• The course
• Objectives
• The participants
• The course components
• The course outcomes
• Outstanding events

PFPD in communicative competence, ELT methodology and optimization of language learning resource centres

In accord with the policies established by the Colombian Minister of Education aimed at fostering both bilingualism and the use of ICTs in educational contexts, La Sabana University designed this teaching training development course to deepen in-service public school teachers’ practical and theoretical knowledge of English Language Teaching, to give them the opportunity to develop their language teaching methodologies and to provide them with the tools for the optimization of the resource centres for language learning in their schools.

• Provide strategies to improve learners’ language skills and competences
• Assist in the acquisition of conceptual knowledge related to language, language use and language teaching and learning skills
• Enable teachers to design learner-centered lessons addressed to fulfill the learners’ linguistic and affective needs
• Develop teachers’ practical classroom skills and techniques
• Assist in the acquisition of the skills to set up and run a resource centre for language learning
• Encourage teachers to put into practice strategies to foster independent study and learner autonomy aided by a resource centre for language learning
• Encourage teachers to continuously reflect on the teaching practice and to implement strategies to improve their own and their students’ learning.

In-service EFL teachers teaching secondary school courses from Secretaría de Educación schools were appointed to take part in this course. They were required to have an A2 entry level according to the Common European Framework of References for Languages.

Prior to the programme, the participants underwent an interview with one of the course tutors to analyse factors such as motivation, specific needs and knowledge. They also took a computer-based language knowledge test which placed them in a language proficiency level.

Additionally, teachers were required to demonstrate basic computing skills related to the use of word editors, multimedia and internet navigation; a course on basic IT skills was offered to teachers who did not compile with this requirement.

The first group of 155 teachers who took part in this course attended the class sessions from September 2007 to June 2008. The second group of 70 teachers started their classes in April 2008 and will finish in December 2008. This means that the course was taught to 225 teachers from 19 districts and more than 100 schools in Bogota. Although most teachers were English teachers, a small percentage of teachers from other areas like chemistry, social sciences or IT took part in the course. According to the information provided by teachers, each of them was in charge of teaching an average of 250 students.

Communicative Competence

This subject followed a modular approach consisting of 5 components: Writing, Reading, Listening, Speaking, Grammar and Vocabulary which were delivered to teachers as learning strategies workshops. Teachers were encouraged to adopt or adapt these strategies for their own improvement and also to teach their own students considering their learning styles and linguistic needs. A total of 54 hours of instruction of this subject was delivered.

EFL Methodology

In these workshops teachers had the opportunity to activate and develop their knowledge of the English language in addition to being exposed to current trends in EFL methodology focused on the learner. A total of 40 hours of instruction was delivered.

Resource Centres

These workshops provided teachers with information related to the administrative and logistic aspects, the setting up and the managing of resource centres. During these sessions teachers were instructed on the design of teaching materials aided by free web resources like blogs, Audacity, Free Webs, Hot Potatoes and others. A total of 40 hours of instruction of this subject was delivered.

Action Research

The face-to-face sessions and the tutorials given in this module provided teachers with the opportunity to familiarize with preliminary concepts related to the classroom research experience. Teachers were also prompted to carry out a research project aiming at improving or changing a given aspect of their teaching contexts. A total of 10 hours of instruction of this subject was delivered.

The teaching portfolio

Teachers were required to compile and submit a teaching portfolio to demonstrate their learning process throughout the course and also for them to file lesson plans, student artifacts, evaluations, class observation feedback and reflections on their teaching practice which could be considered as evidence of their professional growth.

Examples of teacher e-portfolios

Teaching Portfolio: Aydee Ramirez
http://mx.geocities.com/ayderg66/

Teaching Portfolio: Deyanira Garcia
http://deya08g.googlepages.com/

The learning activities

The creation of learning activities empowered teachers to design teaching materials to meet their students’ needs and to instruct them to work independently. It was also a good opportunity for teachers to integrate technology into their teaching and also for them to think, create and research.

Examples of learning activities

http://www.freewebs.com/myvocabularycorner/.

The PFPD Café Forum

This e-forum was the space to exchange ideas, read the views of others and share opinions. The responses from the teachers indicate that they perceived the e-forums as a useful tool to interact among themselves while using the foreign language for a real communicative purpose.

The virtual language resource centre

The VLRC is a gateway to learning activities created, adapted or adopted by teachers for both teacher colleagues and students. The activities uploaded to this site are grouped according to the communicative competence they belong to. Although the site is still under construction, it is intended to become an instrument for the construction of a learning community where teachers can contribute with additional learning activities, find out about classroom teaching experiences carried out by teacher colleagues and share their e-teaching portfolios. Additionally the VLRC has been conceived as an opportunity to be in touch with technology for the school communities that do not have a physical language resource centre.

Schools visited Studium, the university’s language resource centre

Children and teenagers whose teachers participated in the PFPD visited Studium and took part in activities that involved the use of some of the resources available at the centre. These visits were programmed with the aim of familiarizing them to the use of technology and their resource centres at their schools as a means to learn and practice the foreign language.

Tutors visited language resource centres

The course tutors visited the language resource centres of 10 schools in San Cristobal, Santa Librada, Sierra Morena, Suba, Fontibón, Marsella and other neighborhoods. During these visits tutors observed the way the resource centres were organized and evaluated whether they were integrated with the ESL curriculum. Tutors submitted a report in which they provided teachers some suggestions in order to optimize the use of the centres.

The PFPD closing ceremony

The closing ceremony is an academic event for teachers to share the best of the course results with their peer colleagues, some of the universities’ authorities and officers from Secretaria de Educación. This is also the space for teachers to talk about their future professional plans. The closing ceremony for the current PFPD group will take place in December 2008.