On May 12, 2004, a group of 24 English speakers, led by Dr. Kris Rugsaken of Ball State University, traveled to Thailand to teach conversational English at the Intensive English Camp Program, Prince of Songkla University (PSU). Of the 24 camp leaders, two were from Canada, recruited by Dr. Jitra Kriangkum, ATPAC Advisory Board member, and the rest were from Ball State University.

Camp activities began on Sunday, May 16. Camp leaders and PSU’s students went through an orientation before camp assignments. Camp leaders were divided into four groups, A, B, C, and Medical Team. Each group is divided into camps; each camp consisted of 5 to 8 students and one camp leader. Before the end of the day, students and camp leaders met to get to know each other. A total of 162 students participated in this year’s program.

The actual Intensive English Camping began on Monday, May 17. While camp activities for different groups varied from day to day, a typical camping day consisted of a three-hour class of English in the morning and a sight seeing with informal teaching and learning in the afternoon. The class usually followed the lesson plans that were prepared by Dr. Rugsaken, consisting of basic conversation, discussion and debate on America/Canada related topics, playing language games, reading about America and Canada, and a writing assignment. The reading materials were for the Thai students to better understand the cultures of the native speakers, American or Canadian. The writing assignment was usually based on the activity at sight-seeing, using the newly learnt vocabulary and structures

Students’ language competency was rated by camp leaders through direct observation. However, language proficiency is something that is very difficult to evaluate within a short period of time. Written competency was not evaluated as the main purpose of this camping is to improve the conversational skills. At the end of the camping, however, all camp leaders agreed that their students’ confidence in using English has improved significantly while their conversational skills (speaking and understanding) had also improved noticeably. The PSU’s English camp ended at Phuket on May 29 with a farewell party during which a certificate of completion was given to each participating student. The camp leaders returned to Bangkok on May 30 and to the United States and Canada on June 1.

English camp program at PSU will continue at least two more years. An evaluation will be made to decide weather to continue the program after May 2006.

Proposed Programs at Kasetsart and Khon Kaen Universities

On May 24, Dr. Rugsaken flew from Surat Thani to Khon-Kaen University. On the way to Khon-Kaen, Dr. Rugsaken was met at Bangkok airport by a team of administrators from Kasetsart University Laboratory School and brought to the school to meet with many other administrators, including Dean of the Faculty of Education and Dr. Sawat Tantipanwadee, RBD Director. The meeting lasted about 2 hours before he returned to the airport to fly on to Khon-Kaen. At Kasetsart Lab School, these topics were discussed: English camp for the elementary and secondary school students, Sister school program with Ball State University Laboratory school, Intensive English Program (where 20-30 Thai students will be taken to an English-speaking country (America or Canada) and stay with host families for three weeks), Volunteer teachers to teach at KU Satith School, and Teachers Training Program. Further discussions will follow to finalize these projects. But the emphasis is on the last project in which KU is planning to send 15 Satith teachers of English to study at Ball State University for 3 weeks. This program, if approved, will be funded by Dr. Sawat’s Office.

At Khon-Kaen University, Dr. Rugsaken met with Dr. Bungorn, Dean of Pharmaceutical Science and President Sumon to discuss the creation of intensive English camp program for KKU students. The discussions are still in progress. KKU’s English camp may start in 2005 or 2006.

Reported by Dr. Kris Rugsaken