news@kjgeneration: December 2010

Draw, cut, paste, pencil, colours, stick, glue, scissors, underline, paper, object, look, erase and much more were among the vocabularies used to help participants to bring out their hidden talents and creativity.

About thirty participants were enthusiastically drawing, colouring and were learning the ways and means to create some beautiful arts and crafts.

“Though it looks like an art class but it is actually an English programme with a difference.They were given the opportunity to learn and express their desires, emotions and creativity as they become so engrossed in the special programme.

“Simple instructions in English were used as part of language learning process,’’ said Josephine Kumar, Principal and assistant Manager of KJ Generation Resources (KJGR).

The event was a two days school holiday programme themed: “Learning English with Arts and Crafts” organized by KJGR at its premises in Gua Musang, Kelantan.

The participants age from three to 28 years old consist of nursery kids, school students and young adults.

According to Josephine, the participants from various background and culture including Malay, Chinese, Indian and Orang Asli took part in portrait and cartoon drawing including different facial expressions, colouring and creating crafts using old magazines, books and cut outs.

The participants also learned many vocabularies during the sessions conducted by a group of twelve professional trainers from USA, Australia, Finland and South Korea.

English was used continuosly as a form of communication to teach arts and crafts which made the langguage programme active and alive within the classroom.

Team leader, James Alen who is an artist said, this programme is another creative way to stimulate the imagination and the creativity of the individuals which subsequently helps them to learn English easily and effortlessly.

"In this way, it can also help them to develop communication ability through teamwork. Whilst receiving compliments and praises in English for their artwork, the participants will also learn to respond by saying some basic greetings," he said.

Josephine believes, using profesional trainers, mostly from English speaking countries occasionally will help improve the linguistic competence of the participants because they are forced to listen attentively, receive instructions from those trainers and respond to them intelligently.

"This is our continues effort since we began our English training centre one year ago,'' she said adding, besides their normal English class, KJGR have successfully organized few programmes such as, "Towards Destiny", "Fun English Lessons with Native Americans" and "Using Music to Learn English".

She explained, KJGR wants to impart and achieve three most important elements in these students through all their programmes, one is to improve the students communicative skills, next is to build confidence in each one of them and finally to shape their character to be better citizens.

She said that the event is also to promote understanding and building relationship with one another from various background, cultures and traditions inline with the 1 Malaysia aspiration.

A participant, Rokimin Uda Din, 28, who desires to travel abroad said that the event has help boost his confidence and self esteem. "I want to improve my English in order to be able to communicate boldly and fluently with English native speakers".

Another participant, Chong Tao Ying, 14, who loves to draw said, it is impressive to know that he could learn English through arts and crafts.

For more information or update on other events, email KJGR at kjgenerationres@gmail.com or contact 016-4734313 or 016-4687414.

ends.