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Cambodian-Japanese Writing Exchange Program

17/9/2013

For the second time this year, we kicked off its Cambodian-Japanese Writing Exchange Program between BEA and Aoyama Gakuin University in Tokyo. The BEA students got their profiles of their Japanese partners, who are students in Nicole’s Integrated English III course. In Friday’s lesson, the BEA kids brainstormed ideas to write about for their first letter about their daily lifestyle and then got instruction on how to write their letters. Nicole collected all the letters today and her Japanese students will get them once she’s back on campus next Wednesday for the first day of the fall semester. Shally Toun, BEA’s managing director, will then take over the Cambodian side of the program. During the semester, students will exchange three letters on a designated theme and take part in classroom discussions on Cambodian and Japanese culture. By the end of 2013, over 250 students will have participated in this program since 2011!

The Bayon English Academy (BEA) is an accredited NGO school that provides underprivileged youth with quality English language education with professional teachers in a safe, clean environment in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

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Mid-term Tests and Writing Exchange Project

11/12/2011

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Hi everyone,

It's been a while since our last updates from BEA. We don't mean to ignore you, but it's that time of year when all the marking starts to pile up, and everything else goes to the bottom of your list of things to do. Despite all the marking, the BEA kids have been kept very busy in November and December.

Mid-Term Exams
In mid-November, both Shally and I were kept very busy with mid-term tests for all of our BEA courses. Based on Shally's recommendations, I revised this year's curriculum to mid-term and final tests, and to have these tests run for an entire week. One of the challenges Shally had with speaking tests last year was that there wasn't enough time to test all the students in only three days. For this year, students had four different tests to take for their mid-term exam. These tests included a three writing tests (vocabulary, grammar and paragraph writing) and a speaking test. While students were taking one of the writing tests, Shally would call one student at a time to the office for his/her speaking test. Our testing period was much more manageable this year, so we'll definitely keep these revisions in our curriculum for next year.

One of the biggest challenges I had was the actual writing of these tests. Test-writing is indeed one of the hardest teaching skills to develop. This is because it's not possible to test everything that has been taught in the classroom, so you have to pick-and-choose the most important elements from the course to test. In addition, you also have to decide how to test the content you've taught in the course, such as multiple choice or short answer questions. I used a variety of testing methods, and as a result, it took me three entire days to finish writing the twelve tests for the Basic, Pre-Intermediate and Intermediate courses. I really felt that I made the test more challenging that the ones from last year, but there were a few students in the Intermediate course that finished the vocabulary test in less than 10 minutes!!!

Shally has the hardest part of the testing process, which is marking all of the tests. He's finishing up the last of his marking, and he's planning on returning the tests this week to students.

If you interested in how we test the BEA kids, you can see a sample of the Basic Writing and Speaking Tests at the end of this blog entry.

Cambodian-Japanese Writing Exchange Project
The Cambodian Writing Project between the Intermediate and Pre-Intermediate courses with my students at Aoyama Gakuin University is coming to an end. My students just finished up their third letter to their Cambodian writing partner. For this letter, students had to explain a Japanese tradition or festival to their partner. In last week's lessons, students got the chance to discuss their letters with their groups. Japanese New Year traditions and the Star Festival were two of the most popular topics written about in their letters. In many of the letters, students included photos and drawings to help their Cambodian partners visualize parts of these traditions.

I've noticed that the length of the letters have lengthened a great deal during this projects. Many students are now writing five to six pages to their partner. This may be a response to the length of the letters from their Cambodian partner, which have been longer than those from their Japanese counterpart. It also could be the result of increased motivation towards their English studies since students are able to have an authentic communicative experience in English. Regardless, I'll find out more next week once I collect the project surveys next week from all the participants. Although this is the last letter for the Japanese students, the Cambodian students still have one more letter to write (Cambodian write four letters while Japanese students write three letters due to more flexible scheduling on the Cambodian side). Their last topic is the different types of education in Cambodia. My Japanese students will get their last letter in their last day of our course in January.

From this small project, I've collected over 1000 pages of research from both the Japanese and Cambodian students. One of my biggest challenges for next year is to start going through all of this research and publishing a few articles.

Back to the books ...

The Bayon English Academy (BEA) is an NGO school that provides underprivileged youth with quality English language education in a safe, clean environment in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

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BEA Writing Exchange Program

8/10/2011

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Hi everyone,

The floods have finally started to drain away, and life is slowly returning to normal in Siem Reap. September was a very difficult month for all of us, but here's hoping the floods will stay away for now.

We were back to the books this week after our one-week break for the Pchum Ben festival. It's back to work until our next long break in November for the Water Festival.

