English summer camp activities in Quan Ba

In July 2019, an English summer camp for teachers who are volunteers in Quan Ba ​​district was host by People’s Committee of Quan Ba commune, ActionAid International in Vietnam (AAV) and the Management Board of Supporting Program for Development. The summer camp has the participation of 24 English teachers of primary and secondary school in Quan Ba ​​district, aged 29 to 49 and has the certificate of college-level and above. They are the core team that can support the community in teaching English to serve local tourism development. Also, there are 22 primary and secondary school students, 05 households who are living and working at Nam Dam attend the English summer camp

At the summer camp (from July 22 to July 27) the class was named “We love Nam Dam”. Participants had the opportunity to improve their communication skills, increase confidence when introducing their village with international friends, through activities of learning and discovering local tourism context and the Dao culture. Besides, participants developed their facilitation skills, qualitative interview skills, ABCD approaches and how to write a small-scale project proposal. During the learning process, the “We love Nam Dam” class was divided into 5 groups: English, Environment, Culture, and Operation Groups. The groups discussed to build ideas and collect information in the community, exchanged with local people about the disadvantages and advantages of implementing community-based tourism to create initiatives ideas for the community.

In the training time, participants showed their confidence when communicating with foreign tourists in English: using appropriate intonation and polite communication, which created a comfortable and open atmosphere when communicating. In the process of carrying out activities, participants used English to give presentations, introduce the excellent ceremonies of local Dao people. In the end, 9/24 teachers were confident to actively exchange with tourists to practice communication skills. 90% of participants could use the knowledge and skills that they learned in the English summer camp to enhance the quality of teaching at schools such as help students to read long sentences using “backward” method, break sentences when reading, use appropriate intonation to show the politeness, able to organize community

activities, integrate English into the process of organizing activities (conduct interviews to collect information). At the end of the learning course, participants organized an event using English to attract foreign tourists and local people. With the guidance of facilitators, 4 projects were developed by the participants with the common goal of promoting sustainable community tourism in Nam Dam village, Quan Ba ​​commune through teaching English to local people, building a handbook in English – Vietnamese to help people in communicating with guests, mobilizing communities and tourists to protect the environment, promoting traditional history, cultural values, and attractive tourism destinations.

Joining the summer camp, participants also experience some activities such as learning about architecture, culture, and customs of Dao people in the village of Nam Dam, exchanging English with tourists, inviting and guiding tourists to join the game.

The activity is within the value chain of the community-based tourism initiative model in Nam Dam to improve the service quality, meeting the satisfaction of visitors who experienced the services of Quan Ba Taigoo cooperative, contributing to economic development for ethnic minorities in the context of poverty reduction. The effective uses of available resources as well as conservation of AAV have promoted human and natural values to build sustainable development community.