Your Self-Access Tasks

FOR UHB1412 Section 4
1. Write 5 entries. Each entry should be more than 100 words.
2. Collect 5 comments. Each comment should be more than 50 words.
3. Everytime you post a new entry, ask me to visit your blog by writing a comment at http://gameplan.blogspot.com
4. Entries should be based on real events.

Good Luck! p.s. Be responsible of what you write.
Visit Your Friends -----------------
http://angelog.blogspot.com/ Chong MN
http://teruterubozugil.blogspot.com/ Kaizan
http://lifetraveller.blogspot.com/ Suria {Completed}
http://mamapaparazzi.blogspot.com/ Ida Juliana
http://spywomen.blogspot.com/ Noor Aishah
http://au2asmile.blogspot.com/ Siti Nur'ain
http://aboutme-ning.blogspot.com/ Ling NN
http://greathuman.blogspot.com/ Dineshkumar
http://chubygirl.blogspot.com/ Nur Efarehan
http://stylogirl.blogspot.com/ Nor Baizura
http://mybeautystory.blogspot.com/ Lin HL
http://alieya.blogspot.com/ Marlia
http://myhouse-husband.blogspot.com/ W Siti Sharina
http://www.thegreatteacher.blogspot.com/ Wan Norbaya
http://sakuraseason.blogspot.com/ Noor Liza
http://myladylife.blogspot.com/ S Fatimah
http://medagreat.blogspot.com/ S Zafirah
http://excellentwoman.blogspot.com/ W Rafeah
http://twinsstory.blogspot.com/ Jenny WCS
http://chinstory.blogspot.com/ Chin MT
http://duper.blogspot.com/ Nuraina {Completed}
http://sweetnisa.blogspot.com/ Hanisah
http://enotgirl.blogspot.com/ Nurazwin
http://mybrainstuck.blogspot.com/ Fatimah
http://itsmylifelynn.blogspot.com/ Noorazlin
http://moizmu.blogspot.com/ Mohd Izham
http://tryfirst.blogspot.com/ Norazwana
http://pendrive.blogspot.com/ S Azaria
http://nanathegreat.blogspot.com/ Nur Farhana
http://mathematicteacher.blogspot.com/ W Nor Syahida
http://allaboutaby.blogspot.com/ Arbayah
http://amazinghost.blogspot.com/ Nor Aniszah
http://beutifulmoment.blogspot.com/ Noor Suhaily
http://crazyinlife.blogspot.com/ Zatika Izwani
http://aiandme.blogspot.com Azilah
http://limstory.blogspot.com/ Lim WW
http://satorare05.blogspot.com/ S Khatijah
http://iefaandreedz.blogspot.com Nik Nurul Afifah
http://everydayismine.blogspot.com/ Syarifah Natrah
http://fizathegreat.blogspot.com Nurhafiza
http://canaanland.blogspot.com/ Loganathan
http://newmanloh84.blogspot.com/ Loh KS
http://barneyfrenz.blogspot.com/ Aimi Alwani
http://sweetyaya.blogspot.com Norhidayah A
http://raicomel.blogspot.com/ NorRaihan
http://mathematicteacher.blogspot.com Syahida
http://nurulsyieda85.blogspot.com Nurulsyahida
http://www.meitangstory.blogspot.com Mei Tang
http://candystory.blogspot.com Lim WW
http://fznniza.blogspot.com Faizuniza
http://tomyamseafood.blogspot.com Afiqah



FOR UHB2332 SECTION 6
Visit the weblogs above. Leave 5 comments and tell me where you have left them. Have a nice holiday.

Learn from experts: http://www.petalingstreet.org/
My previous students: http://tesl-utm.blogspot.com/

The Case of too many As

UHB2332 Sect. 33

Last 6 digits of your IC and Grade

016557 E
115423 D
045083 A-
105562 A
117069 D+
085861 A-
016459 A
135102 A
075249 B+
115069 C-
025462 A
045220 B+
055032 B
145567 A-
075069 A
125263 A-
075431 B
045091 A
125317 A-
015535 C+
035531 D+
045023 C
016721 A-
085493 A
135104 A
075391 A-
055697 B
045579 A-
145465 B+
135599 B+
055099 B+
045507 B+
086781 A-
086219 A-
015917 B
055218 B-
015191 A-
045089 A-
035555 C-
7035755 C+
065283 C

Using LiveJournal for Authentic Communication in EFL Classes

This paper describes a way for teachers to set-up and facilitate authentic international communication in the EFL classroom using LiveJournal.com: a free, hosted weblog tool with a 1.9 million-member-strong community of active users and built-in social networking features. It also highlights the potential that social software, like LiveJournal, has for encouraging greater autonomy and self-direction in foreign language learning. ( read more)

Feedback from teachers/ participants of the one hour elt-blog workshop.

it's increadible!! very beneficial to each of us. keep up a good job. nenny marlina bte hj zainuddin Email 09.25.04 - 12:31 am #

dear mr. g,glad dat at last we have a GREAT digital lab... nurulha abdul rahman Email 09.25.04 - 12:32 am #

Still remember me?Miss ur language games class so much!!! banchee Email 09.25.04 - 12:33 am #

it's very pleasant to be here! learning a new things, its a new paradigm in teaching english! nenny marlina bte hj zainuddin Email 09.25.04 - 12:34 am #

This comment is not helpful. ong teow chong 09.25.04 - 12:36 am #

i enjoyed this workshop very much! how i wish i could be one of the students in UTM! nenny marlina bte hj zainuddin Email 09.25.04 - 12:36 am #

Sometimes I feel as if the software may not be that useful to people who do not have the linguistics prerequisites. ong teow chong 09.25.04 - 12:37 am #

thousands of compliments to Mr Abd Rahim & mr ghazali for giving us this wonderful opportunity. thanks a lot !! nenny marlina bte hj zainuddin Email 09.25.04 - 12:40 am #

The use of ICT in a classroom or in teaching and learning is like a breath of fresh air especially for students in felda areas where I am teaching now for it will give them variations in learning experiences. I just can't wait for the completion of the new computer lab so that I myself can learn and share new things with them. Normah Saruji 09.25.04 - 12:41 am #

the entry is not helpful Anonymous 09.25.04 - 12:32 am #

The entry is not grammatically accurate.Lack in important points which we should have to make it more meaningful. man 09.25.04 - 12:39 am #

Q:ICT is for every one to enjoy but what about the leftovers? there some in the suburban and vilages?2 me we have to go there often to give this ICT information to enable them to learn more about ICT. mohd amin bin arudin Email 09.25.04 - 12:39 am #

been there done that sara Email 09.25.04 - 12:34 am #

weblog is one way of showing students' creativity norzarina 09.25.04 - 12:39 am #

a very good research. well done! yati 09.25.04 - 12:37 am #

It is true that writing a journal is one of the best techniques used to improve students ability of mastering the second language. But I do wonder why there some scientific opinions expressed in the public that writing a journal or diaries do stress your minds and it is not adviseable to those who are having hypertensions problems. Do you agree with that?Is it possible to implement it in schools especially in the rural areas? atinsuy Email 09.25.04 - 12:40 am #

This digital lab is real fanstastic and this weblog will able to give opportunity to students to build up their confidence to interact with other people. ahlina Email 09.25.04 - 12:43 am #

from my personal point of view, journal writing is a mechanism to enhance student's writing ability. giving them certain or specific topic to write, will limit them to our idea, so let them choose the topic. It will encourage them to think and it'll encourage them to be creative students. mr.k Email 09.25.04 - 12:38 am #

Just want to share my opinion on implementing writing journal in class (or outside of class).I found this method as a way to help students gain confidence and improve their writing skills. I myself have used it with my students (for academic writing purposes during my study)and i find that they enjoyed it and some of them improved, from just a few sentences to longer paragraphs. It is a fun way of learning and improving the language. SUHANA ABD WAHID 09.25.04 - 12:38 am #

i agree that j-writing can help students improve their writing skills. i've used it and hopefully more teachers will follow suits. SUHANA 09.25.04 - 12:42 am #

Jounal writing could be introduced to primary school pupils of different level of ability provided the teacher does not inhibit the writers in the aspect of grammar and quality of writing. malini none 09.25.04 - 12:42 am #

long live english!!! rony Email 09.25.04 - 12:36 am #

It can be improved Anonymous 09.25.04 - 12:36 am #

hello mr.g....i am one of your students...i'm now a teacher and i applied 98% whatever you have taught me in my class and the students like it very much. 'Rhyme time'...do you remember? and we have to rap on it like in movie 8 mile... anonymous Email 09.25.04 - 12:39 am #

this blog is interesting and interactive,and it encourages the user to do their journal and give feed back to the other journal.But, for your website, i have to scroll down to read all the text.perhaps you can do something to make your website more interesting! fatimah Email 09.25.04 - 12:41 am #

congratulations! This course has given me a new insight on teaching English creatively. It has given me an out-of-the box perspective in teaching the language. oa/04 09.25.04 - 12:40 am #

Hi Teslian! So how's your life? I'm here at Pasir Gudang , Johor Bahru is fine. Hope you guys are fine. any new news? Do keep in touch. Bye... jihan Email 09.25.04 - 12:33 am #

hello UTM! I'm back now!!!!! jihan Email 09.25.04 - 12:37 am #

nor said...
If you guys need my help, call me at this table no. 29. From: Jihan
12:38 PM

nor said...
HI everyone! my name is Norjihan. I'm a former UTM Teslian.
12:36 PM

REFERENCES

REFERENCES
Brown, H. Douglas (2001) Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy. Addison Wesley Longman Inc. New York.
Blood, Rebecca (2002) Weblogs: A History and Perspective. We’ve Got Blog. Perseus Publishing. Cambridge.
Burnett, Robert and Marshall, P. David (2003) Web Theory: An Introduction. Routledge. London.
Dorner, Jane (2002) Writing for the Internet. Oxford University Press. New York
Kerka, Sandra (1996). Journal Writing and Adult Learning. ERIC Digests No. 174. ERIC Clearinghouse on Adult Career and Vocational Education. Columbus Ohio.
Pyra Labs [Online] (2000). ‘About’ : http://www.blogger.com/about.pyra [19/02/2002.]
Richards, Jack. C and Rodgers, Theodore S. (2001) Approches and Methods in Language Teaching. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge.