The Writing Exchange Program: In Japan
During the first week of the fall semester back in Japan, my students got their first letters from their Cambodian partners. In total, there are 104 students in four different students participating in this project. Students in BEA's Intermediate course are paired with my Integrated English Skill seminar course while BEA's Pre-Intermediate course are matched with my English Communication course.

Before my students got to read their letters, I prepared a 20-minute power point presentation to give my students some basic background information on education in Cambodia, BEA and the students’ lives. My students then got their letters and had the remaining class time to introduce their partner and discuss significant points with their groups.

In their written “reflections” after class about the lesson, almost all of my students commented that “I knew Cambodia was poor, but I didn’t know it was that poor.” Many of the students also expressed shame because they felt that they had taken for granted their educational opportunities in Japan. Most surprisingly, students said their partner’s letter has now motivated them to study harder and appreciate the chance they have at university to learn.

For homework, my students had to comment on their partner’s letter and write on the first theme: a self-introduction. I was quite impressed with the effort the Japanese students put into their letters. Many of them included photos and drawings from their lives, and many letters included “print club” stickers. These are tiny photos from automated booths that print out the photos on multi-colored backgrounds. You can often fit 5 people in these booths for group photos. When I first came to Japan many years ago, I used to frequent the game centers with these booth taking “print club” with my Japanese friends.

Deny’s partner, Mayuka, included photos from her summer vacation in Greech. Vannack’s partner, Shoki, included beautifully hand-draw Chinese calligraphy on traditional Japanese paper. Little did I know, Shoki is a calligraphy master!!

Writing Exchange Program: In Cambodia
In yesterday's lessons for the Pre-Intermediate and Intermediate courses, BEA students received their first letters from their Japanese writing partners. Shally and I have had to quite a bit of "cultural preparation" for this program. One of the challenges we had when the BEA students received the "profile cards" for their Japanese partner at the start of September was the large number of cultural-specific vocabulary. At the end of my semester in July, students in my English communication and Integrated Skills Seminar courses had to complete a one-page profile card - just some basic background information about themselves for the BEA students before they wrote their first letters.

During the introduction to this program, Shally and I spent most of our class time explaining this culture-specific vocabulary to the BEA students. Because of the age difference between my Japanese students and myself, I even found this quite challenging, especially since Japanese idols and fashion trends change so rapidly that it's impossible to keep up with at times.

Since I'm back in Japan now, I didn't want to leave Shally completely only own to figure out this cultural content on his own. Last week, before I sent of the letters from my Japanese students, I spent an evening trekking through Tokyo getting as many postcards as possible that included all the cultural vocabulary my students included in their letters. To my embarrassment, after 14 years in Japan, I didn't have a SINGLE Japanese postcard in my collection of picture files!!!

Once Shally received the letters and postcard packets, we had one of our skype training sessions. We brainstormed ideas how to introduce cultural concepts to the BEA students and then went through the place names and things pictured in the postcards. Shally was then able to plan his lesson introducing these terms so that the students would recognize them when they read them in their letters.

In yesterday’s lessons, each group of students received one of these postcard packets and got 20 minutes to comment and ask questions about them. Shally then instructed them to note these terms when they came across them in their letters. It’s always much easier to visualize a concept rather than spend time explaining it.

Shally commented that the BEA kids were really happy to read their partners’ letters and were excited to discuss them in their groups. For homework, they have to respond to their partner’s letter and also write on the second theme: daily lifestyle. The writing exchange program has gotten off to a great start on both sides, and students in both countries are now anxiously awaiting their next round of letter.

The Bayon English Academy (BEA) is an NGO school that provides underprivileged youth with quality English language education in a safe, clean environment in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

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Writing Exchange Program

12/9/2011

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Hi everyone,

Well, we made it through orientation week with all our continuing and new students. As of today, we have a total of ninety students studying with us this year. With the addition of another class this year, we have twenty more students than last year.

Writing Exchange Program
As part of orientation classes for Pre-Intermediate B and Intermediate courses, BEA students were introduced to a new program starting this year with my own students at Aoyama Gakuin University in Tokyo, Japan. Each BEA student will be paired with one of my students in either my Oral Communication or Integrated English seminar courses. In total, we have 106 students participating in this program; 53 from each school.

Both the BEA program and my university courses have weekly journal writing as one of their homework assignments. They write on a given topic each week and then exchange their journals with their partner the following week in class. Students bring home their partners' journal in which they comment on their writing and write on the week's new topic. This program will be expanded to include a Cambodian-Japanese writing partner. However, students will be writing one journal entry (or letter) per month with their partner. Shally and I have set up a schedule to mail students' letters back-and-forth throughout the semester. The themes of each letter will include (1) a self-introduction, (2) daily lifestyle, (3) a cultural reflection and (4) education experience. After students write about the designated topic, they also have to include a commentary on the previous letter and are allowed to add recent news or pose questions for their partner. If you would like to know more about this program, you can click on the Cambodian-Japanese Writing Exchange Guidelines at the end of today's posting.

