Organising An English Camp

ORGANISING AN ENGLISH CAMP

Iwan Jazadi, Ardyansyah Putra, Fetty Yulia Utari, Murdani, Sugandi, Susanti, & Mahmud Dianto

STKIP Hamzanwadi Selong

INTRODUCTION

(by Iwan Jazadi)

           

English Camp is an activity whereby students spend a certain period of time (at least one night) together by using English as the only language of communication. The camp aims to increase students’ ability, especially in speaking, to nurture friendship among students and lecturers, to create the discipline in students’ and lecturers’ mental and actual use of English, and to increase the confidence especially for students.

The students are divided into divisions (secretariate, logistics, language policy, field management, etc.), each of which consists of a few students. The students as participants fulfil their daily needs and obligations in accordance with their divisions. However, formal classroom sessions are also provided in ways that support all students’ activities. All these are, of course, communicated in English. Thus, this program is a contextualised, real life-based English learning program. This article reports the organising of English Camp by the Association of English Department Students of Hamzanwadi College of Education from 26 up to 29 May 2011.   

Why is English Camp? Students of English Department speak English well. It is normal. Nobody is surprised. Students of English Department do not speak English well. It is not normal. Everyone is surprised. However, the latter usually still happens in the English Department of a college or university. Students generally practice English in limited settings. Lecturers still mix English with Indonesian though when teaching higher semester students. Students are not totally exposed to all real life contexts of English use although they will serve as English teachers in the future.

On the other hand, teachers with high proficiency in English are highly demanded today. The government has launched Pilot International Standard School (PISS) in which English should be used as the language of instruction in certain subjects and as daily language of instruction. In Sumbawa Regency, two out of four PISS schools have taken a few measures to upgrade their students’ English competence. One measure is by sending their students even teachers to study in Pare, a village in Kediri Regency of East Java Province. In there, the students are immersed 24 hours in learning, teaching and using English for a certain period of time (one week or more). On return from the program, the participants feel more confident in using English.

The problem is that the confidence usually fades away as the memory of the program passes by. In other words, there is a real need for PISS schools and other quality-oriented schools in Sumbawa of an institution that caters for full time fun English learning. Being aware of this, Paracendekia NW Education Foundation that manages English Department of Hamzanwadi College of Education Selong, Sumbawa Campus, is challenged to offer fun and effective learning of English to many consumers in Sumbawa and beyond. However, to respond to the demand, the Foundation has to provide a large number of teachers with a good command in English.   

“YES, WE CAN,” This is what I said regarding whether or not our institution can fulfil the demand of a large number of English teachers in Sumbawa. I believe that my students in English Department are great and capable of serving in creating English using, teaching and learning environment. But, we need learning intensification to consolidate students’ knowledge and proficiency in English, build group dynamics, and nurture the sense of teacher professionalism. English Camp done during semester breaks, weekends, in addition to other programs such as English only classroom environment and English medium dormitory program, is one of the answers. This is what I explained to my students as camp members in the preparation meeting of English Camp (Monday, 23-05-11).

     

MEETING CONCLUSION FOR ENGLISH CAMP

(Notes taken by Ardyansyah Putra, Chief of Committee, Monday, 23-05-2011)

Rules:

-No other languages

-Come on time

-Rp 1000/mistake for speaking other languages

-No love among members

-Give clear information for the absence

Preparation:

-three glasses of rice for each member

-three gallons to fill mineral water (for drinking and cooking)

-two stoves

-each member must submit Rp 5,000

For other stuff like clothes and other utensils, each member can bring them from their own home. The stuff above should be ready tomorrow, and so should the collecting of money. The event will be held at our beloved college starting at 07.00 AM in the morning.

Next agenda      : Tuesday, 24th 2011

Agenda               : Timeline, preparation for foods, drinks and other stuff

For you who haven't joined yet, you can register to me, Ardyansyah Putra, and must attend the meeting tomorrow. Thanks before... If you have anything to ask, please feel free to send me a message at this number: 081237511638.

