DURING THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE CAMP'S DAY (LANGUAGE CAMP A)

             There were a lot of unexpected things happened and surprised us during the language camp’s day. So, it was not such a good start for us. Yet, we were very optimistic about it. As for me, my feet trembled really hard and I got butterflies in my stomach. It was a nerve wrecking moment for me at first as I felt really nervous and afraid that I might crewed up all the things that had been planned. As time slowly passed by, I started to adapt myself into the situation.

         The first activity on that day was “Ice-breaking” activity. In “Ice-breaking” activity, all participants needed to introduce themselves among the group members by telling their names, schools and hobbies. It was an awkward moment where the students were not very cooperative and shy to speak especially in English. Perhaps, they were not used to active type of learning. I also had difficulty with one of my students where she could not understand English or even Malay language. Hence, I need to seek her school’s teacher help. I needed to watch my choice of words and pace of speaking while communicating or giving instructions to them. However, all the students started to participate actively during the “Charades” activity. They were really enjoying themselves during that activity. They were very competitive to each other when they knew that all activities would be given marks if they won the game and the highest accumulated marks would be announced as the winner. It was the same situations when “Win or Lose” activity been conducted. In addition, all the activities allowed them to move around.

        It was a vice-versa when “Tandem Writing” activity was conducted. The mood started to slow down. The students started to feel sleepy and restless. They were not interested in that activity and not contributed any ideas what story they should write. In addition, that activity was considered as hard for them as most of them had low proficiency in English. Therefore, I helped them to write the story for them in conditions that they had to contribute their ideas even tough it was in Malay language. After that, I asked them to take rest and have their lunch to regain their energy back. After they gained their energy back, I asked them to prepare skits and they needed to perform the skits in front of the judges. At first, they felt really shy and timid, but after a while, they slowly changed and hey had fun practice the skits together. I started to realise that all the students would emits good energy as they can move around and it was vice versa when activity that needed them to sit and think.

           In conclusion, that day was a well spent. Even though, we encountered a lot of unexpected things, but we really put our effort and tried our best to ensure the language camp succeed.