10 January 2023, Kota Samarahan: The feeling of elation felt by students throughout SK Dato Mohd. Musa as two buses from the University Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) arrived for the English Pronunciation Workshop.

Eighty students, including 3 Japanese students, two from Utsunomiya University and one from Kitakyushu University, from the English for Global Communication degree programme, arrived at the school at 8 a.m. The workshop aimed to provide an opportunity for the Sounds of English undergraduates to engage and contribute to the community by sharing the knowledge they have gained in their course guided by Associate Professor Dr Souba Rethinasamy.

The workshop began with a welcome note from the headmaster Tn Hj Issnu Bin Dollah, thanking the Faculty of Language and Communication of Unimas for choosing Dato Mohd Musa Primary School to conduct the workshop. In a short speech by the Dean of the Faculty of Language and Communication UNIMAS, Professor Dr Ambigapathy Pandian – thanked the school administrators for their assistance and support in organising the workshop. The Administrative Senior Assistance Mr David Linang Janting and PTA representative Ms Sheela Faizura Bt Nik Fauzi also expressed their gratitude.

The workshop lasted for 4 hours, from 8.30 a.m. to 12.30 p.m. A total of 220 Primary Five students from 6 different classes were introduced to the English phonetic alphabets, hopeful that the knowledge they gained can help improve their English pronunciation and reduce their speaking anxiety.

The UNIMAS students conducted the workshop by making it fun and engaging for the primary school students. A total of 12 posters – six for consonant and another six vowel sounds were gifted to the Primary Five classes at the end of the workshop.

An undergraduate, who participated in the workshop, stated, “It was a wonderful experience. We enjoyed sharing what we've been learning so far in our course with the school kids. We are proud that the students made improvement in their pronunciation after they were introduced to the symbols. It shows that they understand the English phonetic alphabets. This workshop is both beneficial to us and the school students.”

Another undergraduate commented, "I think this kind of programme should be done again in the future because it gives lots of benefits to us as UNIMAS students, like increasing our self-esteem, enhancing our communicating skills, and at the same time, contribute to the community."