MENU DURING THE FIRST ENGLISH CAMP

(by Fetty Yulia Utari & Murdani)

Recently English Department of STKIP Hamzanwadi Sumbawa Campus has established a new programme which is called English Camp. English camp is established to improve our proficiency in English and build solid togetherness among English students. Someone who wants to join in English camp has to speak English with other people in English camp area. Another language is forbidden in the English camp area. English camp enables us to make an atmosphere like living overseas. So, everybody just speaks English.

The first English camp took place in STKIP Hamzanwadi Selong Sumbawa Campus for four days. During the camping, all participants did everything together such as studying, praying, sleeping, eating, and cooking. Cooking was a particularly important and interesting activity which we used to do together. Every day we helped our chef to prepare menu for all participants. We cooked three times a day, namely for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Because of camping, we just cooked simple food for our menu. We had to prepare menu which was easy to make, with ingredients that suited our fund, but of course it had to be delicious.

As long as we were in camping, almost every day we ate similar menu. It happened because we suited the menu with available ingredients such as rice, tofu or soybean curd, soybean cake or tempeh, salted fish, onion, garlic, cabbage, and carrot. Besides, we suited the menu with available cooking utensils. Sometimes it was difficult for us to cook because of the limited cooking utensils that we brought from home. However that’s a camp. We had to be smart to change the function of everything.

Because of eating similar menu every day, all of participants might get bored. That’s why our master chef, Murdani, tried to mix and combine several ingredients in order to create different tastes. Here’s the recipe from our chef of English camp for our lunch. It’s very simple and easy to make. Let’s check it out.

Stirred fried soybean cake (Tumis Tempeh)

Ingredients: soybean cakes, cabbages, carrots, long beans, salt, tomato sauce, soy sauce, oyster sauce, garlic, onions, MSG (Monosodium Glutamate), and cooking oil

The processes to go through are:

1. Chop cabbage, carrots, long beans into small pieces, put onto the plate.

2. Chop soybean cake into small pieces and then fry until half-cooked, drained and then put onto the plate.

3. Slice garlic and onions.

4. Warm cooking oil, after that put in the slices of garlic and onions. Stir up till they produce fragrant smell.

5. Season with tomato sauce, soy sauce, oyster sauce then stir up until the seasoning is mixed.

6. Put in the pieces of cabbages, carrots, long beans and fried soybean cakes into seasoned mixture. Stir up till the colour of vegetables changes, then add salt, MSG and water sufficiently.

7. Wait until 5 or 10 minutes. The cooking is ready to be served with rice.

     

That was our menu in the first English camp. There were some more recipes that we used to cook during the camp, including fried tofu plus soybean cake with soy sauce and vegetable for dinner, salted fish plus soybean cake with soy sauce and vegetable for breakfast. All of ingredients were cooked with a similar process. Even though the menu was simple, we really enjoyed it in our togetherness. Hopefully English Camp can exist on and on. So, we can obtain many experiences such as in the first English Camp.

ENGLISH CAMP FIELD MANAGEMENT

(by Sugandi)

The field management was a division of committee in our English Camp. It takes control of the field of campus as our camp location. It means, whatever the other divisions need to do outside the camp area or within the area the facility of which is not ready should be consulted or handled by the field management. Thus, this task was actually rather difficult compared to the other divisions. In this case, I would like to share my experience as the one who was responsible for the field.

I was coordinator of the field management division. I had to control and looked after the field. There were some members of the field management division, but we still found it difficult in managing the entire field. For example, many of the members went to bed at 11 and 12 p.m. While at such times I usually already slept. So, I could not look after the field fully. Although I was accompanied by some members, I still got difficulties because almost none of them cared about the field without their coordinator’s involvement.

There were some other jobs done by field management division. One was preparing any utentils needed by other divisions. For instance, when the logistic division coordinator needed a knife of stove which was readily available, the field management should play a role in preparing it. The other obligation of the field management was to maintain security in the entire camp location. It was more difficult obligation for field management because I had to check around the location before going to sleep even without any friends to make sure that everything was ok. I was the only man in the field management division, while other members were my female friends.

