several English-related activities being organised and the usage of English language is very much emphasised. For 2011, another week full of English-learning activities has been implemented in this school. This includes 10-minutes reading, quiz, word search, and a lot more.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES First and foremost, English Week is implemented to introduce the fun of learning English in different ways such as games, mind-teasers, reading and rhythm. Pupils are taught that learning English can be fun instead of stressful. Most pupils hated the language because they are having difficulty understanding it. Therefore, they need different mediums to help them get to know English. Next, this programme enhances and promotes the use of English language among the pupils. Since English is one of the important languages nowadays, each pupil including the teachers must know this language. English Week also gives pupils the opportunity to show their talents and potentials by joining the activities organised. Moreover, this programme allows the pupils to practice moral values such as co-operation, selflessness and others.

DURATION OF PROGRAMME This English Week Programme is implemented in a week starting from the 7th of March 2011 to the 11th of March 2011. Most of the activities took place during recess time but there were a few activities that consumed teaching and learning session periods. All activities were done in the school itself.

TARGET GROUP English Week Programme is meant for every pupil including the teachers. The activities are opened to all pupils. Meanwhile, the teachers are involved in the 10-minutes reading that was conducted early in the morning during the assembly.

REPORT ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE ENGLISH WEEK On the 7th March 2011 (Monday), the English Week was launched officially by the school headmaster during the assembly. This programme went on until 11th of March 2011 (Friday). All the pupils and teachers were involved in this programme. During the launching, the list of activities were being announced and it is comprised of word search activity on Monday, English quiz on Tuesday, vocabulary scrap book on Wednesday, spelling bee competition on Thursday and lastly Action Song presentation on Friday. All the pupils were already asked to be prepared a week before because there were some activities that need preparation and practice. A 10-minute reading programme was also done every morning during the week. This activity is similar to the DEAR (Drop Everything and Read) programme. Each pupil needs to bring an English story book to be read in ten minutes after the morning assembly. In those ten minutes, several pupils were chosen to summarise what they have read in front of everybody. Afterwards, in class the pupils had to write the summary of the book they have read and submit it to their English teachers. During the English Week also, all the teachers and pupils were encouraged to speak in English. This was done to make sure that the aim of the programme which is to promote and enhance English usage among the teachers and pupils can be achieved. The word search activity was done during recess time whereby the pupils had to complete a word search. However, pupils can choose whether to join or not but the winners were chosen by picking the class with the most participants with correct answers. The English quiz was done on Tuesday whereby there were only four groups participating and each group is comprised of one pupil from Year 3, 4, 5 and 6. This means it was a mixed group. This activity took place after recess and other pupils who were not participating became the supporters.

On Wednesday, a vocabulary scrap book exhibition was held. This activity was announced earlier a week before so that the pupils can get ready. The activity required them to search for twenty vocabulary words and come out with a scrap book containing all those words, and the meanings. The participants were judged by their creativity, originality, cooperation and preciseness of their work. A spelling bee competition was done on Thursday. This activity was joined by all classes whereby each class had to send two representatives. The Year 1, 2 and 3 pupils competed among themselves and so did the year 4, 5 and 6 pupils. The words to be spelled are based on the pupils level of vocabulary. As a finale and closing ceremony, on Friday, Action Song presentations were done by every class. The best presentation became the winner. After the presentations, prizes were given to the winners of each activity by the headmaster. He did advise the pupils not to stop learning English although the English Week had finished. Overall, this programme has become a success and hopefully the quality of it can be improved in times to come.

STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES Although the English Week was a successful event, the strengths and weaknesses must be analysed. After a discussion with the committee members, there were several issues that have been pointed out. Firstly, the strength of this programme comes from the involvement of all teachers and pupils. Without their co-operation, this programme will go nowhere. The variety of the activities also became the main attraction especially the word search activity. The rules of the word search activity made them compete in a healthy way to ensure the victory become theirs. The 10-minute reading activity is also the strength of this programme. Through this activity, everyone gets the benefits of reading in terms of knowledge, vocabulary and experience through reading. This English Week also had helped to promote the use of English language whereby everyone in the school is required to speak in English. This can build confidence in using the language regardless of the level of proficiency that they have. From the discussion also, there were several weaknesses that still can be improved next year. The first one is the use of time. A few activities consumed the teaching and learning periods that caused the teachers who taught during that period to cancel their

