Making effective use of the queens language

BANGALORE: In 2008, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown spoke to Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, of the British Council’s ambition to directly or indirectly train 7,50,000 teachers in India over a period of five years through the Project English programme.In keeping with the ambitious project, the British Council, in collaboration with Sarva Shikshya Abhiyan - Karnataka and UNICEF, started the English Language Teacher Development Programme about six months ago in Karnataka. The programme has reached more than 700 master trainers and 10,000 teachers across the state.The Council carried out a needs based in-service teacher development programme to selected master trainers, teachers and heads of schools that aimed to improve the English language confidence of teachers of English in grades 5 to 8. “A list of 1,000 potential participants was forwarded to the Council. A diagnostic voice assessment was then conducted to identify those who had the appropriate level of English in order to benefit from the programme. Seven hundred participants who scored highest in the assessment were then selected from across the state,” said Clare Odonahue, the spokesperson for the programme.The programme includes a 20-day training which  concludes today. The training has been conducted across Bangalore, Mysore and Dharwad. “The over all aim for the master trainers and teachers is to be able to master the four skills of reading, listening, speaking and writing; and use interactive teaching methodology with an emphasis on spoken English,” she noted.Clare maintained that the feedback from the participants was very positive. “The teachers and trainers from Karnataka have been enthusiastic, receptive to change and willing to try out new ideas. They say that their English has improved. They are more confident now and have made many positive changes in their practice,” the spokesperson said.“The on-going third phase of the programme concentrates on teaching mixed ability classes, developing writing skills, lesson planning, particularly looking at learning outcomes,” explained Clare.

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