English Language Fellow Ingrid Naumann and students in the Police Language School in Jakarta, Indonesia visited four local schools to practice their English skills. Students in the Police Language School are in a 3-month intensive English language class and these visits provided them an authentic professional community engagement activity. There were 70 police students and 322 students aged 5-13 in the audience.
At each school, the police students gave a presentation related to safety. After the safety presentation, they performed interactive role plays, led songs, facilitated games, and also created crafts with students.
These visits made the police students to become more comfortable with speaking English and gave them an opportunity to spend some time with the local community. Police students were able to use their English in situations that were both professional and work-related, but also low-pressure so they were comfortable practicing English and making mistakes along the way.