Reported by ELC
The 4th Selangor and Kuala Lumpur Eight Chinese Independent Secondary Schools Combined English Forum 2016 was held successfully at Pin Hwa High School on 13th August 2016 from 9.00am to 2.30pm. This competition was organized by the United Chinese School Committees Association of Selangor and Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur and co-organised by Pin Hwa High School, Klang. Hin Hua High School team formed by Lim Jia Yun, Ruth, Ng Bren Den, Cheryl Chan Yan Ni, Teh Kai Hung and Ada Lee Yuan Ying, all from S1 Adelaide, won the Second Runner-up, whilst Lim Jia Yun, Ruth, won the Best Chairperson Award. They beamed with great delight as they came up on-stage to receive their prizes.
The objectives of this forum competition are to improve the level of proficiency in English, particularly in their speaking skills amongst students in the Independent Chinese Secondary Schools, to provide an opportunity for students to showcase their public speaking talents, to provide a platform for interactions between students and to raise their awareness on current and social issues.
The topic presented by our school team was on 'Refugees in Malaysia.' The panelists played their roles as a refugee teacher, an UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner) representative and an ordinary Malaysian citizen who lives close to a few refugee families in Malaysia. Some of the issues they touched on were the problems faced by refugees, the effort taken by the UNHCR in providing a comfortable life for them, and the concerns of the Malaysian citizens on the increasing number of refugees in Malaysia.
During the closing ceremony, Dr. Yap Sin Tian, the chairman of the United Chinese School Committees Association of Selangor and Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur, was called upon to deliver a speech. Dr Yap stressed that Chinese Independent Secondary Schools do not only emphasise the importance of learning Chinese but also actively promote the learning of Bahasa Malaysia as well as English. Students who are willing to make a concerted effort and adopt the right learning approaches will be able to overcome barriers and have an excellent grasp of these three languages.
The esteemed panel of adjudicators were also invited to give feedback on the teams’ performances. They unanimously agreed that they had been impressed and amazed by the students’ presentations, and congratulated all the participants on their competence and a flair for English language. They also reminded the participants that they had to be careful with the selection of the topics. They were advised to choose their topics which were catchy and relevant, so that they would not confine themselves and were able to express their ideas from different perspectives. In addition, they had to read widely in order to tackle the current issues thrown at them during the Q & A session.The adjudicators even suggested that the first session of presentations could be cut short as students are well-trained by their teachers and they can rehearse their speeches. Therefore, more weightage should be given to the Q & A session, where they could be truly judged according to their content knowledge, quick thinking, spontaneous response and language proficiency.
Again, we congratulate our school representatives on their great achievement and look forward to their constant effort in self-improvement.