Page 6 - ELG1702 Feb Issue 444

Page 6 ELawards February 2017

ESU recognises speaking skills
YouTube channel and a
book of printed activity
Agames and worksheets
were among the winners and
runners up in last year’s English Matt Salusbury finds tigers and dinosaurs among this year’s winners allowing the listener to hear
Language Awards for outstand- the individual sounds for each
ing ELT resources. word and record their speech to
The awards, run by the by Sandie Mourão and Claire compare it against model pro-
English Speaking Union Medwell, Macmillan Educa- nunciation.
(ESU), were announced at an tion. A coursebook series for Runner up: Learning Cir-
awards ceremony at the end of young learners, introduced by cles by BBC Learning English.
November. enthusiastic dinosaur Dex. (Co- Online sessions with video,
Scott Thornbury, coordina- author Mourão was interviewed games and flashcards help users
tor of the masters in Tesol at for the November 2016 Gazette and their families learn everyday
the New School in New York, young learners supplement.) English for survival in the UK –
gave a keynote speech on the Runner up: Tiger Time by from job interviews to calling an
history of the teaching of speak- Carol Read and Mark Ormerod, ambulance.
ing in English. He noted that Macmillan Education. This
until relatively recently, teach- six-level primary school course- Resources for
ers ‘postponed’ letting students book includes songs, chants and Teachers
do any meaningful speaking in humorous stories. Winner: Language Learn-
English until late in their learn- ing with Digital Video by Ben
ing journeys. Resources for Goldstein and Paul Driver,
Naturally, the Gazette was in Secondary and CUP. A guide for teachers
attendance too. There’s more Higher Learners with practical activities and
detail on the winning resources, (aged 12 and up) technical tips on using video,
along with the other shortlisted Winner: Keynote by Paul YouTube clips, documentaries
English Language Awards Dummett, Lewis Lansford and and learner-generated material
entries, at www.elgazette.com/ Helen Stephenson, National Geo- Copyright Matt Salusbury in the classroom.
reviews/449-esu-english-lan- graphic Learning. Also an ELTon Runner up: Teaching Children
guage-awards-winners.html. award-winner, this coursebook How to Learn: Plan, Do, Review
After ‘resting’ for a year, the series was published in response by Gail Ellis and Nayr Ibrahim;
ESU’s awards returned in 2016 to thousands of enquiries from EMBRACING VICTORY Macmillan Education’s Sandie Maurão (centre) kisses Dex the Dinosaur Delta Publishing. British Coun-
with a new format, now with four English teachers about TED vid- after winning the award for Best Resource for Young Learners with Claire Medwell (right) cil experts on young learners
categories. The awards have a eos to use with classes. show teachers how to create the
focus on speaking skills and have Runner up: Shakespeare President’s Award ciation from Oxford OUP in aims to improve pronunciation conditions for children to reach
gone biennial – awarded every Speaks produced by Catherine for New Technology partnership with Phona. Say It, in English using interactive their full potential as language
two years – and the next one is in Chapman, BBC Learning Eng- Winner: Say It: Pronun- an app for phones and tablets, phonetic spelling features, learners. n
2018. And the winners are… lish website. A series of online
video sessions, each based on
Resources for that has entered the English lan- Overseas excellence Best Bett for tech
an expression from Shakespeare
Young Learners
(aged 3–13) guage, from ‘spotless reputation’
Winner: Discover with Dex to ‘as dead as a doornail’. he winners of the Brit- Principal John Moore thanked he Bett awards are for ed tion Resource category went to
ish International School the British schools community tech across all sectors, Glasgow-based company Twig
TAwards for ‘excellence in for their generous and swift Tnot just English language World’s Tigtag Clil. It took the
British schools overseas’ were response to the April 2015 teaching and English medium award with its series of over 120
announced at a ceremony in Nepal earthquake. Other British education. While there isn’t a short films in simplified English
London in January, attended by schools helped TBS to raise the specific category for ELT prod- on science and geography top-
the Gazette. The award-winning £350,000 it collected in just a ucts, suppliers in that sector have ics for primary school learners,
initiatives by British schools few months for its relief efforts. taken Bett awards in the past. developed by educators with an
reflect the fact that these institu- The Lifetime Award went At the nineteenth Bett awards ESL background. These include
