On the morning of January 8, 2021, after two months of preparation, ICI English Winter Camp officially kicks off at ICI café. Assistant Dean Philip Lambert and English tutor Matthew Terrett attended the opening ceremony and delivered opening speeches. The 27-day English winter camp, co-organized by ICI of Xiamen University and the Universityfor theCreative Arts, offers students an immersive English learning experience.
At the opening ceremony, Assistant Dean Philip Lambert shared with students his experience ineducation, pointing out that the aim of this winter camp is to break away from traditional language learning methods, and to help students learn English in an amusing and interesting way. Students are encouraged to learn English as they had learned their mother tongue – not using any other language as an aid, and only with the help of gestures, pictures, onomatopoeia, etc. Philip expressed hope that during this winter camp, all students can actively communicate with English teachers, engage in activities, and ultimately improve their language proficiency.
English tutor Matthew then briefed students on the winter camp schedule. Throughout the winter camp, there will be no teaching to the test culture. Instead, students will actually learn English to communicate by taking part in activities such as Business Model Canvas presentation, creative writing workshop, weekend team challenge, world map making, documentations and movies watching, etc.
One of the rules reiterated by Matthew for the winter camp is that students can only use English to communicate with each other all through the whole winter camp. During lunch break, students are also invited to chat with English tutors and administrative staff in English at ICI café.
Basking in the warm sunshine, students are talking, laughing while learning English.
