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English camp provides fun, learning experience for Swiss team

Kim Chaudoin | 615.966.6494 | 

English camp_large

When one thinks of summer camp, images of campfires, songs and sports often come to mind.

But Lipscomb University’s English for Academic Purposes program is redefining the notion of summer camp for international students who want to enhance their English skills.

English camp_LincolnThis past summer, Todd Beard, EAP program director, developed a summer English camp for several groups of students from various locations around the world including a group of students from Switzerland.

The students were a group of athletes ages 14 and 15, who play basketball for a club team in Vacalla, Switzerland, heading to Lipscomb for Bison Basketball Camp. Their coach, former Bison basketball player Rodrigo Martinez, wanted his students to not only enhance their dribbling and ball-handling skills when they came to the United States. He also wanted them to use that opportunity to enhance their English skills and knowledge about America.

“While we were investing the time and money to come to the United States and to Lipscomb University for basketball camp, I wanted to give them a more enriching experience and to capitalize on the resources that were at Lipscomb and in Nashville,” said Martinez, a native of Rosario, Argentina, who played for the Bisons from 1993-98.

When Martinez learned of Lipscomb’s new EAP program and contacted Beard, the two collaborated to develop an English camp experience the student athletes will remember for some time to come. Following a week at basketball camp, the students remained in Nashville for English camp. They stayed at the Granny White Church of Christ building next door to the Lipscomb campus, and ate meals in the Bennett Campus Center, giving them a taste of student life.

“This was a new opportunity for us to serve another group of international students who wanted to enhance their English skills and to learn more about our culture,” said Beard. “Developing this kind of program is precisely what EAP is here to do to help international students learn more about the English language.”

Beard said when developing the schedule for the weeklong English camp he used history as the overriding theme for the week, and planned classroom-learning time along with field trips to historical sites around Nashville.

Students travelled to the Traveller’s Rest Plantation, a Civil War era home; to the Hermitage, home of President Andrew Jackson; to Fort Negley, a key Battle of Nashville Civil War site; the Parthenon, a replica of the Greek icon; and the Country Music Hall of Fame. The group also stopped by Nashville's Adventure Science Center and participated in a scavenger hunt at the Tennessee State Museum. Class time included studies in conversational English, academic reading and writing, and a study of United States history focusing on the South during the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, the Industrial Revolution and Modern History. They even had a visit from Abraham Lincoln, portrayed by a local actor.

English camp_classAdam Abood, Lipscomb Academy faculty member, and Kelly Blankenship, from the College of Education, assisted Beard with the classes and other activities during the week.

“Our goal was to have the students engage with each other through these activities and classes, to keep our activities relational and to generate authentic conversation within the group,” said Beard. “Even though this was a short-term program, it helped the students build their confidence and gave them a real-world experience.”

“Hopefully this experience also helped build the students’ self-confidence in speaking English. It was also a good opportunity for them to see an American university to learn to think critically about this language, our history and our culture.”

Students received a certificate of completion following the camp.

The four national languages in Switzerland are German, French, Italian and Romansh. But Martinez said students are also strongly encouraged to learn English.

“The parents of my student athletes challenged me to come up with an opportunity for their sons to learn more than just basketball during this trip,” said Martinez. “It Switzerland it’s important for students to speak German, French and English. EAP was great at creating the teachable moments and opportunity for authentic conversation that enhances the skills of the student. It’s good for them to talk to each other and learn.”

Martinez said the English camp was a success.

“I think it was awesome,” he said. “It was a great experience. We learned about English and the American culture together as a team. It was everything we hoped it would be.”

Campers said they enjoyed learning about history, the writing exercises and talking to each other in English.

One camper’s parent told Martinez, while the group was at Lipscomb, that he was very pleased with the experience his son had at Lipscomb’s English camp.

“From here (in Switzerland) looking at the pictures (of camp activities), the English camp seemed positively out of the ordinary,” the parent wrote to Martinez. “Our kids have confirmed this when we talked on the phone. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts to Todd and his team of teachers for being able to transform an English course into an extraordinary experience.”

English camp_writingPlans are already in the works for a similar camp for Martinez’s group next summer.

“We are already talking about how we can improve next year and build on what we have done this year,” Martinez said. “We are learning what works and what needs to be added or changed next year. I am excited about bringing my students back again next year.”

Last fall, Lipscomb’s College of Education launched the English for Academic Purposes program to better serve the growing diversity of the university’s student body. The English for Academic Purposes program offers intensive English courses for undergraduate students who need to be equipped with, or to improve, academic English skills. 

The courses cover listening, speaking, reading and writing for academic purposes in addition to study skills and acculturation. A variety of options are available to students participating in the program, including 20 hours of classes offered per week, activities around Nashville and preparation for the TOEFL test, which is required of international students for admission to most universities across the country.

For more information about the EAP program, contact Beard at todd.beard@lipscomb.edu or 615.966.5070.