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About the Centre For Staff For Students Courses Special Programmes Back to CELC	Around and About Long Service Awards Our Man at the Core and the winner is ... news@celc! Intensive English Courses…'duel' of words… Tiger Tales: Fong Kin's encounter with the wildlife of India Announcement Visitors at CELC Long Service Awards Our long service awardees, Mr Goh Chong Wee, Mrs Wong Keow Tee and Ms Balkise Mohamed. Three CELC non‑academic staff were recently lauded for their long years of service to the University. Corporate Support Officers, Mr Goh Chong Wee and Mdm Yap Keow Tee Mrs Wong and Ms Balkise Bte Shaik Mohamed received their Long Service Awards from DVC Professor Chong Chi Tat in a presentation ceremony on 19 May 1999. Mr Goh and Mrs Wong have served the University for 30 years. They both started work in 1968 at the then Nantah University. Mrs Wong's first attachment was to the Library where she worked until she was transferred to the Student Affairs Department in 1976. With the establishment of the National University of Singapore in 1980, Mrs Wong was assigned to work at CELC ( then known as ELPU). Asked to recall her fondest memories after 30 years of service, Mrs Wong remembers that she and her colleagues enjoyed many pleasant times rowing boats at a nearby lake after office hours. "This lake is the one found in the Chinese Gardens now," Mrs Wong said. While this was Mrs Wong's first job, Mr Goh had worked at Ngee Ann College before joining Nantah University on 17 May 1968. He started at the Personnel Department before being assigned to the Centre in 1980. In these 30 years, Mr Goh Has raised a family of three children and a Granddaughter. "These 30 years could be described as calm and peaceful," says this gentle man who doesn't seem to let anything frazzle him. Ms Balkise started work in 1978 with the English Language and Literature Department. Pressed for comments on the most memorable event in her 20 years of service, Ms Balkise gushed, "The party thrown for me last year was the best thing that has happened after all these years." Ms Balkise was referring to the surprise party that was organized in super secrecy by the entire CELC teaching staff to celebrate her promotion to the position of Secretary. Our awardees' comments have made light of the extent of their responsibilities at the Centre. When we consider that they, along with other non‑academic staff, provide administrative support to more than 50 members of the teaching staff to serve some 8000 students, we can clearly see that they shoulder immense responsibilities and often work under tight deadlines handling large volumes of work. All of them have had to continually upgrade their skills and knowledge in order to perform their jobs well. So to these three dear staff members, CONGRATULATIONS and A BIG THANK YOU for these years of faithful service!!! To Top of "Around and About" Our Man at the Core We will be seeing less of Mr Paul Nerney at CELC as the new academic year begins. Paul, who was our Division Head until June 999, will be working more closely with the Core Curriculum Committee from 1st July. When the Core Curriculum Committee was set up, Paul was a member of the subcommittee in charge of designing the materials for the Core's writing course. With his involvement in the teaching of this writing course, Paul will be spending about 12 hours a week in teaching and developing the course materials. His greater involvement with the Core Curriculum can be considered as a natural progression of events. "Basically, we designed the materials, so we need to test them out in actual teaching and from there to rework them and improve on them. It's a natural progression of duties to see to the inception and development of the writing course," Paul said. Dr. Laina Ho has been appointed Division Head for Courses and Research commencing 1st July 1999. To Top of "Around and About" and the winner is ... news@celc! CELC Crossroads, CELC Chronicle, The Communicator, Communique ... These were just some of the entries that were submitted by staff who took part in our "Name Our Newsletter" Contest held in February this year. When the work of putting the Centre's newsletter together began, one of the first tasks of the editorial team was to think of a name for the publication. The contest to name the newsletter allowed staff members, both academic and non‑academic, to have a say in naming their publication. Prizes for the contest consisted of books donated by Addison -Wesley Longman Singapore Pte Ltd and Ms Sheila Fernandez; a book voucher from CELC; a cash voucher from Dr Wong; and cakes donated by 3 members of the staff, Ms Ho Li Yen, Mrs Judith Lindley and Mrs Susan Nerney. The contest saw active participation with 55 valid entries. From a short list of ten names, the editorial team, together