Page 4 - ELG1601 Jul Issue 438

Page 4 ELlanguage news July 2016

Winners span the globe

Matt Salusbury and Sarah Lally report on the 2016 ELTons awards

he winners of the four- in every lesson.
teenth eLtons, the the Local innovation Award
TBritish Council’s awards went to Teaching English in
for innovation in eLt (in part- Africa, written by Jason Ander-
nership with Cambridge english son, Kiarie Kamau, Benson
Language Assessments), were Misco Shiholo, dr Lillian Kaviti
announced at a ceremony in and Serah Muchai for east Afri-
London in June. can educational publishers Ltd.
there were winners from the this practical guide includes
UK, the US and from turkey, ideas for low-cost reusable
Kenya and the Czech republic, resources in large classes where
for projects covering citizenship, chalk blackboards are standard.
language learning through fea- the Macmillan education
ture films and video, ted talks Award for new talent in Writ-
and teaching in low-resource ing (sponsored by Macmillan)
African classrooms. the host, went to Academic English for
eLt veteran Alan Maley, began the 21st Century Learner by
and ended with speeches from Aylin graves. Aylin addressed
Shakespeare and implored, ‘dear Copyright Matt Salusbury attendees by video-link from
europe, please pray for us on the istanbul, inviting publishers to
23rd’ (the date of the UK referen- contact her.
dum on eU membership). the Lifetime Achievement
the excellence in Course EYES ON THE PRIZE Jason Anderson holds the ELTon Local Award went to Catherine
innovation prize was taken by Innovation Award for practical guide Teaching English in Africa Walter, the first female presi-
the team at national geographic dent of UK-based global eLt
Learning with Cengage Learn- Ltd described her own learning from Czech-republic-based association iatefl. She’s also
ing for their Keynote textbook journey, arriving as she did in Archimedes inspiration took an applied linguistics lecturer
series. this was published in the UK from Malaysia and hav- the digital innovation Award. at the institute of education
response to thousands of enquir- ing to master english. Mooveez includes feature film (UCL, London) and in the Uni-
ies from english teachers about the innovation in teacher titles divided into lessons and versity of oxford’s department
ted videos they could use with resources Award went to Digital adapted into language learning of education. She is co-author
their classes. Video – A manual for language materials, with films trans- of ground-breaking tefl
Accepting the innovation in teachers, an ebook from tefler lated and original transcripts texts The Cambridge English
Learner resources Award, one of nik peachey’s crowdfunded one- arranged into columns that run Course, The New Cambridge
the Literacy for Active Citizen- man-band peachey publications. simultaneously with the film. English Course and the Good
ship team at Learning Unlimited Mooveez – Enjoy Languages there are grammar exercises Grammar Book. n

‘EFL for Malawi’ initiative News in brief with Sarah Lally

A SeCondAry school in other Bantu languages at home. MBAs let down by English
Scotland is working with rural Maureen added, ‘We under-
Malawian schools to improve stand that english is the hub indiA iS inundated with MBA-qualified managers – but 93
english education in the country. of education in the Malawian per cent are held back by poor english. According to Akshat
St Andrew’s high School in educational setup. if a student Khandelwal on the scroll.in website, MBA graduates often
north Lanarkshire has worked does not understand the english cannot clearly communicate oral ideas. their education is
with eight rural community language very well, it is hard about rote memorising rather than problem solving.
day secondary schools in the for them to do well in other Khandelwal’s larger issue is the english used in business for a
Mulanje district, a mountainous subjects as everything is taught population that does not speak it at home. the ideal solution
tea-growing region in the south and examined in the english to this would be to educate indians in their mother tongue –
of the country, since october language.’ like the Japanese, russians, Chinese and germans. But that ‘is
2015. Scottish team leader Mau- Speaking to the Nyasa Times unlikely to happen anytime soon’.
reen Martin said the schools national newspaper, Maureen
chose to concentrate on english said that St Andrews will pro- Grant focuses on structures
language because of a ‘lack of vide teaching materials to help
opportunities’. students learn faster, including A £500,000 grant has been made to the London Borough of
Locals speak Chichewa or computers and mobile phones. n enfield for a project to improve education for those with english
as an additional language. the project, integrating english, will
roll out to 100 state primary and secondary schools across
england, funded by an award from the education endowment
Refugees teaching fund. it will train primary school teachers in methodology that
focuses on the structure of language. eef chief executive Sir
English now a trend Kevan Collins said, ‘We need to make sure that all pupils who
have english as an additional language go on to gain fluency in it
so that they achieve well in school.’
College seeks compensation

After reporting the story refugees organised english les-
of Muhammad and Mosa, two sons in the local library. in MArCh 2014 the Colleges of excellence programme
Afghan-born refugees teaching recently, 64 police com- awarded contracts with partner further education colleges
english in Montalto Uffugo, italy munity support officers in worldwide for partnerships worth £250m to open technical
(see August 2015 Gazette), we Caltanissetta, Sicily have started education programmes in Saudi Arabia. one of these, Lincoln
have observed an increasing trend taking english lessons from a College in the UK, opened three new colleges in the
of refugees teaching english to refugee as part of their compul- Kingdom. But in January two branches of their Al-Aflaj
italians increase. these initia- sory professional development. colleges closed. A spokesperson cited problems including the
tives are often organised by local twice a week, in uniform, the inability to transfer staff between colleges. Lincoln College is
councils and associations with the officers gather to attend their seeking compensation for these losses.
aim of facilitating inclusion and lessons at the police station. Report slams post-grad plan
mutual understanding between their teacher, rahman, an asy-
Can you prove it? refugees and local communities, lum-seeker from pakistan, told A CAnAdA immigration and Citizenship report, originally
the italian press that they are
at times caught unprepared by the
marked ‘secret’ and then obtained by newspaper The Globe
‘great students’.
‘migrant crisis’.
Then we’ll print it. a ski resort close to Bergamo, cal skills that the officers might and Mail after a nine-month battle, raises questions about the
Lessons are focused on practi-
in Castione della presolana,
country’s post-graduation Work permit programme. this
refugees from Africa taught eng- need on the job, such as giving allows international students to work in Canada for up to three
years after graduation – and is allegedly creating a low-wage
lish and french to the locals. in directions. the project was the workforce, with foreign graduates earning on average only
pelago, a village near florence, mayor’s idea – as the officers half as much as their domestic counterparts. in 2008 the
groups of refugees and locals met often deal with foreigners, eng-
Get your story heard to teach each other – and the turn- lish is a necessary skill. ‘We live requirement that students find jobs in their field of study was
removed, leading to a proliferation of low-quality educational
www.elgazette.com out from the locals was so high in a multicultural city,’ com- programmes with low entry requirements.
that a shift system had to be set mented one of the officers. ‘We
up. in Battaglia terme, padua must be prepared.’ n
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