In addition, before the program began, my division formulated the rules of the program. The formulation was discussed, edited and then agreed by other members. Thus, the points agreed had to be obeyed by all members including the chief of committee. These are my experiences during the English Camp. I hope this short article can give benefit to the readers.

      

MISTAKE AND FINE IN THE ENGLISH CAMP

(by Susanti)

In English Camp, every participant has to be totally immersed in using English. However, concession applies to the use of common Islamic expressions in Arabic such as Assalamu’alaikum or insya Allah. In addition, when a participant really does not know the word in English in saying or explaining something, he/she is allowed to use Indonesian words, but he/she must first say “in Indonesian...” If a participant fails the requirement, he/she has to pay some fine of one thousand rupiahs. To manage the discipline, a language police is appointed, whose duty includes identifying the violators, write the word or words used in the violation, and collect the fine.

I was appointed to serve as the language police in the English Camp that was held from 26-29 May 2011. I observed that generally the program agendas were well accomplished. All mistakes were within normal limits. Almost all mistakes were accidental or spontaneous. I noted that non-English words used by participants include Indonesian, Sumbawanese, Sasak, Javanese, and Sundanese, as shown in the following table:

No	Students’ Initials	Mistakes	Languages
1	AP	Eneng sedekah	Sumbawanese
2	FYU	Curut	Javanese
3	HD	We can find lagi	English + Indonesian
4	J	Le’ les sio	Sumbawanese
5	JA	Lempar serasok	Indonesian + Sumbawanese
6	M	Ini kekerasan dalam rumah tangga	Indonesian
7	S	Bolang mo	Sumbawanese
8	SK	Aya naon	Sundanese
9	Su	Use jilbab	English + Indonesian
10	YW	Singga’	Sasak

The table above is evidence that mistakes were made ​​by the participants. The table explained about who made the mistakes, what mistake was said, and the languages as the sources of the mistakes.

Aware or not, the existence of that rule could make the participants discipline. Even though punishment applies, the participants were not afraid to speak. With this rule also, all the participants discussed all things in their divisions in English. Girls always did gossips in English too. No other languages could be found in the Camp environment except English and formulaic Islamic Arabic. In all activities English was used even in the kitchen, bathroom and bedroom. Even, there were some participants who talked during sleep by using English. All of the things above increased speaking ability and confidence in all participants.

That camp could improve the discipline of the participants, because in that environment all the participants were trained for being discipline. Our daily activities included getting up on time in the morning, taking morning prayer, taking bath, having breakfast together, receiving  lessons which were interspersed with games, having  a break for noon prayer, having  lunch and afternoon prayer, getting the materials or lessons until before sunset, then taking early evening and night prayers. Afterwards, we did free activities to improve our English, and finally we took a long rest or sleep on at 23:00. All activities were scheduled properly and neatly. So, no time was wasted.

All of the things above are advantages that we got from the English Camp activities. They were really extraordinary. Those activities really enhanced the knowledge, attitude and skills of participants. The most important thing is that this event can provide an enormous influence for the regular lectures and daily interaction in STKIP Hamzanwadi Sumbawa Campus especially for English department students, because the rule for paying one thousand for one mistake continues to apply every day.

CLOSING COMMENTS: ENGLISH CAMP? WHY NOT!

(by Mahmud Dianto)

Its name is English camp. At first many English students doubted about this program because they thought this camp was the same as other camps. Usually when we talk about C-A-M-P, there are many assumptions about it: dangerous, extreme, hard, spending a lot of time and money, and  also many ghosts, hii... upss! Thus, it stands to reason that a few weeks ago before this program began, some English students posted their question and protest about it in the Fantastic Four Writing Community Facebook. After the program began, the worry suddenly changed as a strong motivation to accelerate our English.

In fact English Camp is one of Dr. Jazadi’s program to develop our English performance as he would recruit us as English teachers in his “Special English additional lesson program” at the Pilot International Standard Junior High School 1 Of Sumbawa. In the English camp we had to be discipline in using English language all the time. During the four days of the English camp, we felt like we were overseas, in an English speaking country, where we do not have other choices but to use English in our life. Thus, it is unfortunate that those wanting to improve their English do not join English Camps such as ours.