| Bangladesh
City Dhaka
Host Institution BRAC University
Type of Project Fellow
Project Dates September 2008 - June 2009 Project Focus
English for Listening, English for Reading, English for Speaking, English for Writing, Teaching Methodologies, Teacher Training Project Description
The EL Fellow will hold a joint appointment at BRAC University and the Bangladesh Rural Development Committee (BRAC). At BRAC University the EL Fellow will be a member of the team of teachers that provide ESL training to all BRAC students as well as faculty and will provide additional professional development training for faculty and staff. At BRAC s/he will take part in the Secondary Education Project which provides in-service training to high school teachers, including English teachers, at satellite sites throughout Bangladesh. The EL Fellow will also participate in BRAC’s in-service training program for current English teachers around Bangladesh. [top] India
City Ahmedabad
Host Institution Ahmedabad Management Association (AMA)
Type of Project Senior Fellow
Project Dates Mid-October 2008 – Mid-August 2009 Project Focus
American Culture, English for Listening, English for Reading, English for Speaking, English for Writing, Teaching Methodologies, Teaching Techniques, Teacher Training Project Description
This will be the third year of an EL Fellow presence at the institution, but the EL Fellow will be working with a new audience. The current EL Fellow is in charge of outreach projects in key areas that the US Consulate has an interest in, in addition to the AMA duties and the US Embassy has developed have a whole slate of door-opening projects for the EL Fellow for next year. The current EL Fellow is also doing a great job with the local teacher training that AMA sponsors for the schools and colleges in the local community and the region. AMA is approved by the government of Gujarat as an institution for management training, and is a recognized scientific and research organization. AMA is currently hosting an EL Fellow and sharing this expertise with other teachers, training colleges/institutes and non-governmental organizations. The people of Gujarat are well-known for their entrepreneurship, but language has become a major impediment to the states overall socioeconomic development. As in other states, Gujarat follows a three-tier language policy: Gujarati is the first language, and English is either the second or third language, depending on the school. There are English-medium schools for the elite, but the majority of the population send their children to schools that emphasis on the proper teaching and learning of English speaking and comprehension. English is often taught by teachers who themselves learned English as a second or third language, and most English instruction is delivered in another language. Even in English-medium schools, teachers’ comprehension and pronunciation are often deficient. This creates a vicious circle in which students from vernacular schools are trained as English teachers, even though their own English language skills may be lacking. In Gujarat, English language training is stressed in the 11th grade and 12th grades, where language coursework is conducted in English, but students often neglect these studies because the marks obtained in English are not taken into consideration for admission to professional undergraduate programs. There are nascent MA TEFL programs emerging at Colleges of Education in the Ahmedabad area. The EL Fellow will work on the curriculum with them and offer orientation workshops for the staff and graduate students in student-centered, interactive language education. The US Embassy wishes to continue with an EL Fellow based at this prestigious management institute in Gujarat to help build capacity, and also break the downward spiral of language ability and experience in teacher training. The ACCESS Microscholarship program in Ahmedabad offers opportunity for academic and economic advancement to students in a Muslim community who are not able to afford the typical after school tutoring. The EL Fellow will enliven the ACCESS teaching by introducing modern communicative methods to teachers and by interacting with students through activities such as English camp, outings and film showings. The students will be brought to the American Corner from time to time for cultural exposure programs. The EL Fellow will offer academic programs at the American Corner on a regular basis as well. In addition, the EL Fellow in Ahmedabad is co-located with the American Corner and conducts regular programs at the AC. There is a strong and vibrant English Access Microscholarship program in Ahmedabad as well. The EL Fellow plays a key supportive role for that important program by holding workshops for the teachers and meeting the kids. [top] India
City Chennai
Host Institution Directorate of Collegiate Education
Type of Project Senior Fellow
Project Dates Mid-October 2008 – Mid-August 2009 Project Focus
English for Listening, English for Reading, English for Speaking, English for Writing, Teaching Methodologies, Teaching Techniques, Teacher Training, TOT Project Description
This proposal is riding the success of the Hyderabad model started two years ago (and still going strong this year without an EL Fellow). The Directorate in Tamil Nadu "heard" about the transformation in teaching achieved by the Andhra Pradesh (Hyderabad) model and requested to do a similar re-training there for all their state college English lecturers. They are committing funds from their fiscal year budget for this and are ready to engage. Teacher training in a learner centered approach that equips students with effective communicative skills is a key area in English Language teaching in India. Students studying in Government Colleges, particularly in rural areas belonging to disadvantaged communities find it difficult to get through the University examinations in English, Math and Science subjects. The EL Fellow Program will be highly beneficial to retrain the faculty to enhance the teaching skills of all the English Lecturers at the Government Colleges in Tamil Nadu, thereby improving the communications skills of the students from the Govt and Govt aided colleges in Tamil Nadu. The model will be the same as that of Andhra Pradesh in that 2 groups of 25-30 teacher trainers will be trained to continue the training with college teachers. The new trainers will be supported by the EL Fellow in the first round of training so as to provide onsite support and feedback on the