SUGGESTIONS

The pre-requisites to the adaptation of weblog into the classroom are ample ICT infrastructure on-site and sound pedagogical techniques. Soon all schools will be equipped with Internet ready computers and teachers can start being creative and think about how computers can enrich the learning experiences of the students. Weblog can be used as a training platform for students to show their skills in creating web contents. School newsletters can now be made available online via weblog.

Class Weblog / Webzine Project

Language: Stating facts, opinions and feelings
Skills: Writing
Control: Free
Level: Intermediate/advanced
Time: Asynchronous project, preferably running throughout the whole year. It is best to start the project in the first month of an academic year.
Materials: Internet Access. If you do not have Internet access at school, you might want to get the assistance of local cybercafes to sponsor the project.

Preparation:
Asked students to visit some weblogs and leave comments on those weblogs.
Train students to setup a weblog account via Blogger.com service.
Discuss the ethic of publishing writing online with the participating students. The issue of libel and rumor spreading should be addressed. It is important for writers to impose self-censorship as the entries are widely available for people to read.

Procedure
Each student writes a short article (100-200 words) a month and posts it on the class weblog.
Students should also read postings made by others and write at least 5 sentence comments.
Topics should be limited to reflection of events related to their school.
At the end of the year, best writer awards are given based on the number of comments received by their postings.

Variations
Instead of sharing one weblog, each student can own an individual weblog. He or she can reflect on events that happen around himself/herself.
Select some good articles from the class weblog. Edit them so that they can be published on the school annual magazine.

Links
Free Hosted Weblog Service
Blogger: http://www.blogger.com/
Livejournal: http://www.livejournal.com/
Blogdrive: http://www.blogdrive.com/
Diaryland: http://www.diaryland.com/

ELT Weblogs
Blog-EFL: http://blog-efl.blogspot.com/
Englishblog: http://englishblog.blogspot.com/
Tesall: http://www.tesall.com/bloglog.html

Class Weblogs
Gameplan: http://gameplan.blogspot.com/
Damien TESL UTM: http://damienteslutm2004.blogspot.com/
Let’s Blog: http://www.malhatlantica.pt/teresadeca/school/blog7.htm

Weblog Directory
Petaling Street Project: http://www.petalingstreet.org/
Geng Jurnal: http://www.jurnal.biz/

Procedures

In 2001, an interactive writing project was introduced in UTM via a weblog named Gameplan (http://gameplan.blogspot.com), a shared weblog that acts as a learning journal. The Students involved in this project were students who registered for Language Games in the Classroom course, an elective course for TESL students at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. The main purpose of the interactive writing project was to update class members on the progress of the class Language Camp projects.

In the weblog, the students reflected on works related to their class projects. Mostly, the students posted informal reports of what they had contributed to their class Language Camp projects. The students had to post a minimum of five one-hundred-words entries on the weblog. The marks were given based on the completion of task and the amount of comments made by readers on the entries. Students were encouraged to read each other’s entries and give comments. At the same time, they were also allowed to promote their weblog in order to attract public comments.

The weblog empowered students to publish their thoughts for the whole world to read. The instructor understood the students better because they interacted beyond the boundary of the classroom setting. Project members immediately addressed problems expressed by others in the weblog. Classmates and public readers were presented with true anecdotes and witty commentaries. Students started to grow awareness of the audiences (instructor, classmate and the world) when writing.
Few students were discovered to set their own weblog and continue updating their weblog even though the semester is over. New students taking the course could immediately read last semesters’ entries for reference. This gives evidence that weblog writing can provide a sustainable learning experience.

INTERACTIVE WRITING

The Internet has converted many people to become prolific writers. “It’s easy to communicate across continents that people – who perhaps did not write regularly before – are now finding they correspond daily with friends, relations, business contacts, and strangers.” (p.6, Dorner, 2002) Technology has now allowed journal writing to be done on the web. This medium is known as weblog. Weblog is defined as:

“… a web page made up of usually short, frequently updated posts that are arranged chronologically—like a what's new page or a journal. The content and purposes of blogs varies greatly—from links and commentary about other web sites, to news about a company/person/idea, to diaries, photos, poetry, mini-essays, project updates, even fiction.” (Pyra Labs, 2000)

Weblog puts the latest entry always on the top and the older ones fall into archives. Most weblogs allow visitors or readers to interact with the entries by providing a comment form. Before easy- to-use template based weblog writing service providers like Blogger.com and Livejournal.com were introduced in 1999, only those who were good with html code can maintain a weblog. Now, even those who do not know html can publish their entries and update their journal everyday. They just need to sign up for a free weblog account and log in every time they need to update their journal. All they need is a web browser (Internet Explorer or Netscape) and a computer that is linked to the Internet. Free weblog service providers such as Blogger.com, Blogdrive.com and Livejournal.com have made it easier for non-IT individuals to publish journal entries and readers at large give feedback to entries posted on the weblog. For tech-savvy individuals, they might want to tinker with free open source software like Wordpress and Greymatter.

Weblogs provide interactivity needed to help students to use English by increasing the number of participants that can get involved in a discourse. As writers and readers, students can interact with the teacher, fellow classmates and the whole world. This also gives students the opportunity to even interact with native speakers of the target language. Entries are published for the world to read and react to. Readers of weblogs post comments in reply to entries. This leads to negotiations of meaning that might assist learners in developing their writing and argumentative skills. The use of English language can be taken outside the four walls of the classroom and beyond. It is hoped that teachers and students can embrace the technology available and turn it to something pedagogically constructive. Blood (2002) strongly believes in the power of weblogs to transform both writers and readers from passive consumers to active creators of web contents. Maybe, we are at the edge of a new revolution of interactive writing culture that calls for the voice of the masses and critical audiences.

JOURNAL WRITING

Journal Writing has long been used in the language classroom as a tool to enhance learning. Teachers can use journal writing to meet specific goals. Some teachers use journal writing to improve writing confidence and some work on perfecting paragraphing skills; others use journals as a platform to nurture students’ creativity. Some teachers provide title prompts to assist students to begin their entries. Others leave decisions about the content and topic of student journals up to the students. The technique was traditionally a non-interactive activity. It is, if implemented traditionally, writing for the audience of one, the writer himself (self-writing). However, a dialogue or buddy journal in which a student records feelings and opinions and a peer or instructor reads and responds can be interactive. Increasing the number of audience and responses to a single journal entry can intensify the interaction.

Journal writing has been adapted as a learning tool because it lends itself well to heuristic learning approach. Kerka (1996) presented in her literature review that journal writing has several benefits to teaching and learning:
1. Writing journal entries is less formal and less threatening, thus students can write without self-consciousness or inhibition.
2. Journal entries can provide tangible evidence of mental processes. They make thoughts visible and concrete, giving a way to interact with, elaborate on, and expand ideas.
3. Journals are tools for growth through critical reflection, for it is not enough to observe and record experiences, but equally significant is to make meaning out of them.

Nevertheless due to time constraint, the primary audience of a student’s journal is restricted to the instructor. It would be beneficial for the learning process if journal entries can be published and received feedback from the public or at least from classmates. Comments on ideas written by students will enhance students’ critical thinking and argumentative writing skills. Augmented by technology, entries in a journal can enjoy more readerships and interaction level can be increased.

INTERACTIVE PERSPECTIVE IN LANGUAGE EDUCATION

When people exchange messages with others, they interact among themselves. Brown (2001) writes interaction as collaborative exchange of thoughts and feelings or ideas between two or more people, leading to a reciprocal impact on each other. Burnett and Marshall (2003) define interactivity as a term to describe interaction between parties where both sources and receivers of information through a communication medium. It is a sequence of action and reaction. They further indicate that interactivity describes the extent to which messages are related to each other.

