On 27th March, 2019, the English Language Centre (ELC) supported the UM Language and Culture Day, organized by the Faculty of Arts and Humanities (FAH), to promote cultural diversity by setting up the ELC cultural game booth and hosting a workshop on developing skills in English news writing. Both activities increased students’ interest in learning English and provided opportunities for speaking, listening and writing practices in different contexts.
In the game booth, students took part in various interesting English games such as tongue twisters, taboo, mission impossible, a spelling bee and trivia. Students had fun speaking in English and gained prizes for winning the games. Students enjoyed game-based learning and found these games entertaining for English speaking practice.
In the News Writing Workshop, the facilitator adapted a process approach to developing students’ skills in writing a news report. After introducing the fundamentals of news writing, students were interactively guided through the steps of constructing questions, collecting information and organizing useful information to produce a news report. Students were given feedback on their writings and hoped to have more similar workshops to improve their English writing skills.
Overall, students found learning English language and culture can be interesting and practical. They were also excited to learn about many different cultures and languages on the UM Language and Culture Day.
