Goducate’s Sing Your English (SYE) Program has been taken up by 10 schools in Batam, where some 1000 children are enjoying learning English through song. At some of these schools classes are also conducted for the teachers.
SYE was conceptualized in 2011 when it was noticed how songs could break children’s inhibitions about speaking in a foreign language. The program also introduces “fun learning”, quite different from the conventional method of teaching English with its focus on grammar. SYE hopes to slowly change the mind-set of the students and let them enjoy English first as a language to be spoken and not as a difficult subject to be learned.
While the curriculum was being developed, SYE was introduced into many underprivileged communities in several parts of Indonesia as a free program. By now over 100 communities have benefited from this program.
The SYE package for schools was introduced in Batam in 2014 as an extracurricular subject. The fees collected from the schools will help of offset some of the costs of the program to the underprivileged communities. The SYE facilitators have found it joy to see how much the students look forward to the class and how keen they are to use the vocabulary they have learnt. We hope that SYE will continue to develop the self-confidence of these children and help them lose their fear of speaking English.