Interactional view of the nature of language sees language as a tool for the realization of interpersonal relations and for the performance of social transactions between individuals (Richards and Rodgers, 2001). It is through interaction, students can use the language learnt in real-life exchanges as they send and receive messages in a casual manner. Thus, Brown (2001) argues that language classrooms should be interactive. One way to increase interactivity is to increase the audience of written works done by students. Perhaps, by giving access to others to read students’ written works and react on them, interactivity will increase. Thus, an environment conducive to language learning is provided.

Interactive Writing: Introduction

In order to successfully learn a language, a learner needs to use the target language. For most English language learners in Malaysia, situations that call for the need to use the language are often limited to the classroom environment. One might have the opportunity to use English only in the English period, and more recently the mathematic and science periods. More often than not, the only one who is willingly communicating with the learners in English is the teacher. As there is only one teacher for each class at every period, the opportunity to learn by attempting to communicate in the target language is greatly reduced. This calls for the need for learning tasks that encourage more interaction in the target language.

INTERACTIVE WRITING (1st Draft. Pls Comment)

Interactive Writing[i]
By
Ghazali Bunari[ii] and Abdul Rahim Salam[iii]
Journal writing activity has long been used by teachers to improve students’ skills in writing. It is also a way for students to communicate with the teacher and vice-versa. This workshop demonstrates how interactivity in the traditional journal writing activity can be extended. Participants will be exposed to a pen-and-paper interactive writing technique and this is followed by an online version of the activity. The workshop explains the benefits of online journal or weblog implementation in ELT. The workshop also suggests variants of the activity and outlines the procedures for implementing the technique.

Outline
1. Language Learning Theories
2. Interactivity
3. Weblog
4. How to

INTRODUCTION
In order to successfully learn a language, a learner needs to use the target language. For most English language learners in Malaysia, situations that call for the need to use the language are often limited to the classroom environment. One might have the opportunity to use English only in the English period, and more recently the mathematic and science periods. More often than not, the only one who is willingly communicating with the learners in English is the teacher. As there is only one teacher for each class at every period, the opportunity to learn the language is greatly reduced. This calls for the need for techniques that encourage more interaction in the target language.

INTERACTIVE PERSPECTIVE IN LANGUAGE EDUCATION
When people exchange messages with others, they interact among themselves. Brown (2001) writes interaction as collaborative exchange of thoughts and feelings or ideas between two or more people, leading to a reciprocal impact on each other. Burnett and Marshall (2003) define interactivity as a term to describe interaction between parties where both sources and receivers of information through a communication medium. It is a sequence of action and reaction. They further indicate that interactivity describes the extent to which messages are related to each other.

Interactional view of the nature language sees language as a tool for the realization of interpersonal relations and for the performance of social transactions between individuals (Richards and Rodgers, 2001). It is through interaction, students can use the language learnt in real-life exchanges as they send and receive messages in a casual manner. Thus, Brown (2001) argues that language classrooms should be interactive. One way to increase interactivity is to increase the audience of written works done by students. Perhaps, by giving access to others to read students’ written works and react on them, interactivity will increase.

JOURNAL WRITING
Journal Writing has long been used in the language classroom as a tool to enhance learning. Teachers can use journal writing to meet specific goals. Some teachers use journal writing to improve writing confidence and some work on perfecting paragraphing skills; others use journals as a platform to nurture students’ creativity. Some teachers provide title prompts to assist students begin their entries. Others leave decisions about the content and topic of student journals up to the students. The technique was traditionally a non- interactive activity. It is, if implemented traditionally, writing for the audience of one, the writer himself (self-writing). However, a dialogue or buddy journal in which a student records feelings and opinions and a peer or instructor reads and responds can be interactive. Increasing the number of audience and responses to a single journal entry can intensify the interaction.

Journal writing has been adapted as a learning tool because it lends itself well to heuristic learning approach. Kerka (1996) presented in her literature review that journal writing has several benefits to teaching and learning:
1. Writing journal entries is less formal and less threatening, thus students can write without self-consciousness or inhibition
2. Journal entries can provide tangible evidence of mental processes. They make thoughts visible and concrete, giving a way to interact with, elaborate on, and expand ideas.
3. Journals are tools for growth through critical reflection, for it is not enough to observe and record experiences, but equally significant is to make meaning out of them.

Nevertheless due to time constraint, the primary audience of a student’s journal is restricted to the instructor. It would be beneficial for the learning process if journal entries can be published and received feedback from the public or at lease from classmates. Comments on ideas written by a student would mature students’ critical thinking and enhance argumentative writing skills. Augmented by technology, entries in a journal can enjoy more readerships and interaction can be enhanced.

INTERACTIVE WRITING
The Internet has converted many people to become prolific writers. “It’s easy to communicate across continents that people – who perhaps did not write regularly before – are now finding they correspond daily with friends, relations, business contacts, and strangers.” (p.6, Dorner, 2002) Technology has now allowed journal writing to be done on the web. This medium is known as weblog. Weblog is defined as:

“A blog is a web page made up of usually short, frequently updated posts that are arranged chronologically—like a what's new page or a journal. The content and purposes of blogs varies greatly—from links and commentary about other web sites, to news about a company/person/idea, to diaries, photos, poetry, mini-essays, project updates, even fiction.” (Pyra Labs, 2000)

Weblog puts the latest entry always on the top and the older ones fall into archives. Most weblogs allow visitors or readers to interact with the entries by providing a comment form. Before easy- to-use template based weblog writing service like Blogger.com and Livejournal.com in 1999, only those who were good with html code can maintain a weblog. Now, even those who do not know html can publish their entries and update their journal everyday. They just need to fill in a form to sign up for the free weblog service and log in every time they need to update their journal. All they need is a web browser (Internet Explorer or Netscape) and a computer that is linked to the Internet. Free weblog service providers such as Blogger.com, Blogdrive.com and Livejournal.com have made it easier for non-IT individuals to publish journal entries and readers at large give feedback to entries posted on the weblog. For tech-savvy individuals, they might want to tinker with free open source software like Wordpress and Greymatter.

Weblogs provide interactivity needed to help students to use English by increasing the number of participants that can get involved in a discourse. As writers and readers, students could interact with the teacher, fellow classmates and the whole world. This also gives students the opportunity to even interact with native speakers of the target language. Entries are published for the world to read and react to. Readers of weblogs post comments in reply to entries often lead to negotiations of meaning that might assist learners in developing writing and argumentative skills. The use of English language can be taken outside the four walls of the classroom and beyond. It is hoped that teachers and students can embrace the technology available and turn it to something pedagogically constructive. Blood (2002) wrote in her article, “I strongly believe in the power of weblogs to transform both writers and readers from “audience” to “public” and from “consumer” to “creator.”” Maybe, we are at the edge of a new revolution of interactive writing culture that calls for the voice of masses.

PROCEDURES
In 2001, an interactive writing project was introduced in UTM via a weblog named Gameplan (http://gameplan.blogspot.com/), a shared weblog that acts as a learning journal. The Students involved in this project were students who registered for Language Games in the Classroom course, an elective course for TESL students at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. The main purpose of the interactive writing project was to update class members on the progress of the class Language Camp projects.

In the weblog, the students reflected on works related to their class projects. Mostly, the students posted informal reports of what they had contributed to their class Language Camp projects. The students had to post a minimum of five one-hundred-words entries on the weblog. The marks were given based on the completion of task and the amount of comments made by readers on the entries. Students were encouraged to read each other’s entries and give comments. At the same time, they were also allowed to promote their weblog in order to attract public comments.

The weblog empowered students to publish their thoughts for the whole world to read. The instructor understood the students better because they interacted beyond the boundary of the classroom setting. Project members immediately addressed problems expressed by others in the weblog. Classmates and public readers were presented with true anecdotes and witty commentaries. Students started to grow awareness of the audiences (instructor, classmate and the world) when writing.
Few students were discovered to set their own weblog and continue updating their weblog even though the semester is over. New students taking the course could immediately read last semesters’ entries for reference. This gives evidence that weblog writing can provide a sustainable learning experience.

SUGGESTIONS
The pre-requisites to the adaptation of weblog into the classroom are ample ICT infrastructure on-site and sound pedagogical techniques. Soon all schools will be equipped with Internet ready computers and teachers can start being creative and think about how computers can enrich the learning experiences of the students. Weblog can be used as a training platform for students to show their skills in creating web contents. School newsletters can now be made available online via weblog.

Class Weblog / Webzine
Language: Stating facts, opinions and feelings
Skills: Writing
Control: Free
Level: Intermediate/advanced
Time: Asynchronous project, preferably running throughout the whole year. It is best to start the project in the first month of an academic year.
Materials: Internet Access

Preparation:
Asked students to visit some weblogs and leave comments on those weblogs.
Train students to setup a weblog account via Blogger.com service.
Discuss the ethic of publishing writing online with the participating students.

Procedure
Each student writes a short article (100-200 words) a month and posts it on the class weblog.
Students should also read postings made by others and write at least 5 sentence comments.
Topics should be limited to reflection of events related to their school.
At the end of the year, best writer awards are given based on the number of comments received by their postings.

