<![CDATA[Bayon English Academy

<![CDATA[Bayon English Academy - BEA Blog]]>Tue, 28 Jan 2025 03:29:37 +0700Weebly<![CDATA[BEA's BOOK]]>Wed, 23 Sep 2015 10:30:41 GMThttp://www.beacambodia.org/bea-blog/beas-book

Hi everyone,

I have some really great news to share with everyone. The book I spent the past two years writing and editing was finally published with TESOL Press! It took me about 1 year to complete all my research, which included conducting over 100 interviews with teachers and students, and 6 months to write it. It was like writing another graduate thesis! My book then spent about a year in editing with Andy Curtis and the TESOL Press copy editors. I'm especially grateful to Andy for all the valuable advice he offered me in the editing stage. The focus of the book is about the challenges Cambodian students face when trying to get an education, and the obstacles teachers have to overcome to provide this education. There are two chapters that specifically focus on the lives of the BEA staff and students, and their daily hardships. The book also describes how BEA has contributed to the advancement of teaching and education in the NGO sector, and makes recommendations for those who would like to work in the sector.

There are 2 chapters from the book that you can read, which are in the Research and Resources section of the website. Chapter 2 describes the development of English language policy in Cambodia, and describes the challenges of teaching and learning in the public school system. Chapter 3 explains the challenges of providing education in the NGO sector, which include poor facilities, lack of training, few resources, rampant corruption. If you'd like to read the entire book, it's available on Amazon and Amazon Japan.

I thought I'd have a break for a little while from publishing, but as soon as I finished my last revisions for the book, TESOL Press accepted another one of my proposals for a book chapter. For this research paper, I described BEA's writing exchange program between the BEA students and my university students in Tokyo, and analysed how limited writing exchanges can decrease stereotypes. The title of my paper is Throwing away stereotypes: Deepening intercultural understanding through Cambodia-Japan letter exchanges, and it will appear in Voices from the TESOL classroom: Participant inquiries in higher education classes September 2016.

The Bayon English Academy (BEA) is an accredited NGO school that provides English language education, leadership, and job skills programs to underprivileged youth from well-trained teachers in a safe, clean and professional environment in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

]]><![CDATA[BEA'S FIRST MAJOR PUBLICATION]]>Thu, 30 Apr 2015 10:06:37 GMThttp://www.beacambodia.org/bea-blog/bea-first-major-publicationHi everyone,

After one year of data collection, 6 months of writing, and 6 more months of editing, my first research paper on BEA's English language program was published as a book chapter in Contemporary Task-Based Language Teaching in Asia. In my chapter, Bridging communicative language teaching and task- based language teaching in Cambodia: A case study of an integrated TBLT and CLT program, I explained how I modified Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) and Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) to suit our Cambodian teachers and students and describe all the different parts of BEA's English language program. I also analysed the success of these methods and our program through the perspectives of the BEA students. I'm especially grateful to my editors, Michael Thomas and Hayo Reinders, for inviting me to publish with them and for all their feedback on my drafts. If you'd like to read my chapter, you can download it from the Research and Resources section.

BEA's next publication will be a book with TESOL Press! It's about education in the public school and NGO sector in Cambodia, as well as BEA's contributions to the teaching field. I finished up all my chapters in September 2014, and now am editing everything with the help of my editor, Andy Curtis. Once I finished up revisions with him, I'll start revisions with the copy editors - almost an entire year for editing! The book should be published before the end of 2015!

]]><![CDATA[Can you tell me how to get to the Old Market? ]]>Mon, 19 Jan 2015 11:35:11 GMThttp://www.beacambodia.org/bea-blog/can-you-tell-me-how-to-get-to-the-old-marketA few of the students from the Pre-Intermediate EFL Course got a little lost during presentation week, but we're eventually able to find their way with the help of their classmates. The theme of their second presentation before the end of the first term was giving and receiving directions. This is one of the more important themes since the BEA kids learn map-reading, which is actually not taught to them in their public school education (for a multitude of reasons that are too long to list here). Not only do some of our students want to become tour guides in the future, they also run into tourist throughout the city and temple area, so we include map-reading as one of the many skills they learn in the Pre-Intermediate program. The BEA kids had to choose an area in Siem Reap, and then map out that area in detail with street names and landmarks. Afterwards, they wrote up skits between lost tourists and locals to their classmates.