subjects on that particular days. Perhaps an adjusted schedule is needed for its implementation next year. The next weakness is the English quiz activity. Quiz is a classic kind of activity. As we know, this activity involved taking turns to answer questions in several rounds. At the earlier rounds, the supporters were still very supportive and paying attention but they lost it all after two rounds. This means that the longer time the quiz takes; they become more bored and started to do other things. Therefore, it is wise to change this activity in the future. Another weakness is the Action Song presentations. Since each class needs to participate, the closing ceremony took too much time to finish. Maybe next time, the participation can be limited to one presentation for each grade. This is more time-saving and more powerful presentations can be performed because the pupils are combined by grade.

SUGGESTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS The English Week programme had been organised according to the plan discussed. However, there are still room for improvement to make the future programme better and more attractive. The duration of the programme can be reduced to avoid disturbances during teaching and learning session. This can be done by organising English Day or English Carnival that usually will take only a day from morning to evening. By doing this, more activities can be included and it also can be done on Saturday. Instead of having only activities, an information board on English can also be put up so that everyone can learn more about English; not only learning the English words but also other things about English such as the history. In this way, English can be more fun to get to know to and pupils will appreciate the language more even though they have their own mother tongue. As what have been mentioned in the weaknesses list, the Action Song consumed too much time and it made the programme being run in a rushing way. Therefore, a selection of presentations can be done whereby all the participants can go for audition and only the selected ones will compete and present during the finale.

CONCLUSION The English Week has ended well and managed to achieve its objectives. It has become a meaningful experience for not only the pupils but also the teachers. There are still a lot to be improved but with efforts and willingness, this programme can be continued in the future. However, the success of this programme is very much depended to the co-operation of the teachers and the participation of the pupils. Therefore, it is hoped that this kind of programme can be organised again with better quality in the future. This programme also has help to enhance the usage of English among the school committee.

REPORT ON SK SALIMPODON DARAT PITAS PUBLIC SPEAKING COMPETITION INTRODUCTION One of the extra-curricular societies that were formed in SK Salimpodon Darat Pitas is English Society. After the committee members have been chosen, a list of yearly activities was discussed and Public Speaking was one of them. Public speaking is the process of speaking to a group of people in a structured manner intended to inform or entertain listeners. With the co-operation from the schools English Department, a school-level public speaking competition was successfully held.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES The main objective of the Public Speaking Competition is to promote and enhance the use of English language among not only the pupils but also the teachers. It also exposes pupils to the skills of speaking publicly in terms of sharing information with others through public speaking. This competition encourages pupils especially the participants to think broadly and gather more knowledge related to the public speaking topics. Moreover, the competition can build pupils confidence and interpersonal skills.

DURATION OF PROGRAMME The Public Speaking Competition will be held on the 4th of April 2011 which is on Monday. It takes 4 hours 30 minutes which starts at 8.00am and ends at 12.30pm. The competition will take place at SK Salimpodon Darat Pitas.

TARGET GROUP This competition is open to all year 4, 5 and 6 pupils. Meanwhile, year 1, 2 and 3 pupils need to be the audiences for the Public Speaking Competition as an early exposure for them.

