Education | UM’s summer English program concludes

The University of Macau’s (UM) 2016 Faculty of Arts and Humanities’ Summer English Immersion Program (SEIP) recently ended. The initiative aimed to help incoming students improve their English-language skills.
Participating students went through intensive training that lasted between three and four weeks, with many noting that the program boosted their confidence in speaking English, the University said in a statement.
This year’s SEIP enrolled more than 300 students. New features in this year’s course included co-curricular activities that supplemented academic classes in the morning and evening, providing variety to the ways in which students were exposed to English.
The morning sessions were focused on theme-based learning while activities for the afternoon and evening sessions included interactions with the 28 program assistants from the United States, Canada, the UK, Finland, Australia, and Macau.
According to the statement, these assistants lived in the residential college with the students and helped them practice English and review what the students had learned during the day.
The closing ceremony attracted 350 students, parents, and faculty members. Lionel Ni, UM’s vice rector for academic affairs, delivered a speech at the ceremony in which he expressed his hope that the summer event had prepared the students for their studies at UM, adding that the students should strive to achieve bilingual proficiency during their four years at the institution.