Variations
Instead of sharing one weblog, each student can own an individual weblog. He or she can reflect on events that happen around himself/herself.
Select some good articles from the weblog. Edit them so that they can be published on the school annual magazine.

Links
Free Hosted Weblog Service
Blogger: http://www.blogger.com/
Livejournal: http://www.livejournal.com/
Blogdrive: http://www.blogdrive.com/
Diaryland: http://www.diaryland.com/

ELT Weblogs
Blog-EFL: http://blog-efl.blogspot.com/
Englishblog: http://englishblog.blogspot.com/

Class Weblogs
Gameplan: http://gameplan.blogspot.com/
Damien TESL UTM: http://damienteslutm2004.blogspot.com/
Let’s Blog: http://www.malhatlantica.pt/teresadeca/school/blog7.htm

REFERENCES
Brown, H. Douglas (2001) Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy. Addison Wesley Longman Inc. New York.
Blood, Rebecca (2002) Weblogs: A History and Perspective. We’ve Got Blog. Perseus Publishing. Cambridge.
Burnett, Robert and Marshall, P. David (2003) Web Theory: An Introduction. Routledge. London.
Dorner, Jane (2002) Writing for the Internet. Oxford University Press. New York
Kerka, Sandra (1996). Journal Writing and Adult Learning. ERIC Digests No. 174. ERIC Clearinghouse on Adult Career and Vocational Education. Columbus Ohio.
Pyra Labs [Online] (2000). ‘About’ : http://www.blogger.com/about.pyra [19/02/2002.]
Richards, Jack. C and Rodgers, Theodore S. (2001) Approches and Methods in Language Teaching. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge.
[i] This paper is prepared for 4th ELT Southern Regional Seminar 2004. The seminar was organized by Universiti Teknologi Malaysia and Jabatan Pendidikan Negeri Johor 25 September 2004.
[ii] Ghazali Bunari is a lecturer affiliated with the Faculty of Management and Human Resource Development. Currently, he is teaching English for Academic Communication and Language Games in the Classroom. He received his first degree in Applied English Linguistics at The Universiti of Texas and masters degree in TESL at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia.
[iii] Abdul Rahim is a lecturer affiliated with the Faculty of Management and Human Resource Development. Currently, he is teaching English for Academic Communication. He received his first degree in TESL at Universiti Malaya and masters degree in TESL at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia.

Congratulation to my friends!!!

I would like to congratulate all my coursemates who will be graduating this coming sunday.All the best for your life as teacher (he..he..he..) and forget me not. Erm,I m on tight budget this semester...so,guess you all have to share the flowers...chow!

Dear Mr G

Hello Mr G.I was looking for you all this while cause Im deep trouble.Im currently doing my research on weblog and the cooperative learning through it..I did sent invitations to my subjects but there seems some problem in sign in as weel as linking their blog to mine at http://damienteslutm2004.blogspot.com so....please helpme...can we meet for this matter.I just knew that you moved to S44...here is my emial damienmikeng@yahoo.com.sg or my hp num..just sms me at 012-7649405. I really need your help.Thank you Mr G.

4th ELT Southern Regional Seminar 2004

Organised by

Jabatan Bahasa Moden
Fakulti Pengurusan & Pembangunan Sumber Manusia
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
Skudai


and

Jabatan Pendidikan Negeri Johor

ABOUT THE SEMINAR

One of the elements of effective language teaching is the ability to sustain students’ interest and encourage creativity and motivation in the learning process. With this in mind, the fourth ELT Seminar on the theme “English Language Teaching: An ‘out-of-the-box’ perspective” aims to provide a platform for ELT practitioners as well as those teaching other subjects in English to share and exchange ideas and insights on innovative and creative approaches to teaching and learning. Activities that encourage creative and critical thinking will add colour and variety to the language teaching and learning process as opposed to the more conventional and stereotypical approach.



OBJECTIVES
· To give exposure to English language practitioners on how to incorporate creative techniques and approaches in the teaching and learning of English

· To identify and share an array of techniques in English language teaching and learning

· To enhance cooperation and solidarity among language practitioners from various institutions

DATE AND VENUE
25 September 2004 (Saturday)
8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at Kompleks Dewan Kuliah N24, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Skudai, Johor




KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Datuk Professor Dr Ibrahim bin Ahmad Bajunid
He is currently the Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, UNITAR. Besides, being a prominent educationist and a renowned writer on issues on education, he also has given countless keynote speeches at international and national seminars.



TOPIC AREAS:
ELT practitioners are invited to submit papers in the following areas:
· English for Teaching Mathematics and Science
· Materials Design
· ICT in the Classroom
· Creativity in ELT
· Creativity in Teaching Mathematics & Science
· Challenges in ELT
· EST in Practice
· Challenges in Teaching Mathematics & Science in English

REGISTRATION FEE
Non-refundable registration fees inclusive of lunch, refreshments, handouts and certificate of participation are as follows:
Presenters and Participants : RM60.00
Students : RM50.00
Registration will only be processed upon receipt of payment. Please register early to ensure a place. All forms must reach the secretariat by 1st September 2004.

Contact Information

Assoc. Prof. Dr Zubaidah Awang
Head of Modern Languages Department
07-5531804

Dr Azizah Rajab
Director
Tel: 07-5531864 or 012-7353580
Fax: 07-5566911
Email: r_azie@yahoo.com

Dr Faizah Mohd. Nor
Deputy Director
Tel: 07-5531851 or 019-7311710
Fax: 07-5566911
Email: m_faizah@hotmail.com
eltseminar2004@yahoo.com

Puan Norisah Amran
Secretariat
07-5531805



4th ELT Southern Regional Seminar 2004
Jabatan Bahasa Moden
Fakulti Pengurusan & Pembangunan Sumber Manusia
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
81310 Skudai
Johor Darul Takzim

Hello TESLians: My beloved Class of 2004!!!

Hello guys! It seems that we all have forgotten this site, haven't we? Anyway, how's everyone? I'm doing good here. As for now, Mien, Zati, Megat, and Syam are also okay..at least that's what I know. We all miss you guys out there very much. Two days ago, I was out hanging with Megat and Mien until about 2.30 am at Aliff's. Try to catch up with whatever things that we've been missing for these couple of weeks. Eventhough there are still 10 of us here, except for Zati, who is my roommate, Mien and Syarul, who are also staying in Melana, I hardly see anyone else. But sometimes, I do bump into Adam, Syam or Megat on the streets. Actually, we are all quite miserable here now cos there's still no answer for our extension of scholarship from KPM. I don't know how these people do their job, but they are always late to give us money but when it comes to posting, they are really quick. At least that's what we all agree here, don't we? Have u guys known the place where you will be posted? If you guys know, tell us la. We've been waiting to hear any news about you guys. From what I know, Farah will be posted in Sek. Men. Teknik somewhere in Arau, Pnah and Sing Ying got some school in Pahang, and Gina is in Singapore for 3 months, doing the exchange students' thing. That's all. I don't know about others.

I hope you guys still remember that we are going to have our reunion one day before your graduation day and the place in at Taman U's McD. We'll be waiting for you guys there. Anyway, since Zati and I are only doing our thesis this semester, we went out looking for job in tuition centres around Tmn U. But the world out there is so cruel.(hahaha) Eventhough, there are like 10 tuition centres in Tmn U, no one wanted to hire us. That's why we are so broke these days. So next time, when I see you guys especially on the reunion day, whoever's working during the break should give me a treat. I think I'm gonna stop now. I'm currently in PSZ, waiting for the faculty's office to open cos we need to get our slip pendaftaran before 31st July. Oh, before I forgot, Syaharil just came back from Germany, so Syaharil, since there's no souvenir, whatsoever, why don't you write something here? Tell us about your experience there.

Finally, for all TESLians, class of 2004 from UTM, I love you guys and good luck in whatever you're doing and you'll do later. No matter what it is, have fun and take care, ok. I'm looking forward to see you guys during the convo. Till then, bye!!!

First Meeting

Nasranah is taking SHE4932 this semester via
independent study mode.



