GIGVAGANZA OFF TO MERSING!
12 January 2022 – GIGvaganza, one of the prime Centre for Modern Languages (CML) programmes has gone one step further when UMP Advanced or known as UMPA has requested this program to be held in Mersing, Johor.
It was successfully organized on 6 December 2022 for Yayasan Petronas and Empower East Coast Region (ECER) Mersing in SMK Anjung Batu, Mersing, Johor.
GIGvaganza was proposed as one of UMPA modules to be used in Mersing as it has been with ECER Pahang in Bera, Kuantan and Pekan since 2014. It has also won Silver Medal in K-Novasi in UKM 2017 and a Gold Medal in CINTELL 2018. Significantly, the programme was also presented as a topic in an invited lecture in Nagoya Institute of Technology in Nagoya, Japan during 58th JACET International Convention 2019.
About six schools from Johor participated in the event which brought about a total of 220 participants. CML has appointed five instructors – Ms. Noor Azlinda Zainal Abidin, Ms. Nor Suhardiliana Sahar, Mr. Shamsul Harbi, Ms. Farah Liyana Ahmad A’Azmey and Ms. Nur Sabrina Zafiran Mohd Jamil to help with this program.
The original design of the program was on developing students’ creativity, teamwork and problem solving on top of building the understanding of grammar elements through creating grammar games and playing them.
The fun learning objective had been designed to allow students to become creative thinkers, problem solvers especially in preparing them as 21st century learners. However, in GIGvaganza Mersing, the design of the programme had been improvised to suit students’ level as well as time given.
To ensure these form five students are equipped with the grammar knowledge and refreshed what they have learnt previously, flipped learning was introduced to them. This flipped learning session was conducted where students were required to watch online videos about the grammar items that would be tested through the games later.
Not only that, but the students were also asked to present their understanding of the input they obtained during the flipped learning session in a form of doodle. Surprisingly, they presented the ideas in a very creative way apart from showing their good understanding of the grammar item given to them. Kudos to them, for sure.
GIGvaganza Mersing did not only benefit students in Mersing but also 24 UMP facilitators who volunteered to assist the trainers. The diploma students were screened in an interview session conducted by Language Support Group (LSG), an executive unit which caters to ensure English language proficiency among students are well taken care of and considered as a support group.
The facilitators also have attended the Training of The Trainer workshop earlier before the event. These volunteers were the ones who helped to create Grammar games for the event. Each trainer was assigned four facilitators under their care and functioned as advisors who went through the process of creating the games. The facilitators were very helpful and had gained a lot of experience throughout the program.
All in all, it was a challenging yet satisfying moment in completing the event. The cooperation by all trainers, facilitators, UMP Advanced staff and the 220 participants had indeed made the event a success.
A 2-day 1-night trip would surely be something which would be cherished and treasured! The team surely remember the moments of preparing games, travelling, working together and these made GIGvaganza Mersing a great success! As the saying goes “Teamwork makes the dream work”. We are surely looking forward to more GIGvaganza program adventures in 2023.
Prepared by: Noor Azlinda Zainal Abidin and Nor Suhardiliana Sahar
