JOIN USGreat efforts have been made to slowly phase out the use of vernacular language in classroom teaching. The British Council launched the first phase of its operation at the DSERT Centre at Banashankari in Bangalore.
According to Senior Teaching Consultant Clare O’ Donahue, “The British Council provides teaching support for the project. Master skill trainers are identified and chosen by the State Government and sent to our training sessions. Master skill trainers are usually senior teachers from primary schools who have a vast classroom experience. Each trainer is provided with material from the British Council.”
“The main aim of the programme is to bring alive English to children in government schools. Master trainers who are trained by the British Council will later help train other primary school teachers. There are now 700 master trainers across the state and we need to identify and support them. The British Council also provides awareness and orientation programmes for heads of government schools. The programme in Bangalore will culminate in February,” she says.
More about the project
‘Project English’ was launched in November 2007 with the objective of raising the standard of English language teaching and learning across India and Sri Lanka.
The British Council aims to train at least 3,000 master trainers across India, and using cascade methodology, reach 7,50,000 English language teachers over five years. They also aim to provide over two million English language teachers with access to high quality training and resources relevant to their needs.
Particularly, learners from rural and underprivileged backgrounds are reached through digital technologies such as mobile, radio and television and innovative partnerships with regional and UK partners.
By the end of the programme, master trainers will be able to use interactive teaching methodology to teach English and train English teachers and also teach children in the classroom and training room. Teachers will be able to use interactive teaching methodology to teach English and train English teachers. Heads of schools will be able to provide administrative and logistical support to master trainers during the cascade training programme.
The programme is delivered in three phases and the duration of the complete programme is twenty days. The course has been designed to be as practical as possible and participants will be expected to work in pairs and groups.
An overview of the first phase of the programme for master trainers is as follows: On day one, the programme aims at delivering introductions to reflection and action planning and factors that need to be considered while planning workshops.
On day two, emphasis is laid on group work and activities. On day three, feedback sessions are conducted. Day four starts with an interaction and ends with group work. By the end of day seven, master trainers will learn how to present new vocabulary.