__________________________________
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1st day of school... i mean uni!

helo!!! how everybody... hahaha seems a long time i didnt write anything! anywhere happy 1st day of school! as 4 me i've finished haha! hopefully those who has finished do keep in touch ya! hope 2 hear from every1 again! adios amigos!! :)

The educated blogger: Using weblogs to promote literacy in the classroom by David Huffaker

The educated blogger: Using weblogs to promote literacy in the classroom by David Huffaker

This paper explores the role of weblogs or "blogs" in classroom settings. Blogs, which resemble personal journals or diaries and provide an online venue where self–expression and creativity is encouraged and online communities are built, provide an excellent opportunity for educators to advance literacy through storytelling and dialogue. This paper explores the importance of literacy and storytelling in learning, and then juxtaposes these concepts with the features of blogs. The paper also reviews examples of blogs in practice.


http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue9_6/huffaker/

The educated blogger: Using weblogs to promote literacy in the classroom by David Huffaker

The educated blogger: Using weblogs to promote literacy in the classroom by David Huffaker

This paper explores the role of weblogs or "blogs" in classroom settings. Blogs, which resemble personal journals or diaries and provide an online venue where self–expression and creativity is encouraged and online communities are built, provide an excellent opportunity for educators to advance literacy through storytelling and dialogue. This paper explores the importance of literacy and storytelling in learning, and then juxtaposes these concepts with the features of blogs. The paper also reviews examples of blogs in practice.


http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue9_6/huffaker/

UHB2332 sect. 23

841110145937 B
840520086197 B
841017135523 A
840211015053 A-
841108145460 A-
840920085599 A-
841218015755 B+
840311105435 A
840530085577 B+
840714035961 A-
841103105355 A
841108045144 A
840925136025 A
841024035168 A
840912085898 A-
840517146005 A
840525085142 A-
840910105082 A
840923035677 C-
840927055309 B
840121085955 B
840803015401 B
840625055557 B
840523085675 B+
840923145737 B+
841212145970 A
841119025675 A-
841228106407 A
841022085217 A
840601145005 A
840504055294 B+
840714135073 A
840907085623 A
841003135047 A
840128115547 B
840824075905 C+
840514086123 A-
840826135115 A
840614015795 B
840514085024 B+
840701145520 A
840516015943 A
840911115661 B-
841014055229 C+
840210115124 A-

SHE4932 Grade

XXXXXX025251 D+
XXXXXX036358 A
XXXXXX135094 A
XXXXXX025547 D+
XXXXXX075449 A-
XXXXXX016440 A
XXXXXX035282 A
XXXXXX065616 A
XXXXXX125620 A
XXXXXX145982 A
XXXXXX146030 A-
XXXXXX105864 A
XXXXXX105836 A
XXXXXX125784 C+
XXXXXX045202 A
XXXXXX055350 A
XXXXXX135354 A
XXXXXX145698 A
XXXXXX035492 A-
XXXXXX035758 A
XXXXXX035530 A
XXXXXX015968 A
XXXXXX065014 A
XXXXXX095268 A
XXXXXX085090 A
XXXXXX106162 A
XXXXXX045432 A-
XXXXXX035518 B+
XXXXXX075608 A
XXXXXX115084 A
XXXXXX035438 A-
XXXXXX025822 A
XXXXXX015412 A
XXXXXX135236 A
XXXXXX145232 A-
XXXXXX105378 A
XXXXXX075591 A-
XXXXXX015744 A
XXXXXX035298 A
XXXXXX125504 A-
XXXXXX146364 A
XXXXXX035310 A-
XXXXXX035146 A
XXXXXX145506 A-
XXXXXX135322 A
XXXXXX075469 ?

SHE4932 Coursework mark x/80 or 80%

Final exam:
4 March 2004
c15 -411
9-11 am

Last 8 digits of IC & 80% of your mark
XXXX20025251 31
XXXX12036358 75
XXXX16135094 69
XXXX03025547 34
XXXX02075449 65
XXXX07016440 69
XXXX19035282 72
XXXX04065616 74
XXXX19125620 74
XXXX21145982 73
XXXX05146030 67
XXXX19105864 69
XXXX24105836 70
XXXX08125784 51
XXXX30045202 74
XXXX29055350 71
XXXX13135354 74
XXXX24145698 76
XXXX16035492 70
XXXX24035758 71
XXXX01035530 71
XXXX08015968 73
XXXX13065014 72
XXXX27095268 72
XXXX22085090 68
XXXX27106162 73
XXXX20045432 66
XXXX03035518 61
XXXX27075608 70
XXXX11115084 73
XXXX28035438 68
XXXX15025822 69
XXXX22015412 73
XXXX21135236 69
XXXX20145232 71
XXXX31105378 73
XXXX11075591 66
XXXX24015744 73
XXXX03035298 73
XXXX22125504 67
XXXX01146364 73
XXXX14035310 71
XXXX07035146 72
XXXX11145506 66
XXXX25135322 67
XXXX03075469 23

The marks are not final. Some changes might occur later.

Language Camp Report

As a whole, the camp went on successfully. I was in charged of finance and sponsorships. We had sponsors from some generous individuals apart from contribution from our own camp members and the Education Faculty as well. Thus, money was never a problem. Moreover, it did not cost a king’s ransom for this camp to be carried out. The camp was, in fact, very cost effective. It taught us that we need not spend unnecessary large amount of money just for the camp to be successful. The participants, on the other hand, gained a lot from the camp too. Through behavioral observations, it was obvious that the activities conducted in the camp helps the students to develop their language skills. They acquired many new words (plus the correct pronunciation and intonation). Though, the grammatical aspect was hard to determine its success but, I believe, the students will eventually acquire the correct grammatical form of the language if they are to be exposed to English more often such as having language camps such as this. This is due to the fact that this camp provides grounds for them to experience using the language spontaneously in real life situation. The activities provide an enjoyable informal learning atmosphere to the students which help in decreasing their anxiety level. Thus, they were not only highly motivated to try to communicate using the language but also were very confident in their performance. Healthy competition also took place in the activities which encouraged the students to improve themselves even more. Team spirit was inculcated which further promotes the instillation of moral values such as respecting and helping each other. All in all, the participants were satisfied with the camp and enjoyed all the activities conducted. All said and done, the camp met it objectives.

by Deiyanah Deris

.............................
Once again, the hands of Felda Johor and the Education Faculty of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) are joined together, this time making its mark in Felda Tenggaroh 6, Mersing. During the duration of 3 days from the 6th to the 8th of February 2004, the vibrant lives of 24 TESL students from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia intertwined with the young lives of 138 Primary 6 pupils from schools around Felda Tenggaroh, Mersing.
The camp was indeed a joint effort by both Felda and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. The TESL students under the loving guidance of their lecturers, Mr. Ghazali bin Bunari, Miss Fatimah binti Puteh, and Mr. Faruk bin Muhammad arrived in SK Felda Tenggaroh 6, Mersing with enthusiasm and their hearts, prepared to go all out to motivate the Felda students to look forward to learning the English Language via language games and loads of fun! Doubled with the wonderful and extremely warm hospitality of the Felda settlers, who provided the facilitators and lecturers with an unforgettable ‘kampung’ experience, the language camp turned out to be a real success – with lots and lots of really delicious ‘kampung’ cooking, and extra dedicated RELA security!
Shortly upon arrival, the 24 facilitators introduced themselves to the eager faces who were already being seated in hall. The facilitators then presented their group cheer with actions.
After that, everything just sprang into action. The pupils were being divided into their respective groups – Nemo, Mickey, Tazmanian, Garfield, Bugs Bunny, Lilo, Flintstone, Scooby Doo, Snoopy, and Pink Panther. The group facilitators (2 per group) then took charge of all the kids in their own groups throughout the camp.
The groups started off by coming up with their own team cheer, which were all presented in front of all the groups. The cold atmosphere of the first night of the camp warmed up to the excitement and the energy level of the pupils, who were trying to outdo each other with the volume of their group cheers.
The next two days passed within the blink of an eye, with all the fun and the engaging activities throughout the camp. The main feature of the camp that distinguishes it from all other camps of any kind is the amount of language games played. Most of the time, the language games were played in the 10 respective groups, conducted by the group facilitators who were really getting to know each and every one of the kids in their groups. The language games were mostly created and designed by the facilitators themselves, or were adapted from existing language games.
Laughter could be heard from classrooms where the groups take temporary residence as the pupils were busy forming words and phrases based on certain categories (like animals, places, or even language word classes like nouns and verbs), or trying very hard to guess a word based on their friend’s role-playing. Games like Name Game, Tic-Tac-Toe (based on the tic-tac-toe concept), and Perfect Match were played throughout the duration of the camp; with the objective of instilling the interest and motivation to learn the English Language in a fun and less stressful atmosphere. Many facilitators report seeing the kids under their care and guidance getting excited even though some of them may be very weak in English – which is a good indicator that the kids are not so afraid of the language anymore.
Other activities that stand out are the Amazing Race and the Treasure Hunt. Amazing Race was a break from all the language-based activities. Pupils had to go through a few challenges – ‘Mountain Climbing’, ‘River Crossing’, and ‘Tunneling’ where team spirit and sticking up for group members mattered a lot. As for the Treasure Hunt, the pupils had to go from station to station to answer riddles. Well, the kids sure had fun running around with their friends in the group, guessing riddles and the facilitators enjoyed themselves looking at the over-enthusiastic kids who were about 10 years younger than them!
There was also the ‘Building the Tower’ competition, whereby the kids have to build a tower using straws and paper cups, with some of the members in the group being blindfolded. It was a challenge that tests the effectiveness of giving simple instructions in English, and definitely team work.
Besides that, the drama competition amongst group was another activity that drew shy kids out of their shells, and amazing talents out of normal-looking village kids! The pupils were definitely enjoying themselves, acting out their respective roles, and at the same time speaking the language. The kids surely did not realize that they were unconsciously using the English Language while having fun at the same time!
On top of all the fun and ‘unconscious’ use of the English Language, pupils and facilitators had song singing sessions – some kids were literally screaming at the top of their lungs! Amongst the favoured songs were ‘This is what dreams are made of’, and ‘Top of the world’.
Also, to teach the pupils to express themselves in words, every night there would be a ‘Buddy Journal’ session whereby all the pupils had to open their Buddy Journal and write how they feel after going through all the activities and games. During this Buddy Journal session, the group facilitators would be guiding the pupils, especially the weaker kids, encouraging them to express themselves freely without being afraid of making grammatical mistakes.
All in all, the language camp in SK Felda Tenggaroh 6, Mersing, Johor was indeed an unforgettable event for both the TESL students and the Felda community. It is the sincerest hope of the TESL students and their beloved lecturers that the language camp would leave a footprint in each of the 138 pupils – that they will no longer be afraid of the ‘foreign language (English Language), and that they will now view the English Language as a fun experience, and a useful tool for a better future. Before departure from Felda Tenggaroh, all 24 facilitators knew deep down that the Felda settlers had left a precious memory of warm hospitality, and had ‘fallen in love’ with the kids who were so active and eager to learn despite their lack of exposure to the English Language.
Language Camp 6th to 8th of February 2004 was indeed a mark in the history of the English Language teaching profession, and a new beginning for all one hundred and thirty-eight kids, each with their own potential to succeed and master the English Language.

