Goducate has been developing a Sing Your English (SYE) program to teach English to children in Indonesia. To test whether the program would be well received in countries where English is hardly heard, we took it to Myanmar in November, where we found that the children (and even their parents) took to the songs, and were soon able to sing them without accompanying music.
As a further test, early this month we tried it out in Cambodia. A group of Singaporeans who went to the Goducate Children’s Home for the opening of the new boys’ dorm brought the program to two of the villages where staff and the older children from the Home go to teach English.
For the children in the villages, the program was entirely different from the conventional type of classes they attend in school. SYE is conducted in a way that allows children to have fun while learning English, and without the stress of having to sit tests and do homework. Accompanying the songs were actions, games, and also prizes. The children enjoyed themselves and could be heard singing on their way home.
Not only that, but a dental team from Singapore that visited the Home and the villages a couple of weeks later found the village kids still singing the songs.
