Students in Indonesia learn English from their kindergarten years right up to university level, but end up unable to speak fluently because the language is not used outside of the classroom. Batam is an Indonesian island that has become an industrial zone, with many foreign companies operating there, and a reasonable command of English is important for job prospects there. We have been helping children in some schools in Batam with extracurricular English lessons, to give them a chance of competing for jobs at the same level as students from better schools or those who can afford tuition in the language.
We have found that teaching through singing is a promising method. At first, songs were used to break the children’s inhibition, to get them out of their shell, and to set a fun mood for the class. Later, songs became more than just a mood-setter; it was used to convey the lesson and the words to be used for the day. We found that the children learned the English songs very fast even without understanding them at first. They enjoyed singing and could remember all the words of the song better than all lessons taught conventionally. So this gave birth to the plan to develop a curriculum to help Indonesian students learn English through songs and other activities. That is how we began started working on Sing Your English.
The lyrics to complement first-level lessons have been written and the music for these 24 songs has been commissioned. Sing Your English should be a complete extra-curricular English program that can be used in any Indonesian school to complement their English program.