Online Program for the Access Students

An online interaction Programme with the Access Puducherry students was organized by the U.S. Consulate General, Chennai on August 12, 2021, from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. through the Google Meet platform. Ms. Brindha Balakrishnan, English Outreach and English Language Coordinator, Public Affairs Section, U.S. Consulate General, Chennai, coordinated the whole session. Ms. Zoe Benson, an Intern at the Public Affairs Section, U.S. Consulate General, Chennai, conducted the online session for more than 110 Access students.

The main objective of this session was to help the students interact with Native American speakers and also to help them enhance their speaking skills with the help of games and interactive sessions. Access students were divided into 2 batches and each batch comprised of around 50 students and 2 Access teachers. The session for the first batch was conducted from 3 to 3:45 p.m. and the session for the second batch was conducted from 3:45 to 4:30 p.m. The session was also attended by Mr. Senthilkumar, Access Program Coordinator, SARVAM, Sri Aurobindo Society, Puducherry.

The session started with the brief introduction of Ms. Zoe Benson and then she started the session by asking a few questions to all the students. This session helped the students to interact with the trainer and they also learned to answer questions that were asked. Zoe also shared pictures about The White House, The Statue of Liberty and Niagara Falls. She asked the students to identify the pictures and also asked them if they would like to visit these places. A short explanation and facts about these three places were given by the Access teachers to the students which helped them to learn more useful facts about these historical monuments.

In the next session, a game named “Guess What?” was conducted for the students in which the trainer spoke about a particular category to students. Without naming the object, she gave clues and students were asked to find out the correct object. This was much fun and students identified the objects with great interest. After the trainer, Access teachers were also asked to do this particular game with the students which helped the teachers to learn a new game and it also helped the students to find out various objects related to variety of categories.

This online session was much useful for the students as well as the teachers as they were able to interact with a Native American and learn new games. It helped students to interact and enhance their speaking skills. The session ended with a formal vote of thanks by one of the Access Teachers.