Resolution in the style of Children from UMM English Class

Author : Humas | Monday, December 30, 2019 13:56 WIB

The participants seemed happy to participate in the art performance event. (Photo: Special)

BAU Auditorium Stage, University of Muhammadiyah Malang (UMM) in the morning, Sunday (12/29/2019), again boisterous with the babble of 7-12 years old children who participated in Art Performance. The event that as ending of the English for Young Learners (EYL) program presented various English skills. They displayed their skill in singing, poetry, and role-playing.

As the top event of English learning that had been held for ten meetings since the end of last October, this event was designed to welcome the New Year 2020 with a resolution that was more confident in achieving goals.

Every Kid Deserves to be a Star, deliberately chosen to be the theme in Art Performance this time. "The highlight of the EYL activity this time is one proof that with diverse abilities, students must become more confident that by learning fun English will become stars later," said Kharisma Naidi WS, M.Pd., lecturer of EYL course at UMM.

Kharisma added that the performance of each class from the EYL program was determined by each class by adjusting to the theme of its size. Apparently, the students were very enthusiastic in preparing every performance they would present to their parents.

Cahya, one of the EYL students who taught in grade 4 said that the performance of her students this time was taken from the material taught in class about ideals. Titled 4.0 Dream and Dancing Show, students introduced themselves in English and conveyed their ideals such as YouTuber, web designer, football player, or model, certainly beyond the ideals that were always conveyed by children their age like doctors or engineers. Their innocent behaviour suddenly made the audience applaud.

Performing in costumes according to their ideals, the audience was amazed by their fluency in singing the song Be What You Wanna Be, which was popularized by Darin, the Swedish singer.

Another amazing performance was class 1, which was Baby Shark's dance and song. Even though the song was very simple, it was the courage of the first-year students to perform on the stage that they were proud of for their parents. They hoped that next year their children would become more confident and dare to appear on the EYL stage again.

A simple resolution came out of their tiny mouth when the MC asked "Hi first graders, will you come back to this stage next year?" And all simultaneously but timid manner said "Yes". The audience applauded. Not to be outdone, class 2 also performed the song Count on Me and class 3 bravely showing television programs in the style of America’s Got Talent with the headlines Fabulous Got Talent and A Million Dreamer Show. Still with the same vision, each student had the right to choose their own ideals.

Asked to convey her impression, Dessy Indriani, homeroom teacher of Grade 3 of Rafif Afkar Chaniago, expressed her appreciation for the implementation of EYL's annual activities at UMM. She claimed to feel the benefits obtained by her son while following this activity several times. In the future, she hoped this activity would continue and could be followed by more students from the Greater Malang area.

The happy smiles of the participants played the profession. (Photo: Special)

Closing her remarks, Dessy hoped that UMM's English Education Department would become the initiator of English learning for children by prioritizing learning experiences using English, as experienced by her son while studying at UMM.

The EYL activity, which had been carried out for more than a decade, had produced teachers who not only teach in public and private elementary schools but had taken them to teach in international and overseas schools.

In recent years, it had been noted that students from Thailand had always taken EYL as their chosen subject. After graduating, they practised their knowledge in various national and international schools in the country of the White Elephant.

The Head of UMM English Language Education Department, Bayu Hendro Wicaksono, Ph.D., confirmed the information. "At present, the EYL program at UMM had become a reference for other Colleges to hold the same program or hold similar lectures. Lastly, Duta Wacana Christian University Yogyakarta lecturer also visited UMM to study specifically about EYL. EYL UMM lecturer Rina Wahyu S, M.Ed., was even invited as a keynote speaker at the University of Singaperbangsa in Karawang, "said the doctoral alumni of the University of South Australia.

There was a slight difference between the other classes. Class 6 was able to show a drama titled Turtle and Rabbit. In the drama, it appeared that a teacher was telling a story in front of students with visualization of the story. While other students played the role of rabbits, turtles, birds and trees. The audience seemed to enjoy the drama while occasionally holding back a laugh because of some mistakes in English pronunciation.

One of the 5th-grade students, Aisyah Peravasa Effendy who had been participating in this activity since class 1, said that she learned a lot of speaking and performing in front of the audience, in English. That also motivated her to dare to perform in English competitions to the provincial level. "Next year, I want to join EYL again so that I can look better and talk longer," said the student who was asked to open the closing performance of Art Performance from 5^th grade in the form of a dance and song of Heal the World which brought the message of peace and conveyed all the children with different cultural backgrounds agree to achieve the highest ideals.

The ending song ended with all students standing and singing in the last chorus while carrying red roses. Heroes' songs sang for flash mop and students ran to meet their parents to give a rose, expressing their gratitude for letting them have their dreams. (win)

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