by Angela Kwon


.........................
My contribution for the camp

My job was to make sure the participants and the facilitators follow all the camp rules. I was in charge to get the students into their groups and and queqe up in a straight lines. Most of the time I had to control the crowd with the noise that they made. I need to make sure the students gathered the dining hall in time. We managed to do that but there was an unexpected thing which happened. Some of the facilitators were confused about the shcedule,and that actually affected our pose because the blame was put on us.

by Nur hafiza binti Abu Hanifa

hello...

hi there people...
looks like megat is still with da aisec thinging.
all da best 4 ur finals...

Coursework Marks for UHB2332 Sect. 23

Coursework marks presented here assume that everybody got 15 for the online forum. The fact is, the online forum mark is not finalised yet. Thus, some changes might occur later.

841110145937 58
840520086197 59
841017135523 70
840211015053 65
841108145460 66
840920085599 64
841218015755 61
840311105435 71
840530085577 62
840714035961 65
841103105355 71
841108045144 69
840925136025 71
841024035168 70
840912085898 67
840517146005 69
840525085142 68
840910105082 72
840923035677 46
840927055309 62
840121085955 61
840803015401 60
840625055557 59
840523085675 63
840923145737 65
841212145970 77
841119025675 65
841228106407 71
841022085217 74
840601145005 69
840504055294 62
840714135073 70
840907085623 70
841003135047 71
840128115547 59
840824075905 53
840514086123 65
840826135115 70
840614015795 60
840514085024 65
840701145520 71
840516015943 72
840911115661 53
841014055229 51
840210115124 66

TIPS for final exam.
1. Draft your essay outline on the test paper regardless the instruction asks for it or not. Make sure the examiner see your outline.
2. To get an "A", your content should be sufficient, clearly present sufficient and accurate explanation. Examples given should be relevant and details are fully developed. Your writing should be easily understood. Write with confident control of structure, grammar and suitable choice of vocabulary. Appropriate language should be used with very few grammatical inaccuracies. Your information is well organised and showing a coherent link.
3. For more tips on essay writing, click WRITING LAB.

Aileen Farida bt. Mohd Adam

Overall I am quite satisfied with the performance of the facilitators of Camp B, although as you said during the first night of post-mortem session, there is still room for improvement. The experience I acquired is beyond words mainly because of the ‘authentic’ students. Honestly, I was unsure of what I was supposed to do before the camp as I was a PRO. I never
had any experience ushering people or handling protocol before but with the help of the others, I was able to complete my job successfully although I do admit, there are some minor slip-ups here and there.
As everyone had warned, there would be unexpected matters that could happen and how right they were. The words ‘key’ and ‘bathroom’ leaves unpleasant memories and those were our only regrets. It is useless to keep
on dwelling on the past regrets so instead we should take those as a lesson; time waits for no man so we should make and do the best of it as we can.

Noraini bt Muhammad

ENGLISH LANGUAGE CAMP 2004

The language camp that was held at Sek. Ren. Keb. Adela, Kota Tinggi had gave me the new and memorable experience. There, I got the chance to take care of real students, handled and conducted them to play the games in the classroom. This experienced was totally different to me, as before I never like camping. Throughout this camp too, I figured out something about myself that I never knew before which is l like kids. They were young, cute, innocent, hyperactive, playful and follow everything that we asked them to do. I was the facilitator for the Remarkable Red group, which was very exhilarating and fun to have fifteen students under me. For this camp, my post was the assistant to the Head of Food. I need to make sure that the food was ready on time and the students had enough food. Before went there, I need to make a schedule for the meals to be given to the people who were incharged with the food at Kota Tinggi. Overall, this camp was an excit ing camp and I'm really looking forward to joint any camp like this again...!

TUAN HABIBAH BT TUAN ALI

LANGUAGE CAMP B
SEK KEB ADELA, KOTA TINGGI
13th - 15th FEB. 2004

The journey to Sek. Keb. Adela that afternoon took about 2 hours and a half. Although it was tiring, I think it would be very worthy and I was so excited to see the children. This is my first experience in conducting such program. My team was Remarkable Red and together with Noraini and Ghandini, we managed to handle the students quite well. Our team won 4 awards altogether. The students were very active, and so eager to play every game we had. The people over there were so nice and hospitable. Overall, although there were many unexpected difficulties happened during this camp, I learned that teamwork and patience can overcome every obstacles. Lastly, i would like to thank Mr. Ghazali, Miss Fatimah and Mr. Faruk for giving me this opportunity to participate in this Language Camp.

Nazatulshima Binti Mustafar

Language Camp 2004, would be the greatest experience that I ever experienced as a TESL student. I was the Camp Commander of the Language Camp. In the camp, I was responsible in taking care of the children and the facilitators. It is also my duty to help the director and the committee member in making sure that everything goes smoothly as planned. I would say that the camp was very enjoyable and a memorable one. It is actually our first battlefield as a teacher. It is also our first experience dealing with children. In the camp, I actually had the opportunity to mix with the children and at the same time analyzing the reason why they are not competent in English. After analyzing the children, I found out that the reason why they are not used with the language is that the fact that they came from a poor family and lack of exposure of the language. In my opinion, teachers in rural areas should be more aware of the problem and should try hard in developing the students’ interest in the language. Overall, I would say that the camp is a success, though there were problems. I hope that the future Language Camp will be better and should be able to develop the students’ interest in the target language.

Nur Afzan Izham

Camp B

As assistance secretary, I feel that everyone in the committee had done a good job throughout the camp. They all committed their whole self to the camp. Personally I think that overall the camp was successful as it managed to reach several objectives of the camp, although there were things that needed patching up here and there. Although there were slight misunderstandings among the facilitators, we managed to handle and adapt to the situation there. At the camp I was in charge of registration. We only received the complete name list of students when we got there. We grouped the students evenly and made sure that there were 15 students in o ne group from different schools. Apart from that I am also the facilitator of the group ‘Genius Light Green’. I guided them to do their Buddy Journal and helped them to organize their drama presentation. I am very proud of them as they won 1st place in Message Hunt, 3rd place in Amazing Race, and in their drama presentation and apart from that they also won the most hardworking group. Besides handling my own group I was also in charge of the last checkpoint in the Amazing Race. I really had a blast throughout the camp. The camp taught me about lots of things; it was really an educating experience for me from handling students to teaching them and giving them love and care. I hope that there will be another camp as I am looking forward to gain more experience. Apart from that there is also time for us to patch things up and make the camp run smoothly the next time. I also hope that next time all of the facilitators will have a positive attitude to make it more fu n not only for the students but among the committee members itself.

mexx didie

It was a wonderful experience for me to facilitate primary school students. As a facilitator, I had to consider a lot of things regarding the level of the students and also all our activity there. Overall, I think that most of the facilitators had done a good job in facilitating the students. The students also had given us their full cooperation in achieving our goals for this camp. I could see that most of the students gained a lot of knowledge during the camp and they even speak more English with us. It was a really memorable experiane for me to meet Felda people and they were really nice and friendly.

Lee Hsia Ling

Post: Public Relations Officer
As for preparation before going for the camp, I must attend meetings and help in the preparations for the camp. The preparations for the camp includes; preparing files, students’ handouts, preparing hampers, attending briefing on how to play the games, practicing songs and cheers and others. Besides preparing these materials, I must also be mentally prepared, as I have to understand the games clearly and prepare to carry it out to the students.

My job as a PRO started when I reached SRK Adela. I was the middle person for camp B and the FELDA group of people. As a PRO, I need to know the post for the people in charge in the other organizing committee such as the officers involved in the camp for example the FELDA officers and the people from the SRK Adela. Knowing these people will help me to identify the people in charge of certain job so that I know who to refer to when I need assistance.