]]><![CDATA[How Can I Help You?]]>Mon, 19 Jan 2015 11:13:05 GMThttp://www.beacambodia.org/bea-blog/how-can-i-help-youThe BEA Basic kids made it through presentation week! The theme of their second presentation for this semester was "shopping." They had to design a store and its merchandise of their own choice and then write their own script of different types of dialogue between the store's shop assistants and its customers. One of the main goals of our language program is to help students find work in the tourist sector here in Siem Reap, so these type of activities give our kids the confidence they need for public speaking, as well as give them opportunities to use their new skills in "real-life" situations.

]]><![CDATA[Getting Ready for Presentations!]]>Wed, 14 Jan 2015 14:56:05 GMThttp://www.beacambodia.org/bea-blog/getting-ready-for-presentationsThe BEA kids in the Basic and Pre-Intermediate EFL courses are getting ready for their poster presentations this week, or in teacher-talk, their "task-based projects." Presentation week gives the students a chance to use both their language and artistic skills, as well as to learn how to manage their time, delegate tasks and work as a team. For these presentations, students prepare a role play and design a poster to support it. The Basic students have to choose a type of store, and then script dialogue between a shop assistant and customer at that store. The Pre-Intermediate learners have to prepare dialogues between tourists and locals, and use their own hand-designed maps to role play giving and receiving directions. The kids have had since Monday to prepare their posters and dialogues, so they were in a bit of a frenzy to finish up last-minute details before they present their work on Thursday and Friday.

]]><![CDATA[Happy BEA New Year!]]>Fri, 02 Jan 2015 12:00:07 GMThttp://www.beacambodia.org/bea-blog/happy-bea-new-year

]]><![CDATA[Happy 2015 to the Set Family!]]>Fri, 02 Jan 2015 11:24:55 GMThttp://www.beacambodia.org/bea-blog/happy-2015-to-the-set-family

]]><![CDATA[Takeda's BEA Visit]]>Fri, 02 Jan 2015 10:08:17 GMThttp://www.beacambodia.org/bea-blog/takedas-bea-visitThe Bayon English Academy (BEA) is an accredited NGO school that provides English language education, leadership, and job skills programs to underprivileged youth from well-trained teachers in a safe, clean and professional environment in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

We finished out 2014 with a visit from Ryoji Takeda, my husband! The kids wanted to express their appreciation for all he has done for the school, so they organized a “presentation contest” with the girls verses the boys. In their 10-minute presentations, they told him how much the school and teachers have helped them to set goals and improve their language skills. Both groups said one of the gaining confidence in themselves and their futures was the greatest gift they had gotten from BEA. He was impressed with all of the presenters, so he decided the contest should end in a tie. For the rest of the afternoon, he visited with staff and students, and got to observe the BEA kids in action during their lessons.

]]><![CDATA[Pin the Nose, Tail and Antlers on Rudolph]]>Sun, 28 Dec 2014 06:56:27 GMThttp://www.beacambodia.org/bea-blog/pin-the-nose-tail-and-antlers-on-rudolphThe BEA kids had a blast at our first-ever Christmas Day party! We had an afternoon of contests, games, caroling, and of course, cake to celebrate the big day. One of the highlights was our twist on a game favorite, "Pin the Tail on the Donkey." Since we had over 80 students at the party, we divided them up into three teams to play in the library and classrooms. In the library, we had the classic "Pin the Tail on Rudolph" and in the classrooms we played "Pin the Nose" and "Pin the Antlers" on the famous reindeer. Our librarian and my assistant did a fantastic job designing all the posters for the game, and all the staff worked so well together to give the students such a special day!

]]><![CDATA[BEA's Christmas Party Finale]]>Sun, 28 Dec 2014 06:56:04 GMThttp://www.beacambodia.org/bea-blog/beas-christmas-party-finaleTo wrap up our Christmas Day festivities at BEA, the BEA kids got to enjoy some cake before they headed home after a fun-filled afternoon. It seemed that the students took more time taking pictures of the cake than actually eating it! Afterwards, we had a small Christmas staff party and gift exchange. For my gift, everyone got a "daruma" doll from Japan, which is one of my favorite traditions connected to the end of the New Year in Japan. It represents a small Buddha that grants wishes. To make your wish, you have to color in the one of the eyes and make a wish. Once your wish comes true, you color in the other eye. The doll also represents the Japanese spirit of "gambaru" (never give up). When the doll gets knocked over, it rolls back up again. Just like all of us at BEA with the many challenges we faced in 2014.

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