European Language Label Award Ceremony

On February 27th there took place the Award Ceremony for European Language Label 2008 at the Ministry of Education Research and Inovation , Bucharest.

Info Project was represented by Mariana Hudrea and Beverley Killeen, accompanied by Ligia Durus from Maramures County School Inspectorate.

European Language Label 2008 for the TOEIC Camp

Info Project is among the 8 winners of the prize European Language Label 2008 .
http://www.anpcdefp.ro/programe/label/noutati.html
The Awarding Ceremony will be organized in Bucharest, Romania, in February 2009

"The European Label for innovative projects in language teaching and learning
The European Label is an award that encourages new initiatives in the field of teaching and learning languages, rewarding new techniques in language teaching, spreading the knowledge of their existence and thereby promoting good practice . The Label is open to all aspects of education and training, regardless of age or methods used, with its main focus being to promote innovation in language teaching. By supporting innovative projects, at a local and national level, the Label seeks to raise the standards of language teaching across Europe. Each year, the Label is awarded to the most innovative language learning projects in each country participating in the scheme. It is co-ordinated by the European Commission, but managed by the individual Member States, with national juries deciding on detailed criteria"
http://ec.europa.eu/education/languages/language-teaching/doc70_en.htm

Report to TOEIC Summer Camp in Baia Mare, 2008

1.0 Introduction

The purpose of this report is to summarise the purpose content and the achievements of the TOEIC Camp of June 2008.
TOEIC is now one of the most recommended English proficiency tests. It was first designed for people engaged in international business. However, it has now proven to be such a reliable measure of a test taker English Language Skills that it is now used for academic admissions. The system of the test allows participants to sit many times to gain a higher proficiency.
The summer camp study programme was designed to:-
- present the required format of the TOEIC test,
- allow them to practice taking the TOEIC test using sample and practiced tests,
- improve their overall vocabulary, listening skill and confidence in speaking English to native English speakers,
- allow the students to take the TOEIC test if they wished to and obtain TOIC certification.

The course was very well attended with participants from all over Romanian, different language capabilities, ages and back grounds.

2.0 Details of TOEIC Summer Camp

2.1 TOEIC Camp Programme
The Summer Camp lasted for a total of 7 days. The programme consisted in:
TOEIC Preparation
TOEIC Examination

Conversation Topic
Getting to Know You
Story
Library Visit and Quiz
Writing Exercise
Trip Diary
Discussion about trip

2.2 TOEIC Preparation

The TOEIC preparation, which lasted all week, consisted of guidance and practice tests on the TOEIC procedure and format. Guidance was given on the best way to approach the test and the best way to achieve a good score.

2.3 Conversation Topic: Getting to Know you

The aims of this topic were too:-
- Learn how to introduce themselves in a group situation,
- get to know their fellow students,
- mix with the other students and form study groups, make decisions for and by themselves on the information and the way each member had conducted themselves.
- encourage the students to speak freely without worry or embarrassment in a non classroom atmosphere, cope with shyness, making mistakes and speaking out aloud.
- enable the tutor to gauge overall English language ability,


The initial task was to ask each student to pick a coloured ticket from a box and this would represent their group colour. This enabled them to be with strangers who had different abilities, ages and back grounds etc. Everyone was then asked to introduce themselves to each member of their new group.

The second designated task was to agree amongst themselves to find a leader of the group.

The third task was to encourage the students to become part of the team and then promote friendly competition between the other groups.

2.4 Conversation Topic: Story.

The aims of this topic were to:

- promote reading skills,
- comprehension and understanding,
- improve pronunciation and intonation,
- sharing ideas, encouraging other group members, thinking in a foreign language and decision making,

A story that had been chosen had a twist in the ending. Each line or short paragraph of the story had been numbered apart from the ending. The students had to choose a number which gave the line in the story which they then had to read in sequence.

Once the story had been read out, each group also had to decide what they thought the ending of the story should be.
Each group was given points (the competing side of the programme) based on how close their ending matched the correct ending of the story. The correct story ending was then read out.

2.5 Conversation Topic: Questions and Answers

The aims of this topic were to:-
- introduce a different accent and language form(American English) to the students,
- build confidence in communications with native English speakers,
- formulation of ideas and concepts in English.

A young American Peace Corp volunteer, living and working in Baia Mare, made himself available for a question and answer session with the students.

The volunteer gave a brief description of the aims of the Peace Corps in general and his particular role in Baia Mare.

The following information is a summary of what the volunteer talked about during his introductory talk.

The Peace Corps is an independent United States federal agency and was established by Executive Order 10924 on March 1, 1961 during President J.F Kennedy’s term of office.

