On 7 February 2020, the Intensive English Programme (IEP) students from Levels 2 and 3 as well as English Preparatory Course (EPC) students from Levels 1 and 2 participated in the IEP and EPC Public Speaking Championship 2020. This event which was organised by Ms. Zeena, Head of Intensive English Programme (IEP) aimed at giving the students the opportunity to speak spontaneously and to enhance their critical thinking skills.
At 3.45pm on the event day, Ms. Zeena welcomed all the IEP and EPC students as well as lecturers followed by briefing the students on the competition rules. Prior to participating in this event, all IEP and EPC students were trained for the competition by Ms. Zeena who is teaching them Speaking skills. A total of 17 students, 8 IEP Levels 2 and 3 students and 9 EPC Levels 1 and 2 students with an outstanding performance were selected by Ms. Zeena to participate in the competition.
The competition which consisted of two rounds began at 4.00pm. During the first round, each student was required to speak on a particular topic chosen randomly during the competition for 5 minutes. This round involved the performance of 8 IEP students, 6 (Levels 2) students and 2 (Level 3) students. This was followed by the performance of 9 EPC students, 6 (Level 1) students and 3 (Level 2) students.
At 5.20pm, names of 8 students, 4 from IEP and 4 from EPC who were qualified to compete in the final round were announced. This final round of the competition involved 3 IEP (Level 2) and 1 IEP (Level 3) students in addition to 2 EPC (Level 1) and 2 EPC (Level 2) students. Similar to the first round, each student was requested to speak for 5 minutes on a given topic which all topics differ from the first round. The topics were also different from one student to another student in both rounds of the competition which focused on health, technology, science, education, lifestyle, employment and social media. All contestants were supported and encouraged by the lecturers as well as students when they delivered their speech.
The performance of the students in both rounds were judged by Ms. Nalinah, Director of the Centre for Foundation and General Studies (CFGS) and Ms. Zeena. The judges faced some challenges to identify the champion of the competition, as all the finalists performed very well.
Prior to announcing the name of the champion, Ms. Nalinah delivered her closing speech. Mupasa Kanjana, an IEP Level 2 student who spoke on the topic ‘The Best Occupation in the Current Life’ emerged as the IEP champion while the EPC champion is Al Abry Mudathir Issa Nassor, an EPC Level 2 student. His topic was ‘The Impacts of Social Media on Society’.
The event ended with a photo session with the champions, lecturers, Ms. Nalinah and Ms. Zeena and the participants. It certainty was a memorable event.
