The English Language Summer Program is framed primarily with the intention of providing a platform where opportunity is provided to the participant to enhance English language skills and also learn about the Indian Culture. English as a language is of significant importance as it is most commonly spoken worldwide. With the world becoming closer and more connected, opportunities to travel, study, work and explore different parts of the world is more easily available and as a result of having studied English gives an upper hand to any person.
This year we had two groups under the program:
- Japanese – AFS Japan believes and supports this program by sending their students from past 4 years. This term we had 6 participants hosted by Amity International School-Pushpvihar, Delhi.
- Italians- This is the first year when we hosted 11 participants from Italy under the program. They were hosted in DLF Public School-Ghaziabad.
The host school organized a rigorous curriculum ensuring that some important components of English language: Reading, Speaking and Vocabulary were sufficiently covered so as to procure a noteworthy escalation in their English language learning. The participants were hosted by Indian host families in Delhi NCR. AFS India conducted four orientations namely:
- Host Family Orientation: to give an in depth idea of hosting and the do’s and don’ts of hosting to the host families – Arrival Orientation: to welcome the participants as well as making them introspect their expectations from the program, host family and host school. Also, a glimpse of India as a host nation was given to the students
- Mid Stay Orientation: the program focused on delving into the mindset of the students so as to comprehend their understanding of India as a host nation, the cultural nuances present in India. We conducted sessions which helped the students to express themselves in terms of their success stories, their adjustment cycle and finally reflecting upon how much they have gauged the culture and the program content.
- End of Stay Orientation: this being the final orientation, the participants were evaluated as to their learnings and how they had fared in the program. The activities and sessions during this orientation aimed at understanding how well the students have grasped the Indian culture.
The host family experience of the students helped the participants to gauge the colorful Indian culture with its varied customs, the joint family way of living, the Indian parentage and many such myriad forays into the Indian culture.
Overall, the program turned out to be a success having covered all the dimensions sufficiently and owing to the stellar support from the partner schools and host families.