In my last day of my Oral Communication and Integrated English seminar classes, I had my students complete a profile including information about their family, interests, part-time jobs, and so on. They also included a photo of themselves. In Friday's lessons, each BEA student received one of these profiles. Students had time to read through their profiles and ask vocabulary questions. There were quite a few questions concerning "cultural" aspects of Japan, such as "cram school", "okonomiyaki", "oxygen bar", as well as questions about pronunciation of Japanese names. For homework, students had to write write Letter #1 using their "letter writing notepads". The BEA students will have all of their writing materials provided for them for this program while my Japanese students will have to purchase their own supplies.

Shally and I will be collecting the letters today, which my Japanese students will receive in class next week once I'm back in Japan. From my impressions in class, I really think the BEA kids are going to love this program. Many of them do not get any chances to practice their English with non-Cambodian speakers, so hopefully this will give them that chance, as well as a chance to make a new friend.

Back to the books...

The Bayon English Academy (BEA) is an NGO school that provides underprivileged youth with quality English language education in a safe, clean environment in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

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School Supplies and Motorbike Rides

24/7/2011

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Hi everyone,

The past few days were quite hectic at BEA, especially since we have just one more week before we’re closed for the summer vacation.

School Supplies:
Shally and I spent most of Friday morning at the Preah Vihear Book Center ordering supplies for the new school year, which will start on September 5. We’re offering four courses for the 2011-12 school year, and we’ll have almost 100 students, which means we need more supplies. As usual, BEA students will receive all their school supplies for free. Their orientation package includes one textbook, two notebooks (per semester), a book bag, and a pen case with two blue pens, a red pen, two pencils, a highlighter, a correction pen, a ruler, and a pencil sharpener. If students use up their pens and pencils before the end of the first semester, they are given new ones. We were able to get everything at the Preah Vihear Book Center, except the pen cases, so we had to visit a few other book stores in Siem Reap before we found them. I budgeted $1000 for all the supplies, but surprisingly the grand total was $920. Now, we just have to get the textbooks.

NGO Administration Training Program:
I met Rie for a late lunch on Friday to evaluate her NGO administration training program. She said that it was a very valuable experience, and would highly recommend it to other students interested in NGO work. She also said that she was very surprised at the amount of work and time needed to run a NGO, and was shocked that just Shally and I were able to run an entire school on our own. My next job is to go through her evaluation and training materials, and revise this program so that we can offer it as a permanent training program from February 2012. Although the evaluation was over, Rie’s work for the day was not. We kept her working until the last minute of her stay.

Final Tests and Writing Journals:
BEA students started the second part of their final tests, which consisted of paragraph writing. While the students were writing, Shally finished the speaking evaluations. Shally now has a lot of marking to do within the next few days, and then has to calculate the final grades for the second semester. Also, we collected all the writing journals from students. I’ve started to go through them so that I can come up with topics for research papers before the end of the year. In addition, I’m planning to put some of the students’ comments on the website as “testimonials” to their learning experience at BEA. Overall, I was quite moved at the effect BEA and Shally has had on improvement their English abilities and their lives.

Rie’s Farewell Motobike Ride:
Rie finished up her last day at BEA in the office organizing all the supplies for the 2011-12 school year. We’ll really miss her help, and wish she could’ve stayed longer. I was so impressed with her dedication and hard work, and especially at how quick she was able to finish all her tasks! Thank you so much Rie!

Before Rie left on Saturday, Shally took her on the back of his motorbike through Trapeang Sess Village and the Angkor countryside so that she could see where our students lived and worked. I followed behind on my motorbike, and had a bit of trouble navigating the winding, dirt roads, especially since it had rained the night before, and everything had turned to mud. We headed out into the Angkor countryside along some very narrow paths, and unfortunately I ended up with a flat tire. Shally’s uncle just happened to be in a rice field nearby with his water buffaloes, so he was able to help us get my motorbike back to the main road to get repaired. Fortunately, Rie made it back in time to catch her bus to Phnom Penh. Always drama with Shally and I until the very last minute!

Next Week:
Anyways, we’re back to work tomorrow at BEA and it’ll be another busy week. Shally will be holding student conferences and I’ll be dealing with pre-registration for the new school year.

Back to work even on Sundays…

The Bayon English Academy (BEA) is an NGO school that provides underprivileged youth with quality English language education in a safe, clean environment in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

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Final Tests for Semester 2

21/7/2011

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Hi there everyone,

It's been pouring rain this afternoon in Siem Reap. I gave up my bicycle and have been riding a motorbike for the past few days. This is the first day driving in the rain. Despite being soaked to the bone, I was able to make it back home safely.

