Language Camp B by Jacqueline Limantan Rantai (During)

During

            On the day, we need to wake up early in the morning and prepared the needs for the camp. This is because the event started at 8.30 a.m and our bus departed at 7a.m. Luckily, all transportation to D05 had been arranged, thanks to the members who offering us the ride. The journey to SMK Kota Masai 2 took us almost one hour. Upon the arrival, we immediately went to the hall and settled everything before the camp started. However, we encountered technical problems from the P.A system which cause the event to start late. Thankfully, our emcees and program director managed to handle the situation efficiently.

We started the camp by dividing the students into their assigned group facilitator. My group name is Nemo, yes, the cute orange Disney fish and my group was the smallest group out there which had only 7 members. Nevertheless, they gave good cooperation and participations during the camp even though some of them were shy.

There are few problems that I encountered with the students during the activities. Firstly, they had trouble understanding English instructions. I need to keep on repeating the instructions slowly and use the simplest English. Somehow, we need to always remember that the students are L2 learners and rarely expose to English instructions. Secondly, they had difficulty communicating using English. Most of the time, they tend to mix English with Bahasa Malaysia (rojak language) during the conversation. However, I respect their effort for trying to use English whenever they speak with me. As facilitator, we need to emphasis the use of English in daily conversation by keep on speaking in English even though the students speak in Bahasa Malaysia with you. Lastly, the students were having difficulty expressing their ideas in writing during tandem writing activity. Some of the students in my group, are forced by their teacher to enter this camp because of their low English grades. Therefore, they need guidance from me especially in grammar and sentence- structured. Consider that the participants have low English proficiency, the activity should be given more time to complete.

Nevertheless, the camp was a complete success. All the students in my group were happy to participate in this activity and they would love to come again.