Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta (UNY) provides an opportunity for children and teenagers aged 4-18 years old to fill their vacation period to learn English in a fun way through English for Holidays (EFH). During the program, the participants enjoyed a Grand Campus Tour, games, culinary day, and other creative activities to improve their English skills.
The participants visited one by one typical UNY sites such as the Indonesian Education Museum, Karawitan Lab, Performance Hall, Digital Library, Pancasila Park, and several other UNY landmarks. During their visits to these places, the children also learned to apply the English skills they had learned in the subliminal day interactive classes, such as expressing appreciation and visiting manners in English. One of the participants from Sleman, Banyu, felt happy with this activity. "It's fun! I love traveling and discovering new things. The Grand Campus Tour is one of my favorite activities because it goes around the UNY campus," he said Tuesday (27/6/2023).
Not only learning from the guides at each site, but the children were also invited to meet UNY campus officials such as Prof. Suyanto, Ph.D. as Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Prof. Nur Hidayanto P. S. P., Ph.D. as Head of the English Education Department, Dr. Drs. Agus Widyantoro, M.Pd. as Head of the Language Service Unit, and several other officials. During the meeting, they interviewed about the role of English as a lingua franca that unites cultures, and its relation to cultural diversity, echoing the theme of this year's EFH, 'Intercultural Community'. Amazingly, the activity of meeting campus officials also used English in its communication.
The initiator of UNY's English for Holidays program, Nury Supriyanti, MA, said that the culture of welcoming guests has its value. "This activity is not just about showing where the toilet is, but also other rooms," she explained. Therefore, UNY allows the participants to experience the situation of the old class at UNY's Indonesian Education Museum, play at Pancasila Park, and do other fun activities.
Children participating in EFH are guests on the UNY campus and are welcomed with an introduction to the campus environment and the existing lecture culture. Not only that, as an English language learning program, the EFH Grand Campus Tour also applies English language skills during the tour. For the participants not to get bored, interesting games were played during the visit between units at UNY, guided by students and lecturers from UNY's English Education department.
