Helpful handbook for teacher trainers

HYDERABAD: Though English is a global language, the standard of english language teaching in the country continues to be an issue. Identifying the need to plug this problem, the British Council, the English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU) and the English Language Teachers’ Association (ELTAI)  have come together to launch the first “preview publication” from the first International Teacher Educator Conference held in January last year.Alison Barrett, Head, State Partnerships, British Council India launched the book titled ‘Starting, Stimulating and Sustaining English Language Teacher Education and Development’ at the University of Hyderabad here on Tuesday.Later speaking at a press conference, Barrett announced that the second International Teacher Educator Conference -- Assessing and Evaluating English Language Teacher Education, Teaching and Learning, will be co-hosted by the British Council, EFLU and ELTAI in March in Hyderabad.Following up on the preview publication, the final book, consisting of selected papers presented at the first conference, will be launched in March. “These books would be distributed to teachers across the country through the British Council and ELTAI chapters and made available to teachers in every village and town,” said Barrett and expressed the hope that such a publication would be prepared every year with inputs from the annual conference which aims to provide high quality training for teacher educators.Dr Geetha Durairajan, Professor, Department of Testing and Evaluation, EFLU, said, “the book provides professional development opportunities for master trainers, teacher trainers of English and trainers from across the country as it comprises 21 expert articles from educators from 17 countries who participated in the first conference.”The book, which is edited by Dr Paul Gunashekar of EFLU, Dr Amol Padwad and Dr Daphne Pawelec of the British Council, can also be downloaded online. The book, which is primarily for English language teacher trainers and educators, can be useful to those interested in the language as well. According to Dr Daphne Pawelec (in pic), “different people will get different things out of this book.”