PERSONAL REPORT on GRUNDTVIG IN-SERVICE TRAININGFOR TEACHERS OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE

Two-week course arranged by “International Discovery Programme”, Maidstone, Kent, U.K.- from 10 to 22 march 2013

My details:

Daniela Chillemi, working in Adult Learning Centre (CTP), in the Penitentiary Institute of Messina.

How to apply:

Consult the website www.programmallp.com . There are two kinds of grants for teachers: Comenius for those dealing with young students, Grundtvig dealing with Adults. The application form must be filled in properly and it’s important to read through all the information they provide. Doublecheck the deadline and consult their European database in order to find a suitable course for you.

My experience:

I chose a two- week course for adult teachers. We were 12 teachers coming from different countries of Europe, so we could speak English all the time. Our trainers were brilliant and always willing to help us. I’m writing down this report in order to disseminate my experience and encourage other teachers to try it.

Benefits:

1. You can improve your knowledge as I did, not only because you are in England by yourself surrounded by native speakers , but also because the course itself aims at enhancing your language skills. I’ll enclose some worksheets on the use of collocations, adjectives, prepositional verbs, verbs of movement, phrasal verbs and so on.

2. A few hours are devoted to the knowledge of the English Education System and to the recent developments in it. We compared it with our Education System and underlined pros and cons.

3. Our trainers provided us with a lot of worksheets and activities on the 4 language skills. I’ll enclose all of them. We focused on the reading comprehension and on the listening through new kinds of dictation like “Running dictation” and the use of songs. There are also new games aiming at building grammar and vocabulary.

4. We revised all of the different kinds of teaching approach and underlined their pros and cons.

5. Each participant could visit two colleges and observed some lessons. I joined 4 ESOL courses and it was great. I stayed on a campus for two days and I had the opportunity to realize that their methodology is more practical and more communicative. Teachers make use of ITC and plan their lesson by the use of photocopiable materials based on specific activities.

6. I was given a long list of useful websites on learning English or where you can find videos for young learners.

7. We devoted a few hours to phonology, word stress and intonation.

8. We visited interesting places like London, Canterbury and other small villages.

9. Staying in a host family is good if you want to get an insight in English life. However, since I was there with my family, I found my own accommodation in a small flat.

10. I’m going to stay in touch with some of the trainers and some of the participants. The only stumbling block I experienced was that I didn’t get my grant before leaving, so take into account that you could anticipate some expenses. By the way, the grant cannot cover all the expenses you will face. Moreover, it was very cold and freezing. On the whole, it was a great experience and I look forward to doing it again in the near future.