One of the things I found out from them was that there were many participating FELDA schools from different districts such as Adela, Sungai Emas, Papan Timur, Air Tawar 1, Air tawar 2, Air Tawar 3, Air tawar 4, Pasak, Keledang, Sening, Tunggal, and Semencu. However, the host for this camp was SK Adela. The people in SK Adela are:

Penyelia petang- En. Selamat Rahim

Teacher- Pn. Sarah

Pengurus Jamuan- Fatimah Yahya

Pengurus Felda Adela- En.Razak

Urussetia Adela- En.Osman



The other people involved in the camp are:

Secretary (Pegawai Pengarah Tunggal)- Puan Zalina

Pengerusi GP- Pn. Aminah Atan

Pengurus Felda Tunggal- En. Jalil

Pengurus Felda Timur- En. Malik Awang

Pengurus Felda Keledang- En. Zainal

Pengurus Felda Semencu- En. Ismail Salleh

Pengurus Felda Sening- En. Razali Husin

The people listed are those who were present in the camp. From what I expected, each district will send their representatives to see how their students were doing in the camp.

My job started when I was asked to find three teachers from the school to be judges for the drama. I went to Pn. Zalina to know who these teachers are. She told me that the teachers would not be in the school most of the time since they were only in charge of the students’ intake. But somehow, I was lucky enough to be introduced to a teacher who was present that time, which was Pn. Sarah. She told me the other two teachers were not there but she will inform them to be there the next day to be judges for the drama.

On the last day was one of the most important days since many officers will be present. My job as a PRO is to welcome the officers upon their arrival and escort them to the hall. Besides that, I need to escort them to their seats and when they are going up and down from the stage. I also need to find out the officers who are going to give out the prizes, inform them beforehand and make sure they are there at the expected time.

In the beginning, I was not clear what I am supposed to do, but I was glad that En. Ghazali and Cik Fatimah have taught me and my friend what to do and how to do it.

Since I have not been a PRO before, I learnt a lot from this post. I learnt how to approach people, how to start a topic, and how to ask and inform them in a polite and correct way. I found this post interesting and I am glad I was given this post.

Besides being a PRO, I was also a facilitator. Being a facilitator has given me some idea of a teacher’s job since we have to control the students and guide them how to play the games. I must also take care of their physical state (health), their well-being (discipline) and also their feelings (whether they are feeling sad, happy, or lonely). We work in pairs to make sure everything is under control. We had to prepare the materials beforehand and group the students. Besides that, time management was a main concern since we have to conduct a few games in the restrictive time and keep the students’ interest and motivation going throughout the games. We must also be punctual when we were supposed to go for break or go to the hall for gathering.

In my group, my students expressed their liking towards us for teaching them how to use English, either in written or spoken. They somehow started to like English and felt motivated to continue learning English. They think that we are smart and somehow became their role model. My students had certainly surprised me and made me proud since they won first prize for Amazing Race.

As a conclusion, we have certainly achieved the camp objectives. We were able to motivate the students to learn English and foster the love of the English Language. This will provide a good starting point for the students to like English and avoid the biasness of English as a difficult subject to score. Besides that, we get to apply and practice the learning theories learnt in the class for all these years. I truly enjoyed this camp and it will be the most unforgettable experience I had in UTM.

ROSFIDYATIE BT MAT RIFIN

ENGLISH LANGUAGE CAMP REPORT
Venue:Felda Adela,Kota Tinggi
Date:13-15th Feb 2004

that was my first time attending an english language camp, and i just cannot believe that i am the facilitator of those kids. the camp had taught me a lot of things. i've learned how to face the students; how to teach, how to handle them and how to give them spirit to learn english! although i was tired with all the activities held there but at the end of the day, i felt its all worth it...and now, i really miss them all.if i'm given one more chance to attend the camp, i just cannot say NO.

INDRA A/P RAJOO

In this camp, I was the head of cleanliness. I was assigned to buy the big black rubbish plastics to be used during the camp. Anyway, the committee managed to get them through some sponsors later. We had a very good preparation before hand for the camp. All the committee members were so dedicated and responsible toward their job.

During the camp, all the works were divided equally and fair among the facilitators. It helped us to focus in our work properly and not to get confused of what we are supposed to do. I made sure that the whole place was clean. The students felt very comfortable and gained good knowledge and experience.

SUBAHSHINI DEVI A/P SANMUGAM

I was selected as Head of Transportation for this camp. As Head of Transportion, my duty was to arrange bus for us to go there. After two days of dealings with Harta Bina my duty is settled. (before the camp)
During the camp I was incharge as facilitator for Pink Panther's group. There were 13 students under Pink Panther and my duty was to ensure that everyone is following all the activities without any confusion. I was also incharge of "Word Association" game.
For The Amazing Race Jimmy and I were incharge of throwing flour at the students. This was really fun as both of us were chasing the students to throw flour at them.
After the camp, everyone helped each other to clean and carry the luggages to the bus. The camp was really fun and I enjoyed myself with the kids there eventhough it was a little bit tiring.

Yap Wai Yee

I felt great and enjoyed the 3 days 2 nights camp althought I was very tired these few days. This is the first time I worked as facilitator; I was assigned the post as head of cleanliness. My role is to make sure the place is cleaned after each activity. During the camp, there was a “Garbage Buster” competition; the students were encouraged to pick up the rubbish whenever they see any rubbish on the floor. The purpose of this competition is to motivate the students to prese rve cleanliness. I found it this competition was very effective because the school was cleaned and there was only had little rubbish that I could see. The winner for this competition belongs to “Remarkable Red”. It is judged based on the heaviest of the garbage. A part from that, I have learnt how to conduct language games and camps. It is a team work, we need to cooperative with each others in order to run this camp smoothly and successful. Lastly, the objective of this camp is to inculcate the students’ interest in learning English and do not see it as a burden subject.

Ghandini

First and foremost and would like to take this opportunity to thank all my beloved course mates for giving me this golden chance and putting full faith in me to hold the “GAME MASTER” post. When I was first giving this post frankly I was very nervous, as I knew that I had to play an important role before and during the camp. As the Language Camp mainly emphasized on Language game as a weapon to foster love for the language, I knew I had to do a careful decision in choosing the games to be played. Nevertheless, after the selection, with the guidance of Mr G, the Director of the camp, Azuro and I decided on the eleven different games to be played during the Language Camp.



My main duty assigned before the camp was to prepare the student handout, and later the facilitator manual which was done all in a rush due to the examinations that we had a week before the camp and even a few days before the camp. However I strongly believe, once the torch of responsibility is given to us, as future a future educationist, I would always want to do my best and make use of whatever talent that I have to give best. However, honestly I was motivated in doing my duty as a Game Master before and during the camp sincerely as I took it as a selfless service, which I could do for the children at the FELDA. Only when we do our duty wholeheartedly, we will achieve a fruitful result. All these was achieved when I arrived at the FELDA ADELA and played my role as a game master and a facilitator for the “Remarkable red team”. It was indeed an enjoyable experi ence being there with the children, conducting the games with them and seeing the eagerness to win and joy in their eyes to play all the interesting games. In addition, I would like to thank Azuro for giving me the responsibility to conduct the newspaper chase game. I was really worried whether I could actually gather 10 sets of the similar newspaper for the game. However with the blessing of the divine lord, I managed to purchase 12 copies of the sun newspaper. Overall, I think I had fun watching the children look for the 15 items listed down on the paper. On the other hand, before I left for the camp I was very curious to actually handle real school children, as this was my first experience doing so. Before this, most of the teaching methodologies that we have learned have been only read or thought during our lectures. However this Language Camp has given us lots of input and strapped us all into our seats before we start our first journey in the teaching field this coming Mach.

Finally, I would just want to add in some of my personal comments on this camp. Firstly, I truly feel that using language games in the classroom is definitely an ingenious methodology that can be used by other English Language teachers throughout Malaysia to develop and improve the standard of the language. As we teach the children the language through games such as Tic Tac Toe, Word chain, Charade, Stop Box, therefore the children will slowly but in a very willingly manner learn the new words or the use of the language and the message we imbibe in into them during the lesson. All in all, I am very thankful to god for giving me this wonderful, exciting, challenging experience, as I would never forget the beautiful three days that I spent in the FELDA ADELA with the children. Last but not the least, in every camp that we attend, I always believe there will be some sort of bene ficial new experience, which will be attained by the participant, facilitators, organizers and even advisers. Each camp is a new journey for us. Hence, I have taken this as my starting point to my pathway toward being a “FUTURE EDUCATIONIST” (teacher).

Special Thanks to MR.G, Cik Fatimah Putih ; my Academic Advisor (P.A), Azuro, Anis and not forgetting all my fellow friends who put their heart and soul to make this camp a successful one………….THANK YOU ALL……………..

