Fun-tastic Race 2017

Much to the surprise of the first year students participating in the Fun-tastic race at UMS on Saturday, 4 November, learning English tenses and parts of the speech actually turned our to be 'good fun'. The students were all from UB00102 Communicative English Grammar,a foundation English course offered by the Centre for the Promotion of Knowledge and Language Learning (CPKLL).

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The 35 challengers tried their level best to communicate in English as they undertook ten challenges at ten stations located in the vicinity of CPKLL. Examples of the communicative challenges were 'describe and draw', charades, relaying a message, and riddles. The participants also enjoyed solving clues to find ten 'treasures' and taking wefies with these 'treasures' along the way to different stations.

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Many of the participants said that they learned more about the English languages and teamwork from taking part in the race. When asked to comment on the event, one participant responded, "It's really fantastic! Love it! it can improve our communication skills in English, team spirit, and problem solving skills". Judging from the positive responses from the participants, this event evidently transformed the shy low proficiency students into active users of English as the constraints of a formal teacher-centred classroom gave way to experiential learning and gamification.

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The fastest team completed the race in one and hour hours and won the first prize of RM200. The Chairperson of Funtastic Race 2017 committee, Ms. Loh Yoke Len,, pointed out that "The Fun-tastic Race made every participant a winner as they all contributed to the challenges and overcame them together as a team".

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The UMS management and the Dean of CPKLL, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Jualang Azlan Gansau are very supportive of the student-centred learning English activities outside the classroom. Besides, the Fun-tastic race, The 'Say it in English' Campaign has also organized a public speaking course (Speech Craft) in conjunction with the University Toastmaster Club, a short video competition, and a 'Wonder Wall' inspirational message competition. More activities are planned for next semester, such as a Film and Fiction club for lovers of books and movies.