Serbia Project background
Learning point: The calendar for holidays in a country where PRELIM is planned should be considered and the timescale adjusted if necessary.
1. Description of the partners
ELTA Serbia ELTA Serbia is the Association of Teachers of English in Serbia, affiliated with IATEFL. They are a very active group, running annual conferences, seminars and a programme of webinars, among other activities. The main contacts for this project were Ivana Milosevic, President of ELTA Serbia and Jelena Spasić, the ELTA Serbia International Coordinator. Bell Educational Services Ltd Bell is a language education and teacher training provider based in Cambridge. Bell’s Education Programmes department (through whom this project was delivered) also provide educational consultancy services and work with partners around the world to offer teacher training and English language tuition. The main contacts for this project were Kristina Smith (Trainer and Course Developer) and Tom Beakes (Academic Manager for Bell’s Education Programmes). Kristina acted as the main project coordinator for the project.
Although a small country, there are differences between rural and urban environments in terms of having Internet access or teachers checking email. It proved difficult to attract many teachers from outside the main cities. Learning points: •
Prior to accepting ELTAs on projects like this, check for requirements for accreditation or Ministry of Education approval in the country as such courses need to meet specific requirements. Such courses may have to be written well in advance to fit the Ministry timetable.
2. Key features of the context Serbian teachers of English all have a high level of language proficiency: C1 and higher. During meetings with the ELTA board, it was felt that a course covering how English has changed in the 21st century plus trends in British culture that are affecting the English language would be the most useful for Serbian teachers. We were told that there are many professional development opportunities available for teachers in Serbia, so there would be a lot of competition – from MOOCs, courses run by the American embassy, etc. for teachers’ attention. Also, our course would not be accredited by the Ministry of Education in Serbia and so be less attractive to teachers as a result. An important factor was that the UK and Serbia have different Christmas holiday dates, and this, coupled with the dates of the school winter break, made it harder to reach as many teachers as we wanted.
Partnered Remote Language Improvement (PRELIM) project report
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