DepEd Aklan Holds 3-Day English Seminar Workshop

by Marita Apolonia M. Arevalo

Teaching English as a second language is a formidable task for Philippine educators for the past century. This is more felt in the last three decades. Precipitous slide has resulted in students/pupils with poor communication skills, comprehension and difficulty in acquiring right pronunciation and diction. This is resulting to poor marks in periodic tests or civil service examinations. Articulateness as commu-nication skill demands purity of ideas, picture description, proper diction and pronunciation in its delivery.

Research findings indicate this malady is traced to teacher’s deficiencies themselves. Cognizant of the problem, DepEd Aklan conducted a three day seminar workshop in English Grammar for all English coordinators, teachers, school heads and principals on May 27-29, 2009. This was held at Kusina sa Kalibo with Ms. Erlinda Salac Curro as resource speaker and trainer. She is author of a book "Check Your English Grammar Using Visayan Language", and a prominent educator – writer.

Registration was done in batches in order to accommodate big volume of participants. May 27 for Eastern sector with 119 participants; May 28 for Western sector – 109 and May 29 for all public high school teachers and principals – 65.

The training aimed to: a) check English grammar using Filipino language, b) review basic sounds in English, and c) re-learn communication skills. Methodology used Modern electronic gadgets (laptop computer and LCD projector) and grouping of participants in workshop session were used.

In her speech, Dr. Victorina Laroza, DepEd Schools Division Superin-tendent commended Ms. Curro for her enviable role in updating local educators in their teaching competencies amidst challenges of global competitiveness and economic downturn. Payoffs generated from the activity would be immeasurable as Aklanon youths get fresh ideas and interests of the English language. Laroza recalled the good old days (1960’s – 70’s) when US Peace Corp volunteers were assigned in Aklan who created significant impact on education and the community.
With its successful completion and their active participation though of short duration, similar training programs are planned in the near future. /MP