Choral Speaking Goes Hollywood

On the 5th of July 2019, the English Language Society (ELASO) of Kolej Yayasan Saad held the Annual Inter-House Choral Speaking Competition. The event was held at the Great Hall from 8.00 p.m. to 10.30 p.m. This year’s choral speaking theme was Hollywood.

A choir of voices could be heard from a distance, filled with energy, synchronization and perfect cadence. All three Houses: Rahman, Razak and Hussein, trained hard and passionately every night for two weeks until the day of the competition. The practices were more frequent and intensified as the awaited day was nearing.

A full run-through was conducted on the 4th of July 2019 at the Great Hall where each house was given a solid 45 minutes to rehearse. All the houses made good use of the given time to fine tune their performances. The final rehearsal was held on the following day to make sure everything was ready and everyone was clear of their roles. Teachers, staff and members of the management team assisted in this rehearsal. Ms Catherine Fernandez, as the advisor, gave them words of encouragement to lift their spirits before the competition.

On the night of the competition, everyone was thrilled and nervous at the same time. The students knew that they had trained hard and were ready to give their best shot. The event commenced when the guest of honour, Dr Muhammad Ikmal Mohd Said accompanied by the principal, Mr Tan Cheh Li and the management team were seated. The Masters of Ceremonies, Alisha Laiqa and Aariz Salimee facilitated the event. The event began with the speech from the project manager, Muhammad Faiz and followed by the respective houses presenting their choral speaking. The audience were amused by the performances which contained humour, thrill, suspense and many more.

While the judges were deliberating the scores, the audience were entertained by clippings from Hollywood movies, music videos and talk shows. Immediately after the multimedia presentation, the winners were announced. The Best Script Award was given to Hussein House while Hafiz Farhan from Razak House was awarded the Best Conductor Award. Hussein House also became the overall champion of this competition. Razak House emerged as the runner-up and Rahman House as the second runner-up.

It was remarkable that each team performed with great camaraderie and high spirit, exhibiting effective teamwork. In this regard, every contestant is a winner because choral speaking is an artistic expression where a group recites in a unique and entertaining manner on various issues. This poetic form of performance is also an ideal training ground for pronunciation, stress and paralanguage. Additionally, choral speaking encourages confidence and public speaking in a fun way.