23rd July (written by Louise)

We met a group of students in the English Language Teaching Centre this morning at 8am. The group consisted of around 30 students, from a range of academic areas, who were taught English for three hours each week.We sat in three groups to discuss British and Sri Lankan culture for 1 hour. The discussion was very insightful. Following this we visited one of the local natural attractions, Bambarakanda Waterfall, the highest waterfall in Sri Lanka. It was very beautiful and the surrounding scenery was spectacular. In the afternoon we met with a group of first-year students who were majoring in English. They are interested in forming an English society and a group that will write and perform plays in English. To help them with this, yesterday, we conducted a drama class for them. During this we led some vocal, body and movement exercises in order to aid their understanding of the acting process and teach them how to warm up before rehearsals and dramatic performances. Today we discussed the process of the direction and production of plays. In addition, we arranged a further meeting in which we will discuss potential themes and characters for plays and focus upon how ideas can be drawn from improvisation. We look forward to this class!