The Peace Corps Act declares the purpose of the Peace Corps to be:

“to promote world peace and friendship through a Peace Corps, which shall make available to interested countries and areas men and women of the United States qualified for service abroad and willing to serve, under conditions of hardship if necessary, to help the peoples of such countries and areas in meeting their needs for trained manpower.”

The Peace Corps sends volunteers around the globe, to more than 70 countries, to work with governments, schools, non-profit organizations, non-government organizations, and entrepreneurs in the areas of education, business, information technology, agriculture, and the environment.

The program officially has three goals:

* To help the people of interested countries and areas in meeting their needs for trained workers
* To help promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served
* To help promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans

The Peace Corps works by first announcing its availability to foreign governments. These governments then determine areas in which the organization can be involved. The organization then matches the requested assignments to its pool of applicants and sends those volunteers with the appropriate skills to the countries that first made the requests.

Peace Corps programming in Romania began in 1991. The Peace Corps/Romania has four program sectors: community economic development; environmental management and education; institutional development; and teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL).

The volunteer’s role in Baia Mare is in environmental management.

The students were encouraged to ask him any questions they had. The questions ranged from why he had volunteered for the Peace Corps to what he was doing in Baia Mare.

2.6 Conversation Topic: Library Quiz

The aims of this topic were to:-
- introduce the students to collecting information from library resources,
- working as a team to provide answers to the quiz for the group benefit,
- formulation of ideas and concepts in English.
The library supervisor and one of the tutors provided nine topics with which the students had to find the answers and read their findings out a loud. The Library presented the students with two books each about the U.S.A and each student also received a certificate.


2.7 Conversation Topic: Sightseeing Trip and Trip Diary

The aims of this topic were to:-
- inform the students about the geography and history of Maramures County,
- improve information gathering skills,
- improve communications skills,
- improving English writing skills,

The students were taken on a trip around some of the most important historical (political and social) and cultural sites within Maramures County. The students were encouraged to keep a trip diary recording what they saw and observed and any comments they might have had on the on what they had seen. The students were also encouraged to communicate and translate what they had seen to the English speaking tutor.

2.8 Conversation Topic: Discussion about the Sightseeing Trip

The aims of this topic were to:-
- encourage thinking in English,
- encourage peer to peer discussions,

The students were asked to present their positive and negative feedback on the sightseeing trip, what they had found to be most interesting and whether they considered the trip to be useful to them.

The students found the political and social issues that had been raised by the visits to some of the historically important sites to be of the most interesting although they also found visiting the wooden church with the tallest steeple and the Happy Cemetery and other cultural sites very worthwhile.

2.9 Conversation Topic: Film

The aims of this topic were to:-
- inform the students about the geography and history of the United Kingdom,
- improve listening skills
- improve information gathering skills
- film review techniques

A documentary film about the effects of the Ice Age on the geography and history of the United Kingdom was presented to the students. After the film had been presented the students were encouraged to discuss what they had seen on the film and ask any questions they had about the film.


3.0 Conclusions
3.1 Student Feedback
Overall the student feedback was very positive for both the TOEIC preparation topics and the conversation topics with the students enjoying the relaxed and open format that was adopted. They generally considered that they had been able to improve their communication skills with the emphasis that had been made on gaining confidence at speaking and understanding English
3.2 Tutors Feedback
Some of the students had a positive reason for attending the TOEIC camp, to obtain the certificate, to improve their conversation skills also to improve their overall understanding of English. Some of the students saw the camp as a holiday.
After breaking though the barriers and getting the students to relax and understand what the camp was about, I believe all the students took a more positive approach. Some of the students came with their English teachers from their schools, rather than constrain the atmosphere it proved very positive in terms of the overall relationships with the students and tutors
In my opinion, the “Getting to know you”, the “Story”,” the questions and answers” “Library quiz “and the discussion about the sightseeing trip worked in accordance with my expectations. The film did not produce the reaction that I was expecting. This was seen as an entertainment this was not what I anticipated.
4.0 Recommendations
The following recommendations are made:-
- A presentation of a classic English film in two sessions would be more appropriate.
- From the feedback and the experience a longer duration camp would be beneficial.

Beverley Killeen
Native trainer

The special guests were Monica Marasescu, Director of the British Council Cluj Napoca, who introduced the tests promoted by the BC, and Zsofia Horvath, Director of the TOEIC program, IIE Budapest, who presented the tests promoted by ETS.
Zsofia Horvath also provided a TOEIC Exams Training Session to a group of teachers of English from Baia Mare, Borsa, Cluj Napoca and Galati.

