Series of English Conversation
Van Deventer Maas Indonesia consistently held a capacity building face to face and online program, based on the needs of grantees. As the commitment, VDMI create a Series of English Conversation with the theme ” Enjoyable Speak English, one of the important languages as a part of Learning Process” every Tuesday and Thursday, on March 19, March 21, March 26, and March 28 2024 at 01:00 to 03:00 PM via virtual meeting Zoom. This activity aims to allow VDMI Families to be able to confidently speak English that focuses on daily activities as a topic, enjoyable and lots of practice to make you feel more confident when you have to speak in English. The series was facilitated by Ersa Izmi Safitri, Alumna VDMS as beneficiary, from Swadaya Gunung Jati University, Cirebon.
In the 1st week, there was an intro to conversation, greeting, introductions, and responding. English is the first language of international communication, so this online program is a safe place to use English as much as possible. If there are any mistakes, some corrections will be given by facilitator and to be a learning process. So, everyone can learn to speak English fluently. The best practice is to try talking to yourself, or try to read something aloud to train the pronunciations. They have to pay attention to some rules. When we try to speak with other people, try not to be a dry speaker by applying the three rules: initiate; elaborate; and reciprocate.
In the 2nd week participants discussed reading comprehension and vocabulary using texts about students’ daily experiences and people around them to enhance their understanding and engagement The second session, participants collected more vocabulary by reading some short passages. In reading sometimes, we cannot translate the words one by one. So, we have to arrange the sentence in one phrase using a simple past tense and we have to understand what we write by using a point of view from the reader. Facilitator also provided the idioms and phrases so participants could identify each word in paragraphs. Understanding idioms is like unraveling a linguistic puzzle. They are phrases or expressions that convey meanings beyond their literal interpretation, often rooted in cultural or historical contexts.
In the 3rd week VDMI family continue to improve their writing skill. The topic of writing aims to encourage them to write about themselves. We can start our essay by introducing ourselves, this part we have to be genuine and unique. Second is about personal questions, we have to highlight the point of “what are your talents?” by sharing a little but not too much (keep humble). Next, about “what makes you different or special?” If you confuse what you want to write, you can make a brief list of talents, brainstorm your ideas, know yourself, from that you can find what makes you special. Third, narrow your topic. Pick the one that is your strength and the most you need. The Simple Past tense is used to talk about actions or events that happened and were completed at a specific point in the past. Whether the verb is regular or irregular determines how we form the past tense.
In the 4th week, this final session the participants were asked to practice following the three days of series of English conversation materials that had been presented before. Also, they were asked to describe the personal characters and others personalities. The purpose of it is to describe someone’s personality in a daily life. In the end, Yesika (UNIMED), Memo Edward (UKAW), and Silvester Joan (UNTAN) shared their personal thoughts through joining the Series of English Conversation. They expressed their excitement and what they had learned from the sessions. Moreover, participants thank VDMI for facilitating the online capacity building and expect there will be another similar beneficial program.