English Speech Contest and English Club

The 30th of September, 2014 was a special day for the Foundation of Goodness as it marked the first ever inaugural English Speech Contest to be held by the FoG English Class and Children’s Goodness Club members.

This event was the culmination of weeks of hard work and planning on the part of one very special volunteer, Shakya Kudahetty who brought to a life a long time dream of FoG Founder Kushil Gunasekera.

Shakya, who had previously been trained as a toastmaster knew from experience that the biggest thing hindering the spoken English skills of the English students was their own fear. His solution was to teach them to speak with confidence, without fear or feeling shy before an audience so that they would then carry this on to their daily lives and find the confidence to converse in English.

His very encouraging and hands on methos of working with the children came through very clearly during the competition in how he encouraged every speaker who came on stage and congratulated them all on their effort. Even when some were suddenly struck by stage fright and forgot their carefully prepared speeches half way through, Shakya would call them off stage with words of encouragement and praise for having been brave enough to deliver even part of their speech.

The contestants had organized themselves by each CGC club, the Seenigama CGC club members were the Seenigama Champions, The Akurala club were the Lion Fighters, Udumulla were the Udumulla Riders, Rathgama were the Rathgama Kings and last but not least, the Kahawa CGC members were the Kahawa Challengers.

The students from all five groups competed under four categories based on age and competence levels and spoke on a variety of subjects. While topics covered by the lower categories included titles such as ‘myself’, ‘my favorite person’, ‘my favorite book’, ‘a good deed’, ‘my favorite place’, ‘my school’ and ‘my best friend’, the more advanced category of speakers tackled more complex subjects such as ‘the value of water’, ‘important historical kings’, and ‘violence in modern society’, many of them incorporating lyrics from songs, verses of poetry or famous quotes to add dimension to their presentation.

At the end of the event, all attendees were unanimous that this should become an annual event with Kushil declaring that it has been an incredible evening which blew him away, and committing to continue what has begun that day in to the future. To this end, the FoG English Club has now been inaugurated and meets regularly under the supervision of the English teachers including Mr. Threepal, Mr. Buddika, Ms. Manuja and Mrs. Abeinayaka and we hope to see them stage many more speech contests in the years to come.

03rd December 2014