training. This project is envisaged as a 2 year project with one group of trainers trained in year 1 with at least 40 % of teachers in the state colleges trained in year one. The remaining will be taken care of in year 2. The training structure will be as follows: two 60 hour “General Orientation Programs” for a batch of 150 English teachers from Government colleges who might go on to become future trainers; six 60 hour Regional Level workshops for groups of 50 teachers from each region (Chennai, Vellore, Trichy, Coimbatore, Madurai and Tirunelveli) of Tamil Nadu; a three week “Train the Trainer Program” for 150 teachers selected from the Regional Level Workshops; trainers will be provided with training kits which should ensure a smooth delivery of further training; this program will also address materials preparation, testing and evaluation; and a listening-speaking text book may be produced and made available to the colleges and a listening and speaking component. In addition, the EL Fellow will train the ACCESS teachers thorough a series of workshops throughout the year; review and recommend appropriate materials for the ACCESS learners; and make regular presentations in the American library and American Corner on various aspects of language learning/teaching with specific modules like presentation skills/writing a CV /taking an interview /improving conversation skills, etc. [top] India
City Jaipur
Host Institution Directorate of College Education Jaipur
Type of Project Senior Fellow
Project Dates Mid-October 2008 – Mid-August 2009 Project Focus
Teacher Training, ESP, Speaking, Writing, Project Description
This will be the second year for this EL Fellow project at the Directorate of College Education in Jaipur. In this phase the EL Fellow will focus on the following duties:
- Observe the training conducted by teacher trainers
- Monitor and support teacher trainers with supplementary training materials
- Conduct teacher development sessions which will include action research
- Training teachers in learner centered, skills based methodologies and techniques of language teaching
- Training teachers specifically to prepare student with communication skills required in the BPO employment sector
- Develop ESP courses in areas identified by the government which meet the special needs of the state. This would include use of the internet to improve communication skills
- Prepare specific modules on presentation skills, writing a CV, taking an interview, improving conversation skills, etc. (these could be offered to the community at large by the teachers trained on this project)
In addition, the EL Fellow will provide training to Access teachers, give workshops and talks at the American centre, coordinate conferences and meetings, and address the requests of institutions not covered by the Directorate of College Education. [top] Nepal
City Kathmandu
Host Institution NELTA/Kathmandu University
Type of Project Fellow
Project Dates September 2008 - June 2009 Project Focus
English for Listening, English for Reading, English for Speaking, English for Writing, Teaching Methodologies, Teaching Techniques, Teacher Training, Materials Development Project Description
The EL Fellow will work directly with NELTA as follows: with monthly contributions for in-country travel, in-kind office space/secretary in Kathmandu and in-kind lodging and meals while traveling in Nepal, the EL Fellow will travel to approximately 2 to 3 NELTA branch offices throughout Nepal to conduct 2-5 day teacher training sessions. The topics of the workshops may be on materials development, teaching techniques, teaching methodologies, listening, speaking, reading, writing, assessment, and testing (pending the EL Fellow’s expertise and areas of interest); the preferred focus being on materials development. As time allows, once or twice a month, the EL Fellow will assist with revision of courses and curriculum of ELT post-graduate programs at Kathmandu University. Time allowing, the EL Fellow will also give occasional lectures to ministry/parliamentary staff, business professionals, lawyers, and/or journalists, on topics related to writing skills, idioms, US culture, or other, pending the EL Fellow’s expertise and areas of interest. [top] Sri Lanka
City Colombo
Host Institution University of Colombo/Ministry of Education
Type of Project Senior Fellow
Project Dates January 2009 - October 2009 Project Focus
Academic Writing, E-learning, Teaching Methodologies, Teacher Training, TOT Project Description
The EL Fellow will be attached to the Department of English, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. The needs of the department include expertise in academic writing to enhance the skills of both undergraduate and postgraduate students in conducting research for and writing theses. Staff training for lecturers in the faculty of English in e-learning and English Language teaching methodologies is also required. The EL Fellow’s time will be split between classroom teaching of students and workshop development and delivery for staff. In addition, the EL Fellow position with the Department of English falls under the Faculty of Graduate Studies. This Faculty would also like to engage the EL Fellow in assisting other departments (e.g. women’s studies, American studies) with improving their students English writing abilities. This would involve workshops with students outside scheduled English department class time. The EL Fellow will also continue to coordinate with the Ministry of Education on a teacher training program based on an American paradigm of training. This involves selecting 20 teachers to become trainers providing them with materials developed by the EL Fellow in Bangkok, and then enabling each trainee to train 20 teachers on a regular basis in the local community throughout the school year, resulting in 400 teachers receiving regular training modules through the school year. This is an ongoing and sustainable American style training paradigm that is in sharp contrast to the usual "BLITZ' training that Ministry of Education runs during summer holidays that offer no follow up during the teaching year. The EL Fellow will also work on a limited basis with Sri Lanka's new ACCESS MICROSCHOLARSHIP program. In addition to the work in Sri Lanka, the EL Fellow will be programmed in the Republic of Maldives on an as-needed basis. The Faculty of Education at the Maldives College of Higher Education is in need of assistance in reviewing the primary and secondary teacher training syllabus. [top] | 
