Pakistan Project background 1.1 Description of the partners
1.1.1 SPELT The Society of Pakistan English Language Teachers (SPELT) is a registered, non-political, non-government, voluntary body of English Language teachers from schools, colleges and universities. Formed in 1984, in Karachi, it is dedicated to improving the standard of English teaching and learning in Pakistan. SPELT operates on the principle of teamwork and self-help to enable maximum exploitation of the limited resources available in the country. As a body, it attempts to be well informed about recent developments in teaching techniques, which invariably need to be modified in order to suit the needs and limitations of the Pakistani situation. It has over 600 members, but through various national activities and programmes it reaches around 5,000 teachers. 1.1.2 OIEG Oxford International Education Group (OIEG) has provided educational services to international and UK-based students for the last 30 years. While its headquarters are in Greenwich, it has a substantial global presence, with language schools and International Colleges in the USA, Canada, Germany and across the UK.
1.2 Key features of the context SPELT established at the beginning that the Course Participants (CPs) were likely to be from urban areas, as it would have been difficult for them to reach more remote areas in the timeframe provided. CPs would also be from a variety of different school types, from primary, secondary as well as tertiary education. SPELT requested that the course focused on communicative language teaching. In addition, they wanted an element of the course to be delivered via mobile phone technology, which may later be relevant to participants involved in the National Curriculum rollout, where mobile learning might be used to reach more remote areas of Pakistan. The main focus of the course was language and functional language for English teaching, linked to a variety of methodology areas. For example, in speaking lessons, the focus could be on giving effective instructions when setting up pair work and group work. When teaching vocabulary, the functions focused on concept-checking questions, etc. We tried to provide a balanced exposure to all language skills and systems and a variety of language functions used in an ESL classroom.
The language division of the company usually sees over 30,000 students study a variety of courses every year. The Junior Programmes department is one of the largest young learner provisions in the UK, and includes the BEO World programmes, a unique and innovative international schools programme that takes please each spring with over 4,000 students taking part. In 2013 the company began negotiations with a number of internationally-minded UK universities to establish and manage teaching colleges for international students on their campuses. OIEG has also recently launched the OI Digital Institute, which focuses on delivering high-quality academic courses online.
Partnered Remote Language Improvement (PRELIM) project report
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