The English Singing Contest

The English Singing Contest
Morris Chang April 14,2007

This week Tuesday afternoon, my school held an English singing contest which we have been having for several years. This means it’s become a part of our school tradition. In order to let my students prepare well, this contest is put into the second semester school schedule. All classes are highly encouraged and expected to participate.

In the afternoon at my school there are three teaching periods. So, every two grades were allocated only one period. The agenda for the contest was very tight. Luckily, good preparations were made well so everything ran very smoothly.

I was touched by what my colleagues had done and how my students performed. Not only was the equipment more adequate the high-quality projector, laptop and amplifier, than that of previous years, but also the students’ English ability was better than last year. All the homeroom teachers did their best to guide their students. All of the participants performed well. They presented their unique, different goodness.

Having this singing contest we even found students’ new talent. It’s an awesome discovery.

You could also feel how good my colleagues are by the props, costumes, and man-made caraoke that the teachers prepared for their students. The most impressive was the performance of the first and second graders. Marvelous! You can’t even imagine how well they did with their little English ability.

Once again you can find the magic power in English songs.
Even though to be a quasi-bilingual school is the goal I set for Dau-shiang, I admitted 4 years ago that it couldn’t be carried out. The main reason is that people, whether children or adults, here have little need or drive to work on learning English. It is pity! But fact is fact! There is little space can be changed with my power. But I won’t randomly raise the white flag: I go on doing what my colleagues and I can do in learning English. And English songs are one of strategies I like to use. I hope they can catch my idea and keep learning English, at least in a fun and interesting way.