Author: Myrel

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.

It’s been more than a year now since Goducate started using simple English songs to teach the language to young children in Indonesia. The songs are used not merely as an ice-breaker to loosen the children’s inhibitions or to set a cheerful mood for the class. They are used as the main text for the lessons, which are intended to impart enjoyment rather than fear of learning the English language. The children learn songs fast, and they easily become familiar with the words, even without understanding them initially. This led us to develop a curriculum for English lessons through songs and other fun activities that would help children improve their language learning.

The Sing Your English (SYE) program is an extracurricular program, with no examinations and grading, to reinforce the fun aspect of learning English. The students are taught to use words and phrases related to those that are in the songs, and in this way to pick up conversational English.

Goducate has already introduced the SYE program in several cities in Indonesia, such as Batam, Pekanbaru, and Medan, and we hope in Bandung later this year. The SYE program has been used not only within the four walls of a classroom, but also in communities and through English camps. It has been well received in all these settings.

To speed up curriculum development, and to allow me to focus on teaching students and training teachers, a content team of four people was put together in the Philippines to create the songs and the manuals. The team started work in June this year and so far it has completed both writing and editing the manual for Book 1 and is halfway through the manual and workbook for kindergarten children.

The books are targeted at Indonesian children. It is possible that they will have to be modified slightly for children in other countries. Meanwhile, the SYE teachers are providing the content team with feedback, to help them make the books as appropriate as possible.