MOEYS:
Today started out quite early with a morning visit to the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport, but more commonly know by its acronym MOEYS in English. Shally and I made the 30-minute trip on his motorbike to file some paperwork for BEA. All went well, but we'll still have to make a few more trips in August.

The government offices are located on a compound-like area outside of Siem Reap. It's a bit far, but quite convenient because all the main offices are within walking distance of each other. On the way out, we passed the "Ministry of Religion and Cult". I didn't think anything was really wrong with the sign, but Shally pointed out that it should've read "Ministry of Religion and Culture". Whoever made the sign actually ran out of space, so he could only include c-u-l-t.

NGO Administration Training Program:
I spent most of my day at BEA today with Rie, our NGO Administration trainee who is participating in BEA's pilot NGO Administration Program. Yesterday, Rie learned about basic office management, consisting mostly of opening and closing student files. Today, she got a crash course in basic accounting. She got a pile of receipts that she had to categorize as fixed, variable and miscellaneous expenses and then design an excel spreadsheet to include all of these expenses. I really wish she was staying for more than two weeks because there's so much more I could give her to help us out, especially since we're preparing for our second school year. Regardless, I'll be meeting Rie for lunch tomorrow to evaluate her two-week training program. Once we make revisions, we're hoping to offer this training program to others who are interested in NGO administration. This will help BEA get some much needed funding to expand our school next year.

Final Tests for Semester 2:
While I was in the office for most of the day, Shally was running our final tests for semester two for all of our courses. Over the year, each student has had to complete six tests, which consists of a written and spoken test. The written test is spread out over two days: the first day is devoted to vocabulary and short-answer questions while the second day focuses on paragraph writing.

During the first part of the written test, students also have to complete a speaking evaluation. They are given guidelines on what to say, and then have two minutes to prepare their answer. Shally then evaluates their speaking ability based on fluency, pronunciation and grammatical accuracy. For example, for the final speaking test for the basic course, the student had to look at a series of pictures and then tell a story using the simple past tense.

Despite the pouring rain this afternoon, every single student showed up for today's test. I'm still amazed at their dedication to their studies.

Back to the books now...

The Bayon English Academy (BEA) is an NGO school that provides underprivileged youth with quality English language education in a safe, clean environment in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

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Poster presentations and Volunteer Program

20/7/2011

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Hi everyone,

We're back on the BEA blog after a short break since March. I had to return back to Japan unexpectedly in mid-March after the level 9 earthquake to make sure my husband was alright in Tokyo, and to prepare for a possible evacuation due to the Fukushima nuclear accident. Fortunately, the situation is slowly getting better.

For the past few months, both Shally and I have been quite busy with finishing up the last part of our second semester. I've been helping with lesson planning, test preparation and curriculum revisions from Japan. Shally has been even busier with implementing our program, evaluating the students and managing BEA!

Poster Presentations
I was back at the school on Monday, and students were starting their final Task-based Project. Over the year, they've had to complete six of these projects. They consist of designing a poster around a particular theme, and then organizing a 10 minute presentation with their group. I was so impressed with the progress all of the students have made over the year, especially the students in the basic courses. Students who started with very basic speaking abilities can now give presentations and speak about themselves and about Cambodia quite fluently. Shally has indeed done an amazing job at teaching and supporting the students throughout the year.

NGO Administration Program
Also, we are running a two-week NGO Administration Training Program and a Cultural Awareness Volunteer Program with one of my students from Aoyama Gakuin University in Tokyo, Japan. Rie approached me last year in our Communication course, and ask to learn about NGO Administration. She's now taking part in a pilot program consisting of different aspects of NGO work, such as project design, data base construction, office management, accounting, purchasing, among many other NGO-related tasks. We hope to offer this program on a permanent basis from next year to others who might be interested in learning about NGO management. Rie has also help test our Cultural Awareness Volunteer Program, and I'm meeting with her later on today to discuss how me can make it a permanent part of BEA's curriculum. The purpose of these programs is ultimately to establish a permanent source of funding so that we'll be sustainable in the long-term.

Final Tests
In addition to training Rie on office management today, I'll be designing the very last writing and speaking tests for the second semester. During the year, students have been evaluated on a monthly basis on both their writing and speaking skills. In total, they've had six of these test throughout the year. Shally will have to run the tests this Thursday and Friday, which means he'll have quite a bit of marking to do this weekend.
You can view photos from this week's task-based projects in our photo gallery on the home page menu.

Happy to be back!

The Bayon English Academy (BEA) is an NGO school that provides underprivileged youth with quality English language education in a safe, clean environment in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

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Cambodian-Japanese Writing Exchange Program

Mid-term Tests and Writing Exchange Project

BEA Writing Exchange Program

Writing Exchange Program

School Supplies and Motorbike Rides

Final Tests for Semester 2

Poster presentations and Volunteer Program

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