With the yearnings to grow up a genuine enthusiasm for practice of English among the young learners of Bangladesh, Department of English of American International University-Bangladesh (AIUB) organized, as part of its regular venture, a vibrant day long English Fest on the theme “English Belongs to Me” on Wednesday, 29th October 2014. The festival integrated different top ranking colleges including Notre Dame College, Viqarunnisa Noon College, Dhaka Imperial College and Shiddheswari Girls’ College. Participants from these colleges contested in six categories: Public Speaking, Impromptu Speech, Parliamentary Debate, Poster Presentation, One Act Play and Poetry Recitation.
In one of the one-act-play performances the young stars came up with a vivid exposition of the deformed English spellings used in sms and facebook communication at present. The fondness for briefness and abbreviated forms in the word expressions have reached such a precarious and weird state that the language at first seems to be a different language not English in any way. The hilarious acting of the performers depicted the alarming state of awareness in the mind of the audience very well. In the poster presentation, the participants’ efforts in expressing different aspects of the condition of English in Bangladesh through comic pictures, cartoon captions, written dialogues, made a humorous appeal to the audience through which the presenters were able to disseminate the message to the audience that the condition or standard of the casual use of English in Bangladesh is not up to the mark or desirable at all. The aim of the poster completion was to develop awareness through satire on the fact that English in Bangladesh among the common population is in rustic state which does not qualify us to communicate in global spheres. Other performances also carried the similar appeal to the audience.
For the result of the competition, Aniruddha Ganguly from Notre Dame and Kazi Shafit Ahmed from Dhaka Imperial College jointly won the champions’ crest in Public Speaking contest, whereas in Impromptu Speech Nawshin Islam became champion and Shaira Binte Sarwar became Runner-up from Viqarunnisa College. In Poster Presentation and One-Act Play Notre Dame secured the position of champions and prize for the runner-up went respectively to Dhaka Imperial and Viqarunnisa College. In Poetry Recitation Sanjukta Ray from Siddheswari Girls College became champion and Yatasha Jannath from Dhaka Imperial College became the runner-up. On the other hand, Viqarunnisa Noon College won the champion’s crest and Notre Dame College won the runner-up’s prize in Parliamentary Debate. The competitions were enjoyed by the house full of audience including the teachers from different colleges, the guardians of the contestants, judges, and the teachers and students of AIUB.
Earlier, the event commenced with the welcoming speech of the Head of the Department of English, M Hamidul Haque. The occasion was graced by the auspicious presence of eminent media personality and communication specialist Mr. Mahmudur Rahman as the chief guest. As an ex-student of Department of English, Mr. Rahman had a genuine passion to observe the performance of the young talents and future leaders of the upcoming generation. The Pro-Vice Chancellor of the university Dr. Charles C. Villanueva was also present in the occasion and praised the participants for their excellent performance in the contest.
The festival ended up with the vibrant and encouraging speech of the Chief Guest and the Pro-Vice Chancellor along with an inspiriting prize giving session. The chief guest remarked in his speech, ‘What AIUB has done in English Festival 2014, should be done more frequently and more massively by every institution in the country’.
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