REPORT ON IMPLEMENTATION OF THE PUBLIC SPEAKING COMPETITION SK Salimpodon Darat Pitas Public Speaking Competition was successfully organised by the English Department and English Society on the 4th of April 2011 (Monday). 224 people comprised of 24 teachers, 12 participants and audiences were involved in this programme. This competition is done mainly to enhance the use of English language among the teachers and also the pupils. Other than that, the competition exposed pupils to public speaking skills and its flow. Moreover, it is hoped that the competition can build pupils confidence and interpersonal skill. Before the day of the competition, each class of year 4, 5 and 6 pupils made the selection of their representatives at class level. This process is monitored by their respective English teachers. To ensure that the participants perform well during the competition, a videowatching session was held two days before the competition. The video is about public speaking presentations and some guidelines for a good presentation. The programme is started by speeches from the school headmaster and also the chairman of the programme. Then, the programme continued with the Public Speaking Competition which has six participants altogether. For this competition, the participants were free to pick the topics of their public speaking. Therefore, there were various topics being presented during the competition. The judges of this competition are the teachers from the English Society. Each participant is given 7 to 10 minutes to present their topic. After all the participants had done with their public speaking, the Year 5 pupils presented a Choral Speaking while the judges calculated the marks. Before the prize-giving ceremony, the head of the judges gave some comments on the participants performances. Announcement of the three main prizes winners were done afterwards. All the participants were given certificates and those who did not get the top three prizes were given consolation prize. Before the pupils head home, they were given food and drinks while the teachers and other school committees had their refreshment at the canteen. Overall, the Public Speaking Competition had been a successful event whereby it becomes a useful experience not only for the participants but also for the non-participants. Hopefully, in the future this activity can be better in quality and the participants can give a higher level performance.

STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSESS The Public Speaking Competition has been a mind-opener for those who attended the programme. The obvious strength of this programme is that, the competition encouraged pupils to think wide and let them explore more about certain topics. Since they were free to choose their own topics, they need to read a lot before they pick their choice. This condition indirectly promotes reading and thinking as well as information-gathering. This does not happen only to the participants but also to their classmates because they need to be supportive to their representative. Discussion among the class also happened. Informal learning is happening there and this can improve the pupils English vocabulary. Building confidence and interpersonal skill is also involved here and it is vital as pupils preparation for their future. Although the year 1, 2 and 3 pupils were not involved as participants, they were given role as the members of the floor. While listening to the presentations, they learnt a lot of new words and watching the seniors performing will prepare them for their turn soon. Perhaps this competition also can put away the concept of English is a hard language from their minds. This competition is beneficial not only for the pupils but also for the teachers. To make sure this programme is organised well, the most important thing needed is co-operation. Therefore, the Public Speaking Competition helped the teachers to practice co-operation with each other. Without it, the competition would not be a success. Beside the strengths that this competition has, it also has a few weaknesses that need some attention. Firstly, some thought can be put into creating a theme for the competition because this saves pupils time in searching for the suitable topic to be presented. Based on this competition, pupils took too much time to be prepared and this made them forgot a few lines of their speeches. Another weakness is with 12 participants, the duration of the programme was not long enough. This situation made the programme being run in a rush to make sure it finishes on time. Perhaps in the future, the programme can be made into two sessions. One more weakness of the Public Speaking Competition is that the year 1, 2 and 3 pupils became noisy in the middle of the competition because their role is limited as an audience. This made them bored and become easily distracted.

SUGGESTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS There are several suggestions and recommendations to increase the quality of the Public Speaking Competition. Firstly, before the competition, a workshop on public speaking can be organised whereby the school can invite skilled speaker who can guide the pupils in making a good public speaking. This can help them to give better performance during the competition or any other public presentations. Instead of letting the year 1, 2 and 3 pupils become the audiences only, a mini public speaking can be organised for them. This can be done by giving them a simple topic to present such as My country, Malaysia. In this way, they become more involved in the programme. Furthermore, this can be an early exposure and encouragement for them to learn outside the school syllabus. Plus, this action can avoid noisiness among the younger pupils because they also have something to do or someone to support. Another suggestion is that in the future; record the presentations using a video camera so that the school will have references and evidences for the use of the juniors later. Also, gather all the participants after the competition; give them detailed comments and ask them to do corrections for their text. After that, all the public speaking texts can be compiled and be made into a book. This serves as references for the next competition and also as an acknowledgement of the pupils effort. The book can be placed in the school library.

CONCLUSION The Public Speaking Competition has become a great experience for the pupils and the school itself. Even though there are many weaknesses in this programme, efforts can still be put into to produce a better programme next time. The success of this programme is very depended on the co-operation of the school committee and also the willingness to learn that the pupils possess. It is hoped that in years to come, the pupils of this school will appreciate their opportunity to learn the English language especially in communication such as public speaking. Hopefully, the school will continue this activity in order to build confidence among the pupils and to expose them to many kinds of learning whereby public speaking is one of them.