Building English Language Teaching Skills of Punjab Secondary School English Teachers
The State Government of Punjab and British Council India are working together to develop the English language teaching skills and language confidence of secondary level English language teachers in government schools across Punjab. The Punjab English Language Teaching Initiative Secondary (PELTI - S) project continues work done as part of the Punjab English Enhancement Programme initiatives between 2010 and 2012. PELTI is a three year state-wide project running from 2013-2016.
British Council India has designed and developed a training programme to first improve the language confidence and classroom skills of a selected group of 186 Master Trainers. This group has been further trained in effective training methods in order to cascade the methodology to 3000 government school teachers of English in grades 9 and 10.
On 23 September 2014, British Council India will hold the first PELTI convocation event in Chandigarh to celebrate the achievements of the Master Trainers involved in the project. Dr Daljit Singh Cheema, Minister of Education Punjab, will grace the occasion. Mr Michael Connolly, Assistant Director, English Partnerships, British Council India will also be present.
The project has specific objectives for each year. In Year 1, the focus was on the classroom practice of Master Trainers. The project is currently in its second year and is focussing on teacher training skills of Master Trainers including skills in monitoring and evaluation and observing and giving feedback to teachers. In Year 3, the project will help further develop the skills of Master Trainers in planning and writing training sessions and classroom resources. The programme of face to face training is supported with a range of resources and tasks aimed at encouraging the Master Trainers and teachers to focus on their continuing professional development.
Initial monitoring from the first year of the project found that 89% Master Trainers reported that they acquired new knowledge after attending the training programme and 88% felt that the training received will help improve their teaching.
One teacher reported that as a result of applying the new methodology in their classrooms, ‘’Students have started speaking in small sentences. Teaching with such activities consumes less time to complete the syllabus and students take a lot of interest in their studies.”
About PELTI
In October 2013, the Punjab state government and British Council India signed an agreement to work in partnership to deliver a programme for English language teachers across the state. The programme has two broad outcomes:
- A cadre of Master Trainers, many of whom will have been involved in the previous British Council-led programmes, able to have a clear role within the state in future (for example, in designing and delivering training programmes and assisting with the monitoring and evaluation of classroom practice)
- Further developed teaching skills and language confidence of these Master Trainers and 3000 English language teachers across the state
This programme is a continuation of the Punjab English Enhancement Programme(PEEP), which ran between 2010 and 2013. Lessons learned, data collected and reporting from this previous project acted as our needs analysis when designing the current programme.
PELTI is a three year project. Each year, the Master Trainers receive eight days of face to face training from British Council Training Consultants. This training is split into two blocks of four days. Between the two blocks of training, they will try out what they have been learning in their own classes so that they can reassure teachers in the cascade that the ideas really do work in practice. They are also given access to opportunities and resources to continue their professional development. The Master Trainers then work in pairs to deliver 5 days of training to groups of secondary school teachers each year. The teachers are also given multiple opportunities and resources to continue developing their own skills beyond the face to face training.
The training course for Master Trainers and teachers includes texts from the Punjab Standards 9 and 10 text books to help them understand how techniques covered in the course can be used in the classroom. It also includes opportunities to observe demonstrations and practise the skills and ideas covered in the course through activities, micro training and teaching.
For more information please contact:
Anupama Ghai, Head English Partnerships North India Mobile: 9999683099 or email: anupama.ghai@britishcouncil.org
For media queries, please contact:
Shonali Ganguli, Head Communications British Council East India, T: +91 (0) 9836569944; E: shonali.ganguli@britishcouncil.org or
Anupama Ghai, Head English Partnerships North India Mobile: 9999683099 or email: anupama.ghai@britishcouncil.org