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