NEWS

The International English Zoom Breakout Camp 2021, organised by the Shinshu University Center for Global Education and Collaboration (GEC), was held on June 5th.

The goal of this event was to familiarise students with the English spoken by people from various countries and to make learning English more fun through games and activities, as well as to reduce the students' resistance to communicating in English.

The camp took advantage of the benefits of being able to connect online with people in Ireland, the USA, Holland, Germany, France, Malaysia, and Luxembourg.

To motivate the students, the instructor, Richard Robinson, said, "No one speaks perfect English! Let's start communicating out loud!", and this was how the day's activities began. In small groups, students introduced themselves to each other, asked each other questions and exchanged information. In the activity "Group Movie Speed Reading", students had to add audio to a movie scene while reading the English subtitles. The highlight of the camp was an activity called "Mission Impossible", where students became agents and completed various tasks by using an app.

The COVID pandemic has reduced the opportunities for international exchange, but the participatory activities and the interaction in English with teachers and students abroad made our students realise how much fun it is to speak English, motivating them to continue to learn English.