Mariana Hudrea
Camp Manager

BEST CAMP EVER!

When I first heard about this summer camp I was very interested in coming because I really wanted to improve my English knowledge.
I never expected everything to be so well organized.
Every activity I took part in was absolutely amazing and I will never forget the time I spent in Baia Mare.
I learnt a lot of new and exciting things thanks to Mrs. Killeen who is certainly one of the nicest people I know. She has a special and unique way to make you learn English.
I’ve met a lot of people from all over the country and I made a lot of friends. I truly felt like we were a family.
We had the whole week scheduled and we all felt tired from time to time but it was all worth it because every activity was enjoyable and helped us interact with each other.
I would like to thank the ones who made it all possible who are responsible for a great organization and a wonderful camp and they are:
Mrs. Mariana Hudrea-the camp manager, Mrs. Simona Zachia-the financial manager and
last but not least, Mrs. Killeen- our trainer.
It was definitely the best camp ever and the tears streaming down my face when leaving that astonishing city confirms it.

Best wishes,
Dragan Stefana,Galati.

Sergiu

It all started when my English teacher told me about an English camp that finalizes with the TOEIC exam.
At first I wasn’t so sure about this but I thought it could be a very god opportunity for me to practice my English with native speakers, and so it was.
Even from the first day I found very interesting people that had a common hobby and that was “speaking English”; and they were very good at it.
I found there lots of new people, people full of life and initiatives and new ideas. I was very glad that I went there.
Everybody was friendly, curious about each other and the people we met in the group, were very interesting for us and also a true inspiration.
I was extremely upset when everything was over… We have became a family of true friends and we were about to spread all across the country… Tears flooded our eyes as we watched the cars taking our friends towards the train station.
But we still communicate via Internet and SMS and we hope to meet again some day…
Sergiu Rusu
Baia Mare

Paula

A few months ago I found out about an English Camp that would be organised by one of my English teachers. Despite the little information that I had, I was sure that this camp would be a great opportunity to practise my English and have fun as well.
So I discussed it with my parents and they willingly gave me permission to sign up and they also gave me the money for it.

At the end of this tiring and enjoyable week I could not be happier and more grateful to every person who made this possible.
Now, I would like to share my thoughts with you and let you know how much I have learnt these days.

First of all, there were some special guests invited to provide us with some valuable pieces of information.

One of these guests was Ms Monica Marasescu from the British Council organisation in Cluj.
She spoke about the Common European Framework and the European Language Portfolio. She gave us a comprehensive presentation on these two topics and also on the Cambridge exams. The speech emphasised the formats of the exams and the future changes.
These issues should be well-known by both young and mature people. They can help every European citizen be successful in his career and improve his life in his native country and abroad.

Since it was a TOEIC Camp we met another important person who talked about the TOEIC exam. Ms Zsofia Horvath from the Institute of International Education in Budapest highlighted the advantages of taking the TOEIC exam.
She also mentioned its reliability, popularity, utility and accessibility.

I have to mention the fact that, at the end of this TOEIC Camp (on Saturday), the participants had the chance to take the TOEIC exam.
In order to become more acquainted with the exam itself during this week four TOEIC exam simulations were organised for us.
These simulations proved to be very useful.
Since we had got used to the exam we were able to do well at the actual TOEIC exam on Sunday.

However, this camp was not just about exams. Many activities were organised to help us relax, have fun and enjoy ourselves.

All the participants took part in a pizza party which was meant to give us the opportunity to get to know each other better. And we did mingle and have a good time while eating a tasty pizza.

We also visited two museums: The Mineralogy Museum, since Baia Mare was an important mining centre, and the Village Museum to try to imagine how the people lived hundreds of years ago in this area.

Beverley Killeen was one of our trainers. She conducted some interesting and funny games which we all liked very much.
We were divided into teams so we had to collaborate with our team mates, but every team competed against the other ones.
This way, the games fostered our team work skills but also our competitiveness.

Anyway, these are just a few of the beautiful moments I will never forget.
We had the whole week scheduled but I have enjoyed every activity I was involved in.
There is only one more thing I have to say: This camp was a total success!

Paula Simona Ghete

Baia Mare

Beverley

Dear Everyone,

Hope everyone enjoyed the camp has much has I did.

It was the high point of my stay here in Romania.

I am very pleased that you all seemed to enjoy your time with me during the camp.

What we did together was a learning experience that I hope in the future will help you all to feel confident in speaking English, work as a team, integrate with people, and become independent adults.

I hope everything went o.k. for the ones who took the test today( Sunday) and you all have had a safe journey home.

Good luck to you all for the future.

Regards,

Beverley Killeen.