Prominent author Ms. Selina Hossain, a Bengali literary genius, visited Brac University as the Chief Guest of the prize giving ceremony of “Scribbler’s Den: Intra-University Short Story Writing Competition” organized by Brac University Communication and Language Club (BUCLC) on July 17, 2019. The event was attended by Lady Syeda Sarwat Abed, Senior Director of Brac Institute of Languages (BIL) and Associate Vice President of Student Life, and Ms. Dilara Afroz Khan, Assistant Professor and also Director of the Office of Co-curricular Activities.
In the ceremony, faculty members of BIL and Savar campus awarded the writers of three Bangla and three English stories for being shortlisted from 27 submissions in Bangla and 47 in English. Ms. Hossain expressed her delight at the contest being held in both Bangla and English. She emphasized on the importance of continuing the practice of both English and Bangla by the new generation, without which the Bangla literature will not be able to grow.
Scribbler’s Den is an intra-university short story writing competition which is arranged regularly with the aim to offer students a platform where they can showcase their creative writing skills. The event was chaired by Ms. Farina Haque, and a cultural performance that also took place was coordinated by Ms. Srabosti Saha, both of whom are lecturers at BIL.
Brac Institute of Languages (BIL) conducted the 27th session of Journal Club on July 18, 2019. Ms. Bineeta Rahman and Mr. John Paul Shimanto Sarkar, Lecturers at BIL, presented as well as facilitated a discussion on the paper “Radio Drama for Speaking Practice” by Jonathan Maiullo.
In the article, the author addresses the problem that learners may face while speaking in front of an audience. The author suggests using radio drama as a tool to help learners overcome shyness since the technique does not require students to be in front of audience, rather requires them to have their speech recorded. The author recommends this technique to be used towards the end of the semester when the students have had enough experience of practising spoken English.
A lively discussion was held during the session where the presenters spoke about the article’s relevance in language learning and also arranged various activities to assess the techniques and their applicability for Bangladeshi classroom environment. In the activity part, an actual clip of a radio drama was played, after which the participants were asked to discuss the story, its characters and the plot twist. In addition, the participants were given a short radio drama script containing the dialogues of three characters, which were read out by the participants. In the end, everyone agreed that BIL could follow some of these techniques to reduce learners’ affective filter and to help them perform better in speaking activities.
Md. Abdullah Al Mamun, Lecturer at Brac Institute of Languages (BIL), conducted a workshop titled “Importance of Games and Role-play in Language Teaching” on July 25, 2019. The workshop highlighted the effectiveness of using different games and role-playing activities. Experts and theorists suggest that language teaching activities should be interesting so that learners can enjoy the learning process. Therefore, by using various language games and role-play, teachers can make the class more interesting and also ensure effective student engagement. Mr. Mamun further initiated a discussion on the possible challenges of using these games and activities, along with their prospective solutions. At the end, lecturers of BIL who participated in the workshop shared their personal experience of using games and role-play in their own classes.