Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s forum competition structure was modified where only Senior One and Senior Two students were involved, and both the preliminary and final rounds took place online in May. This annual competition is held with the objectives of promoting the use of English, encouraging public speaking among students and creating students’ awareness on current and social issues.
The participating panelists, comprised of a chairperson, three speakers and a reserve in each team, have a free hand to choose any topics according to the themes given. This year, despite the restrictions of full school closures, the preliminary round attracted 28 teams in total to partake in the online discussions, which was very encouraging. Each speaker shared their different viewpoints on interesting and relevant topics such as The Impact of Social Media, Childhood Obesity and The New Norm of Education. At the end of each presentation, the panelists had to respond impromptu to one question posed by the judges individually. Besides evaluating the in-depth knowledge of the topics presented, this Q & A session also served as a golden opportunity for participants to demonstrate their critical thinking skills and fluency. Even though the participants were not able to have a discussion face-to-face, they intelligently exploited the convenience of their digital devices for information exchange among themselves, and confidently expressed their individual opinions to impress the judges in the virtual environment without much difficulty.
Three best teams from each level were shortlisted for the finals held on 27 May 2021, based on their outstanding performance in terms of content, language, style, and so on. Despite some unforeseen circumstances, the competition went very smoothly. The judges had a hard time deciding the finalists as well as the winners. All in all, the participants were applauded for their amazing presentations and were encouraged to continue to improve their skills for more effective discussions in the near future.
Eugene Gan Ming Tao (S1 Athens)
Since I was young, I always had trouble when presenting, but this time I was determined to change that. During the preparation, since my crew and I practised for a relatively minimal amount of time, during the competition I felt a surge of nervousness go through me. However, I had to do my best so I pushed myself to reduce my anxiety. In the end, we placed third. I was extremely surprised when I was awarded the Best Speaker out of all the panel speakers. This experience really helped me to grow as a person, and I will try even harder next time.
Emily Wong Wei Lyn (S1 Wellington)
Firstly, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to my English teacher Mrs. Siow for guiding and encouraging us during our preparation. It was a very unique experience as we had to have our practices online. Despite these challenges, we tried our best. I would like to congratulate and thank my teammates for the great teamwork. I’m truly honoured and glad to be able to receive this Best Chairperson Award. Special thanks to all the English teachers at ELC for organising this meaningful event. It was indeed a great opportunity and learning experience for me.
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