Category: English Teaching

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.

Teaching English is one of the programs that Goducate runs in Indonesia, where students learn the language in school, but have little practice in oral English and are thus not confident in speaking the language. For children, Goducate uses Sing Your English, teaching the language largely through song. For adults, Goducate started an informal English conversational program in Medan called English Corner, during which students were encouraged to chat freely.

In 2014, we changed the name of the program to E-Talk. As with the English Corner, the aim is to make learning English enjoyable and effective, but activities have been introduced. In E-Talk, English is learnt through singing, playing games, watching movies, acting, cooking, and taking part in activities such as arts, crafts, and sports. It is a flexible program that can be modified to suit type of student. We have used it to teach various groups of learners, such as people in orphanages, schools, businesses and other organizations. The motto is: more mistakes, more learning, more fun!

Another feature of E-Talk is a segment called “Life Talk”. Here time is allotted for facilitators to talk to the students on a personal level, to get to know and understand them better. “E-Talk, especially Life Talk, makes me feel like I am not in a class but there is a sense of being part of a family when we are divided into small groups and talk about life. I am always looking forward every week to attend the sessions because I can freely express what I want to say in Life Talk. The facilitator is not really like a teacher but a brother to all of us. E-Talk is not an English course but a family, a community,” says Miss Desi Naibaho,a marketing manager for a Sushi Restaurant.

Yet another comment came from Dr. Vince Ratnawati, a professor at the University of Riau. He said, “The teaching method is different from all the English courses I have attended. It is a fun-filled method that I even applied with my university students. At the end of each session, I expect our team, Blue Team, to win and have candies from our facilitator, hahaha! I realized, competition is a fun approach in learning.”

E-Talk is being enjoyed in Batam, Pekanbaru, Jakarta, Bandung, and Medan and we hope to expand. “The sessions are unique and fun,” says Mr. Kun Lun, a banker, “I even encourage my subordinates to join.”

*Our guest writer is Cindy Presquito, an E-Talk facilitator

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.