READING and speaking English at home helped Nicholas Pang and Bessima Jamal win the Sabah state champion titles in the primary and secondary schools categories of the RHB-New Straits Times Spell-It-Right (SIR) Challenge last weekend.

Pang, of SRK Lok Yuk Likas, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, is now setting his sights firmly on the national championship title. "I want to practise a lot so I can win," said the 12-year-old.

His mother and teacher are helping him learn about 40 words a day, he says. For this voracious reader of comics, novels and magazines, the target is not too daunting.

Pang's comfort with the language is evident in his career goal: "I would be very happy if I could work in a company where English is used," he says.

His mother Florence Kandilis, a personal assistant, lauds SIR Challenge as beneficial for students. "It has given Nicholas confidence to speak in front of people," she says.

"To be on stage to show what he can do — I think it's great." She drills her son in vocabulary after school every day, and his teacher is also devoting extra time to his goal.

"He's realising that it may not be as fun as he thought it was going to be as it eats into his play time," Kandilis says, "but I tell him that he needs to put in a lot of hard work to compete in the national championship in Kuala Lumpur."

Bessima, a fifth-former of SMK Lok Yuk Likas, Kota Kinabalu, is planning to read more to prepare herself for the national championship in August.

Not that it would be much of a difference to the self-professed book lover, who had recently won the national Nilam Award, given in recognition of champion readers at state level.

"I'll look up more words in the dictionary and get help from my classmates and teachers," says the 17-year-old.

Bessima says it is important to her to know the meanings of the words she learns.

"I was surprised at the high level of the challenge," she admits. "There were some words I didn't know existed!" Bessima's class and English teacher Roselin David will be helping Bessima for the finals.

"She has a high potential for winning the competition," David says. "She has wide knowledge and she thinks and sees things differently from others."

David welcomes the SIR Challenge as a means to expand students' vocabularies, encourage the enjoyment of words and promote the use of English. "That's always a good thing."

Presenter and chief judge Theresa Manavalan, who is also NST Sunday People editor, says the participants demonstrated familiarity with spelling in English as well as taking part in a spelling contest.

"I think the standard of the students who took part was very high," she says. "One of the children at the primary level got 'stagflation' right, while another at the secondary level got 'conflagration' correct." Most importantly, she adds, they seemed to be having fun as well.

The contestants displayed a facility with skills they would have been taught in school — language, spelling, vocabulary, public speaking and drama, as well as the ability to listen attentively, think on their feet and take on challenges.

"And I think teachers can take much credit for that," Manavalan says.

"These kids want to be challenged like this and want to have fun with bits and pieces of what they learn in school.

"It's gladiatorial and highly challenging and these children love it and they're waiting for more."