Category: School Year 2014-15 - Bayon English Academy

Bayon English Academy

BEA'S FIRST MAJOR PUBLICATION

30/4/2015

Hi 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!

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.

Can you tell me how to get to the Old Market?

19/1/2015

A 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.

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.

How Can I Help You?

19/1/2015

The 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.

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.

Getting Ready for Presentations!

14/1/2015

The 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.

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.

Happy BEA New Year!

2/1/2015

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.

Takeda's BEA Visit

2/1/2015

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.

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.

Pin the Nose, Tail and Antlers on Rudolph

28/12/2014

The 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!

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.

BEA's Christmas Party Finale

28/12/2014

To 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.

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.

Merry Christmas from BEA!

25/12/2014

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.

Sprucing Up BEA Christmas Ornaments

24/12/2014

The BEA kids finished up their last Christmas craft activity just in time for the big day! After rolling out their dough ornaments and letting them dry, they were able to get creative with painting their ornaments. Once again, the kids absolutely amaze me with their creativity. Some of the ornaments even looked like you could buy them in one of those boutique Christmas shops.

It's such a shame that such talent can't be nurtured more at BEA since we don't have enough staff to run these projects on a full-time basis, as well as the funding to pay for salaries and supplies. We're hoping for more funding in 2015 so that we can continue our current programs.

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.