The Forum Competition 2016

Reported by ELC

        The Forum Competition 2016 was successfully held at the YTL Hall on 5 April 2016. It was       organised by the English Language Centre to  promote the use of English, to encourage public speaking among students and to create students’ awareness on current and social issues. 

        With the objective of involving all the Senior students in the forum activity, it was made         compulsory as one of their speaking

activities in class. The  English teachers organised them into groups to research on the decided topics, conduct discussions, work on the scripts, practise and      present during the Activity Lesson. The process took months to complete. The best teams were then shortlisted to participate in the selection round    arranged from 28 March to 1 April 2016.

        After a competitive preliminary round, nine teams were selected to enter the finals. With a short introduction by the emcees, the panelists took turns to share their points of view on a variety of topics including education, social issues and lifestyle. This year a Q & A session was included at the end of each discussion. Each team had to respond impromptu to one question posed by one of the judges after a brief discussion among themselves. It served as a good opportunity for them to demonstrate their critical thinking skills and  fluency. 

        This year, we were honoured to have invited Mr Sri Kanda Raj, who was our school   English debate trainer, to be our chief judge. Mr Sri has got a lot of experience in debate competitions, as a debater as well as an adjudicator, nationally and internationally. After a musical interlude   presented by a group of students from J2  Washington, Mr Sri was invited to give some  comments to the participants. He said that the   judges had been impressed with the participants’ presentations as they all looked composed and  confident. They had presented good content with solid evidence rather than assumptions. They were also able to respond to each other from different perspectives instead of just delivering their own speeches. However, the participants were reminded not to restrict themselves to their own scripts.   Instead, they should be comfortable portraying themselves onstage. In brief, the judges were very proud of the students’ performance. 

Lim Jia Yun, Ruth (S 1 Adelaide)

        Being a Senior One  student, this was my first time participating in a forum    competition. To be honest, none of this was expected. We just concentrated on having fun and giving it our best shot. This aided us in the choice of an eye-catching topic that was very debatable in Malaysia. Talking about refugees, we had the opportunity to approach this topic through unique yet common perspectives shared by many in the society as well as enjoy the thrill of losing ourselves in the beauty of speaking. It was indeed a delightful experience to yet again stand out amidst all those who are older than us.

Cheh Qiao Yun (S2 Washington).

        This was the first time I participated in

a  forum   competition. At first, I was quite jumpy and scared, but it turned out to be a very fun and enjoyable experience in the end. My teammates had been dedicated and cooperative. We put in a lot of effort practising for the   competition. Getting a  consolation prize was a bonus to us. We truly appreciate the teamwork and  the chance given to us. It was a great experience and I hope I'll be lucky enough to be selected for the forum competition again next year!