“Oioio Ice Ice Ice….Waahhh”



Written by: Ghandini Vijayasuriar , 3SPL

Lee Jun

Report For English Language Camp


I have three main objectives to be achieved personally in this camp after I know my students’ level of English. I am very happy that I have attained all these three objectives.

First, my students have intermediate level in reading, writing and listening English language. However, they have problems in speaking English. My aim is to see them to be able to speak in English spontaneously. As the result from this camp, they won the drama (2nd place) without having any written script.

Second, I want to make my students to become independence learners. Again, I am able to see the result. The students could spot our purposeful errors and corrected them accurately. For example: “ambulans” to “ambulance”. They are able to have self error-checking skill now.

Third, I want to apply students-centered teaching method. All the activities in classroom must involve students actively. As the result, we have score 14/15 for paper chase game, where students read the instructions in English publicly, and able to give the correct answers for every instruction.

(173 words)

Prepared by,

Lee Jun

ELC REPORT by Wardah Salim

A week before the camp I felt very happy and excited. I can?t stop from thinking what would be out there. But that week is not a perfect week for me. My grandmother had passed away and I got fever 2 days from our departure. Everything was so tensed but I still hope my days at Felda will give me an unforgettable memoirs. Friday, everything was ready, but the bus was late and me, still fighting with my fever and sadness. The journey was quite far and I felt very tired. But everything seems to change when we arrived there. Everything was unexpected. Before the camp, we had been told that the school where the camp will be held was small but now, such serene and peaceful scenery and the school was also quite big enough. First day of the camp nothing much happen but I get to know with my group members who are quite cooperative and I took that time to build a relationship with them. I have tried my best to be a good facilitator and my partner also was great. We managed to cooperate each other to handle the students. Well, it seemed that our efforts paid off when we become the best group for drama presentation. What I can say here is never under estimated Felda students as they can be someone that you can be proud of. Although the camp was tiring but I really enjoyed it!

SK Felda Tenggaroh 6, Mersing Johor by Nurul Akmal Hassan

The camp had given me some valuable experiences and memories. The camp was successful by the efforts from all people. Being a facilitator was a very wonderful experience, although it was tiring. For me, the tiredness was paid when I said goodbye to all the students. Watching their sad faces and greetings of thankful touched my heart deeply. All I hope is that the students had gained some useful knowledge as well as the most valuable experience throughout the camp. Lastly, I really hope that I will get one more chance to conduct such camp in the future.

Reflection paper about language camp A by Marianti Mohd Suhaimi

Personally, I think that I really enjoy this camp because I felt so happy through out this camp. From this camp, I have gained a lot of new experiences that can possibly help me in the future. I can also test my ability to handle little students and dealt with their behaviours that are different from ours. This camp has taught me to be more responsible and work hard in order to make things become successful. Cooperation is also important when it comes to group work like this. Actually, this camp asked us to work together as a team and try our best to make everything works well. I wish that I could have the opportunity to organize this kind of camp again in the future because it has given me a lot of sweet memories and it also shows our team spirit. Thank you to Mr. Ghazali that has helped us to make this camp works successfully. Not to forget, congratulations to all the organizing committees of language camp A 2004! We have tried our best and we hope that we can be the best!

Report by Mahfuzah

First of all I would like to thank all of the members in Camp A,the lecturers especially Mr. Ghazali, Miss Fatimah and Mr.Farouk.It was a good experience that I've enjoyed it so much.Being with the kids brought me back to my childhood memories.I was assigned to be the facilitator to Bugs Bunny's group.There were 13 of them altogether.They were so great that we've made a great team together.We've won three prizes and the kids were so glad that I was their facilitator.They said that they started to love English.That was really great because that's what one of the objective of the English Language Camp was held.Finally,Thank you very much.May Allah bless us all.

Report on English Language Camp by Aifaa

The English Language Camp held at Felda Tenggaroh 6 was by far the best experience that I've ever had. The journey that nearly took 3 hours was rather exhausting but the whole experience that I got there was worth all the time in the world. I was assigned as the facilitator for the first group. My dearest Garfield teams. Even though we only manage to win only one game which is the Garbage Busters but it taught them (and also me!) a lot about patience and team work. Honestly speaking, I discovered a lot about myself that I never even knew existed. For example, my close bond with the kids. Before this, I really dislike little kids and being there makes me look at myself in a new perspective altogether. I would like to take this opportunity to extend my greatest gratitude to Mr. Ghazali and Cik Fatimah for giving us the chance to experience the wonderful moments there at Felda Tenggaroh 6. Thank you.

ELC by Ang Chiew Chuan

First of all, the camp was indeed a very wonderful and educating experience. As a facilitator for one of the groups, I had some difficulty adapting to their level but in the end, I managed. Their level of English was astonishingly much better than what I had expected and all in all, it was a very fruitful experience. As the safety and security supervisor, there were not many casualties and thankfully most of the casualties were minor. As the unofficial Game Master, most of the facilitators did not encounter any problems due to the adequate explanation before the camp. -jimmy Ang Chiew Chuan

ELC Report by shahazatul maslina

As a Public Relation Officer, I have to deal with people who involves in the camp. When we were planning the camp, I have to deal with people at the faculty, harta bina, and also lecturers to find sponsors. when we execute the camp, I have to deal with lots of people especially the teachers of SK Tenggaroh 6 and also the community of Felda Tenggaroh 6.
The position gave me the opportunity to met with lots of people with different background.
It makes me realize that I have a lot of things to learn. The education that I received through lectures alone wont be able to complete me as human being.

Report from adlina mohamad

What more can I say. It had been one of the most wonderful experience in my life. It teaches us a lot of things. Feeling the love and care towards these innocent children. We worked really hard in bringing up the camp.Whatever the results are, I am happy and proud to be a part of the camp, as it teaches and gives me a valuable experience, and it brings us all the teslians closer than ever. We really miss the breathtakingly beautiful place, with it's kind and gorgeous people there.

Report of language camp A- Tiow Sing Pei

Well, i have to admit that i have learned a lot from this language camp. As a facilitator of Snoopy Group, i have learned how to handle kids which i have no experience before that. Kids need motivation to encourage them in using English, they needed to be praised and too, we need to lower down our level in order to suit their proficiency level. To make them understand of the games, what they need are more than mere instructions but also demonstrations before they can get the idea of what the game is. As the head of Sponsors of the camp, i also realised that finding funds to make the camp sucessful was a tough job, but with the help of the community members, we have create a miracle. Thanks to everyone, our lecturers, FELDA, the organising community, we have made it! And i have to say this camp really drew us closer to each other and cooperation is the most powerful too l!

From Azlina

I’m in charge of registration. But since the FELDA did
it, I only have to prepare their files. I have to put
in buddy journal, 15 A4 papers, program book, and
student’s tag in all the files. I’m the facilitator
for group Nemo. I’ very proud of them because they win
for The Most Creative Group, 2nd place for Amazing
Race, 3rd place for Treasure Hunt, 2nd place for
Garbage Buster and 1st place for passing can game.
They are very active and sporting. I enjoyed being a
facilitator even though at first I feel uncomfortable
and awkward mixing with kids. Overall, I like this camp.

From Angela Kwon

The one thing that I would really remember is
facilitating the Garfield kids. Conducting the games
(my favourite being Tic-Tac-Toe), teaching the group
cheer, guiding them during Buddy Journal and songs
session, organizing (and teaching!) them for the drama
was really memorable and an eye-opener.

Also, I was also in charge of the final station for
the Amazing Race (crossing the river), and a
checkpoint during Treasure Hunt. Besides that, of
course, like all facilitators, I helped in cleaning
up, arranging (or keeping) the chairs, and petty stuff
like cutting manila cards or mahjong paper.



The one thing that I would really remember is
facilitating the Garfield kids. Conducting the games
(my favourite being Tic-Tac-Toe), teaching the group
cheer, guiding them during Buddy Journal and songs
session, organizing (and teaching!) them for the drama
was really memorable and an eye-opener.

Also, I was also in charge of the final station for
the Amazing Race (crossing the river), and a
checkpoint during Treasure Hunt. Besides that, of
course, like all facilitators, I helped in cleaning
up, arranging (or keeping) the chairs, and petty stuff
like cutting manila cards or mahjong paper.

From Rachel Tan

From my perspective as an assistant secretary, everyone contributed selflessly to this camp. It was a miracle for all of us when it turned out to be a successful. Despite glitches here and there, all the activities were successfully conducted with some modifications due to time constraint and students’ proficiency but we learnt to work smart and adapt to situations. The entire atmosphere of the camp was wonderful as the facilitators did a superb job in mixing around and making everyone welcome. However, there is still room for improvement in the area of organization and especially in time management.

What I Did During The Language Camp? by JCMarrie Yusof @ Wilfred

I was supposed to be in charged of; the security and safety of the female students, in charged of the ‘Name Game’ and, facilitating the Pink Panther group, together with Subahshini. As the Head of Security, I had to checked the students out all the time, not only for security purpose but also to ensure that they do not skip out any activity. I am really thankful for the teachers (of SK. Tenggaroh 6) and the RELA people because their presence made my job easier.