tions don’t just serve expatriate to Simona Baciu, president of ceremony in January at the Bett different versions of the com-
communities – they increasingly Transylvania College in Cluj, ed tech conference and exhibi- mentary at A2 and B1 level,
cater for local families seeking a Romania, a high school and tion in London, the prize in the backed up by audio and interac-
British curriculum education. nursery school which has grown International Digital Educa- tive content. n
Doha College in Qatar took the out of the small kindergarten
International Impact Award for its Baciu founded back in 1993.
thirty-strong Eco Club of students New British School of the Year –
and teachers. The Club’s mission for a school less than three years Gongs for ELT legends
to ‘reduce, reuse and recycle old – was won by Cranleigh Abu
into our community’ has made Dhabi. The New Year’s Honours
it the first school in the Middle Awards in other cat- List for 2017 saw two dec-
East and North Africa region to egories went to the British orations, both Order of the
receive Green Flag certification International School of Stavan- British Empire (OBEs), for
following ‘vigorous inspection’
ger in Norway, the New Cairo
Courtesy BIS by the Denmark-based Founda- British International School, professionals. Professor
English language teaching
Deira International School in
tion for Environmental Education
Susan Hunston of the
programme. Dubai and Dulwich College in University of Birmingham
GLOBAL VISION British School Kathmandu principal The British School Kath- Beijing, while King’s College won her OBE for services
John Moore and head of sixth form Gemma Caines mandu (TBS) took British Alicante in Spain took IT Ini- to higher education and
celebrate winning the award for Best International School International School of the Year tiative of the Year. The awards applied linguistics. She
as well as Senior Leadership were organised by British Inter- was joined by Professor
Team of the Year and Com- national Schools magazine with Ros Richards of the Uni-
munity Initiative of the Year. support from ISC Research. n versity of Reading with an OBE for services to language
support for international education.
Can you Australian honour of the leading researchers on the pioneering Cobuild
Professor Hunston (above) began her career as one
project (it stands for ‘Collins Birmingham University
prove it? Sue Blundell, executive director of English Australia International Language Database’). This created one
of the first electronic corpuses of contemporary Eng-
from 2002–15 and occasional Gazette contributor,
has been awarded Member of the Order of Australia. lish text. It was followed by the world’s first dictionary
based on entirely authentic language (now standard
Her decoration, for ‘significant service to educa- practice) with The Collins Cobuild Learners Dictionary
Then we’ll tion, particularly to the teaching of languages, and and other titles in the series.
to professional learning and tourism bodies’, was
She also played a key role in the development of
announced in the Australia Day Honours List on 26
Pattern Grammar, which changed how dictionaries,
print it. January. As well as heading English Australia, Sue course books and grammar books are written. Profes-
has served as a member of the Ministerial Coordinat-
sor Hunston said of her award, ‘I’m really thrilled at
ing Council for International Education (part of the
this honour. It’s great that the international importance
federal government’s Department of Education and
Training) and as general manager of international of applied linguistics is being recognised in this way.’
Professor Richards’s award recognised her two dec-
education at the Australian Centre for Languages. ades of work at Reading, which included the creation
She was also on the Education Visa Consultative of the International Study and Language Institute (ISLI).
Get your story heard Committee of the Australian Government Department She said of her award, ‘It’s wonderful to see the field
of Immigration.
I work in recognised. As a sector, we are encourag-
Sue told the Gazette she’d had an enjoyable Aus- ing the globalisation of higher education by providing
EL Gazette tralia Day hearing from people she’d not heard from high quality language support for students to achieve
since her retirement. She is looking forward to receiv-
their academic potential when studying in another lan-
www.elgazette.com ing the actual medal at a ceremony sometime in April guage whether or not that be in the UK or overseas,
or May on a date yet to be confirmed. through successful international partnerships.’

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