ETTE Seminar in Malaysia
ETTE: teacher trainer and trainer trainer courses
Tashkent, Uzbekistan
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
September – December, 2008
ETTE (English for Teaching: Teaching for English) is an exciting and important project supported by the British Council. ETTE is a regional project which means that it includes some Asian countries, namely Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, Pakistan, Uzbekistan. The aim of the project is to help thousands of English language teachers improve their professional skills and through them to make their students’ lives different. ETTE works in cooperation with the Ministry of Public Education of our republic which leads to a rapid development of the project in Uzbekistan.
The first ETTE teacher training course called Creative Learner Centred Teaching was held in Tashkent in September 22 - 26, 2008. The seminar was designed to develop teaching skills of secondary school teachers using a communicative methodology in order to apply this knowledge to their lessons. I was one of participants of this interesting, useful and productive seminar, which gave us a chance to share ideas, our experiences and make up plans for the future. There were also participants from Samarkand, Karshi, Fergana and Tashkent region. During the seminar we had a number of practical sessions on teaching English, such as teaching vocabulary, teaching speaking and reading.
Thanks to our trainers – Natalia Tsarikova, Nargiza Kuchkarova and Oybek Kurbanov (all from Uzbekistan) – the participants succeeded to learn a lot about communicative methodology. Every day we reflected on what we had done and gave feedback to the trainers on their sessions. But the most exciting thing was to practice new techniques in groups during microteaching sessions and got feedback from trainers and colleagues.
Undoubtedly, this teacher training course was a brilliant opportunity for us to grow professionally.
The next stage of Teacher Training Course was conducted in Tashkent in November 24 - 27, 2008. The aim of this course was to familiarize participants with the British Council Global Product Classroom Language course and build an ETTE team of trainers in Uzbekistan. On the first day we looked back to analyze what they had achieved and looked forward to plan for the future. We took an active part in sessions and discussions professional topics from different angles. Our trainers helped us increase awareness of the principles of communicative language teaching. As usual at the end of the course the participants demonstrated microteaching sessions. And we were also grateful to the British Council for a chance to take part in the 12th Annual UzTEA Conference Professional Development Opportunities for ELT held in November, 28 – 29 in Tashkent.
Some teacher trainers were selected for the next stage of the project, trainer training course which was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in December 9 -19, 2008. I was again lucky to participate. Objectives of the course were to develop understanding of similarities and differences between teaching and training, to develop basic teacher training skills through input, awareness raising and microtraining practice, to equip trainers with practical skills to be able to deliver sessions and workshops to teachers working in remote and disadvantaged areas for the ETTE project.
This course which lasted 10 days in the heart of Asia was very challenging and fruitful. The participants who came from Uzbekistan, Iran and Bangladesh worked cooperatively, exchanged experience and discussed education system, syllabus in their countries.
Professional trainers Sue Leather (Canada), Leila Tehrani and Javad Gulami (Iran), Nargiza Kuchkarova (Uzbekistan) encouraged the participants to work collaboratively and helped them when they needed. The first week focused on developing training skills and following topics were covered:
- Planning Teacher Training Session
- Giving Constructive Feedback to Colleagues
- Process Options in Teacher Training
- Giving Practical Ideas for Teaching
During these two weeks the participants read methodological articles and discussed them.
The second week’s focus was on Training for ETTE. It is important to mention that this week included microtrainings which enabled us to show our training skills and knowledge which we had acquired. All of us noticed that the last microtrainings were more successful than the first ones which proves that practice always makes perfect.
Overall participants succeeded to acquire knowledge in planning teacher training sessions, observing and giving feedback, ways of providing input, getting teachers to reflect on their practice and running seminars and workshops as well as using information on ETTE Moodle.
Thanks to the British Council the participants had a great time in Malaysia enjoying the atmosphere of the wonderful city.
Gozzal Utemuratova