with the Director, Dr Wong, finally picked the entry submitted by Mrs Chitra Varaprasad, news@celc. Chitra won for herself a $100 Borders book voucher. However, this was one contest where everyone who took part went home with a prize. So congratulations to everyone! Chitra receiving her prize from Dr Wong To Top of "Around and About" Intensive English Courses…'duel' of words… The atmosphere in LT 15 was thick with anticipation and excitement as students from our two intensive pre-matriculation English courses gathered on 26 May 1999 for a debate on the motion "Urban life is de-humanizing". Representing the PRC students and proposing the motion were Chen Chen, Chen Jingde, Wang Di, Li Feng and Yu Shanhu (reserve). The Indonesian students were represented by Aika Yuri Winata, Sofyan, Susanto Fadjaray, Felicia and Maruly (reserve). The pace of the debate was quick and every good point was greeted with hearty applause from an appreciative audience of staff and students. Rebuttals came fast and furious as the speakers showed their knowledge, poise and polish from many hours of research, practice and training. The judges for the debate, CELC lecturers Ms ChewMoh Leen, Ms Lee Gek Ling and Dr Benny Lee from the Department of English Language , had the difficult task of deciding on the winning team. Dr Lee said that they were impressed with the high standards displayed by the students. In particular, he commended Li Feng, Sofyan, Susanto and Felicia, for their impressive oratorical skills. He also reserved high praise for the Chairman, Solihin, for doing a good job As tension mounted, the results were announced with the best speaker award going to Susanto Fadjaray. And the winning team ‑ the Indonesian team! In many respects this debate marked the culmination of months of hard work and study by the students of these Intensive English courses. They had to complete extensive projects, write research reports as well as make oral presentations, all in a language that many were hardly proficient in six months ago. This debate clearly showed that they have all come a long way indeed. To Top of "Around and About" Tiger Tales: *Fong Kin's encounter with the wildlife of India* CELC teaching staff, Miss Chan Fong Kin, together with four adventurous lady members from the Nature Society of Singapore, gave an interesting and educational slidetalk ‑ "Of Tiger Trails and Other Tales: An Indian Safari" at the Ang Mo Kio Library on 26 May. They had been on a courageous trip to India just to be close to nature. Fong Kin's keen interest in wildlife took her to three national parks, Keoladeo(well known for its huge wetland bird sanctuary) in Rajasthan; and Bliandarvgarh and Kanha in Madhya Pradesh- the home of the Royal Bengal Tiger. She made her way successfully through the Indian countryside and forest in a trishaw, boat, jeep and, of course, the faithful elephant with the help of the friendly "mahout". Her treacherous journey was well rewarded for the Siberian crane, Indian roller and painted stork were but some of the many beautiful and exotic creatures she encountered in the very spacious and serene bird sanctuary. Apart from wildlife, Fong Kin managed to catch other sights and she described the magnificent Taj Mahal in Agra as a "must see". The awe‑inspiring monument amazed her tremendously. Obviously, she believes in "Go India – Go Creative" at least once in a lifetime. To Top of "Around and About" Announcement Welcome! Ms Sharon Tan Fern Nee joined CELC as Administrative Officer on 1 March 1999. Ms Hajarah bte Mydin Pillay joined CELC as Office Attendant on 10 March 1999. Goodbye … We wish to thank teaching staff, Mr Gerald West, Ms Grace Lingham. and Secretary, Ms Christine Ho and wish them every success in their future endeavours. Congratulations! Mrs Tan Gek Ling was blessed with a third bundle of joy with the birth of her son. Philip Mark Tan, on 16 February 1999 ‑ the first day of Chinese New Year! To Top of "Around and About" Visitors at CELC Professor Shogo Tange presented a talk at CELC on 22 April 1999 on the topic of "Language Transfer and the Japanese Variety of English". Professor Tange is currently teaching in the school of Foreign Language and Graduate School of International Studies at Nagoya University of Foreign Studies, Nagoya, Japan. He is also Professor Emeritus of Aichi Prefectural University. On 17 May 1999, Dr Christopher Stroud had an informal discussion with several members of the CELC teaching staff to discuss how multilingualism affects language pedagogy in Singapore. Dr Stroud is Associate Professor of Multilingual Practices in Developing Countries at the Centre for Research on Bilingualism at Stockholm University. He is also Visiting Professor of the Centre for Applied Linguistics and Language Services in Africa at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. To Top of "Around and About"