Posted by Anooja in English for Progress.
Tags: British Council, British Council India, British Council Sri Lanka, education, efponline, ELT conference, employability skills, English for Progress, English Next India, Primary education, Rod Bolitho, teaching English
Hello everyone
It was a pleasure watching the conference sessions live online yesterday. I urge those of you who wanted to attend the conference but could not, to use this facility provided by British Council to watch it live and even take part in it by adding comments. You comments may get discussed.
I tuned in for some of the sessions. Some- like, ‘building skills for employability’- were gripping as well as hilarious. Especially the speech by Manish Sabharwal; was it eloquence epitomized! Some were eye openers–Policy implications for English teaching and learning. It was quite informative.
‘Policy implications for English teaching and learning’ dealt a lot with scenario in schools in different parts of India. I guess good English teaching and learning in schools will lead to ‘building employability skills’ in the long run! This points to the lacuna we have in India in this area.
Isn’t that one of the reasons that makes ‘building employability skills’ a necessity now? I have heard private school principals lamenting about the difficulty they face in recruiting good teachers. They have to place the good teachers in high school so that the 10th grade results are not compromised. So most often the worst teachers end up in the primary section.
Rod Bolitho, Academic Director of Norwich Institute for Language Education (NILE), raised many questions which I felt are very relevant.
Some questions, about the shortage of English teachers in India, are listed below.
- How attractive is teaching as a career in India in general?
- What is the reason behind the English graduates choosing fields other than teaching as profession?
- Is there any appropriate formulated initiative in India to raise the number of English teachers in training?
- Has the government decided what the probable number of teachers required to be trained is in order to meet the demand in, maybe, the next 10 years?
- Are there enough institutions training teachers?
Some others, about the quality of English teachers/education, are below.
- What is the minimum qualification for school teachers? Is there any standardisation of qualification for the primary school teachers teaching English across India?
- In some states the minimum qualification set for the teachers of English is far lower than the others. So is bad English being perpetuated through the system?
- What type of pre-service training do they undergo?
- What kind of training is going on in pre-service level and how practical is it?
- Are the pre-service training institutions calibrated completely against the needs of the teachers?
- Are the skills of the teacher educator the skills which are needed to produce methodologically and linguistically competent teachers?
What is your opinion on these issues? Please write in your comments, would love to hear your ideas.
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Posted by Catherine in English for Progress.
Tags: Activity Based Learning, British Council, British Council India, education, efponline, ELT conference, Primary education, Project English, Tamil Nadu, teaching English
In this session entitled ‘Managing the Silent Revolution’ the audience watched a video which showed how Activity Based Learning (ABL) has been implemented in schools in Tamil Nadu. We saw the teacher in a non-traditional role, not as the teacher standing as an authoritative figure at the front of the classroom, but as a facilitator of activities in which children were able to participate much more freely. Children were encouraged to work in groups and help each other, as well as monitor their own progress. The classroom scene was a refreshing change from visions of children sitting in rows listening to a teacher; here the role of the child is very much a participative one in which confidence and motivation are key to the learning process.
The film was a great start to the session on ABL, and will truly motivate teachers in other areas to learn from this project.
How could other schools implement ABL?
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Posted by Philip Clegg in English for Progress.
Tags: British Council, British Council India, education, ELT conference, English for Progress, English Next India, in-service teacher training, NCTE, pre-service teacher training, Primary education, Project English, teaching English, Third Policy Dialogue
In the parallel session, ‘In-service and Pre-service English Language Teacher Education’, the room split into two groups to discuss the best way forward for in-service and pre-service teacher education.
One recomendation that came out was that Teacher Educators should come from schools and not from institutes or universities. They should be good teachers with a lot of practical experience and not traditional academics with doctorate degrees. What do you think?
Who is going to select these teachers? How to select them?
Should teachers be allowed to nominate themselves?
How do we replace the good teachers who we take out to become teacher educators?
Your comments please.
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Posted by Philip Clegg in English for Progress.
Tags: 1st language, British Council, British Council India, ELT conference, English for Progress, English Next India, NASSCOM, Primary education, Project English, Som Mittal, teaching English, Third Policy Dialogue
Som Mittal, president of NASSCOM, speaks at the Third Polcy Dialogue as part of the first panel discussion – English Next India: Policy implications for English teaching and learning.
Som believes using the labels 1st, 2nd and 3rd language is wrong and wonders why we can’t just use the term ’languages ‘ like we do with other subjects, such as sciences. Should equal importance be given to L1, L2 and L3? What do you think?
The panel discussion is getting lively. Watch it live or recorded online!
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Posted by Seamus in English for Progress.
Tags: British Council, British Council India, British Council Sri Lanka, David Graddol, ELT conference, English for Progress, English Next India, INSETT, mentoring, Primary education, Project English, RESC, teaching English, Third Policy Dialogue
Among the many fascinating statistic’s in David Graddol’s address last night,one comment resonated with me, and with many others if my conversations at the reception that followed were typical. Any programme is only as good as the teachers on the ground. Teachers sometimes attend training at the start of a new initiative but are then left alone to get on with it.
In Sri Lanka, there is a network of 30 Regional English Support Centres (RESCs) with well trained and committed staff who act as mentors to teachers at the local level. The more I interact with the RESC staff the more impressed Iam.
Is there such a netwrork in other places that provides continuing in-service support to teachers and is it well supporgted from the centre?
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Posted by Seamus in English for Progress.
Tags: British Council, British Council India, British Council Sri Lanka, Btitish Council, CBL, CLIL, ELT conference, English for Progress, English Next India, National Literacy Trust, Primary education, Project English, teaching English, Third Policy Dialogue
There has been an awful lot of talk about c ontent and language integrated learning (CLIL) over the last few years and a number of well publicised initiatives around the world. More recently there has been a reversal in policy in Malaysia on CLIL. Is this the beginning of the end or just teething problems?
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Posted by Philip Clegg in English for Progress.
Tags: British Council, British Council India, ELT conference, English for Progress, English Next India, Primary education, Third Policy Dialogue
I’m going to be moderating a session titled ‘Education for all’ on the second day of the conference. This parallel session aims to throw light on the experiences and challenges faced by state governments when trying to implement English across the primary level. One question that always crops up when we talk about primary English education is; at what age should English be taught? As well as focussing on the child, this question often raises important issues surrounding a primary teacher’s English language proficiency, their educational background and their experience and qualifications. What are your views on implementing English at the primary level?
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Posted by Seamus in English for Progress.
Tags: British Council, British Council India, Btitish Council, ELT conference, English for Progress, examinations, India, Primary education, Sri Lanka, teaching English, Third Policy Dialogue
There is an ongoing debate here in Sri Lanka about which variety of English should be taught and tested in schools: Sri Lankan English or international English. Industry seems to support international English but there are strong voices from Academia which insist that Sri Lankan English is the variety that must be taught and tested. What do you think?
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