The OER Knowledge Cloud makes use of cookies. By continuing, you consent to this use. More information.
Equipping Language Educators at Scale: Open Educational Resources and Institutional Collaboration for Professional Development and Practice
Power, Tom · Deane, Michele · Hedges, Claire

PublishedJune 2009
Conference8th International Language and Development Conference, British Council

ABSTRACT
In much of South Asia (e.g. India, Bangladesh, Sri-Lanka) there had been a post-colonial emphasis on the use of mother tongue. For instance, in Bangladesh, a nation almost solely founded on the basis of the language movement (Bhasa Andolon) of 1952. About 98% of the country’s population speak Bangla . Bangla was the medium of education at all levels except in a small number of schools (Hossain and Tollefson, in Power and Shrestha, 2009). However, in an increasingly globablised world, English Language is now re-emerging as a significant factor in economic development. It is widely perceived that many graduates fail to gain employment because their English skills or qualifications fall below the required level of functional literacy. (British Council, 2009).

It has therefore become paramount to develop effective skills in the use of spoken and written English and some governments have been taking measures to address this need. For instance, the Bangladeshi government in collaboration with the Department for International Development (DFID) of the UK government jointly funded the English Language Teaching Improvement Project (ELTIP). (Power and Shrestha, 2009, p.2). But research evidence (Power and Shrestha, 2009, p.2) show that, despite the huge investments since the early 2000s, the quality of English remains low. This indicates that more needs to be done, or it needs to be done differently.

There is therefore a need to train or upskill large numbers of English Language Teachers (ELTs), both in relation to their own level of English Language proficiency, and in relation to their teaching skills and practices. The situation calls for responses that are effective, imaginative, and capable of operating scale. It may possible for such responses to transcend national boundaries, whilst recognizing local teacher identities and contexts.

Keywords international development · language · scale · teacher professional development · technology

Languageen
URLhttp://oro.open.ac.uk/17799/
Export optionsBibTex · EndNote · Tagged XML · Google Scholar


Viewed by 218 distinct readers




CLOUD COMMUNITY REVIEWS

The evaluations below represent the judgements of our readers and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Cloud editors.

Click a star to be the first to rate this document


POST A COMMENT
SIMILAR RECORDS

Transforming English language learning in rural classrooms: OERs, mobile technologies and scale
Power, Tom; Umar, Abdurrahman; Hedges, Claire
Through its “OERs for English Language Teaching (Pan-Commonwealth)” project, the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) is working in partnership with educational institutions throughout Africa and the Commonwealth to ...
Match: power, tom; hedges, claire

Leading campus OER initiatives through library–faculty collaboration
Goodsett, Mandi; Loomis, Barbara; Miles, Marsha
With the rising costs of tuition and textbooks, Open Educational Resources (OERs) are becoming increasingly important. The university library, in collaboration with faculty, is a natural leader of OER initiatives at ...
Match: collaboration

A review of the role of national policy and institutional mission in European distance teaching universities with respect to widening participation in higher education study through open educational resources
Lane, Andy
The open educational resources (OER) movement is relatively new with few higher education institutions (HEIs) publishing or using them, and even fewer using them to widen engagement or participation in HE study. ...
Match: institutional

Development of OERs through international collaboration E-QUAL case study
Gupta, Parul
Development of Open Education Resources (OER) is similar to product development and it requires due attention to get the final product. Generally, the focus is laid on the final product and not on the process. However, ...
Match: collaboration

MOOCs, institutional policy and change dynamics in higher education
O’Connor, Kate
The last couple of years have witnessed a growing debate about online learning in higher education, notably in response to the global massive open online course (MOOC) phenomenon. This paper explores these developments ...
Match: institutional

Sustainability of open education through collaboration
de Langen, Frank
The definition of openness influenced the sustainability of business models of Open Education (OE). Yet, whether openness is defined as the free (re)usage of resources, or the free entry in courses, there always is a ...
Match: collaboration

OER models that build a culture of collaboration: A case exemplified by Curriki 2 open source – The solution
Kurshan, Barbara
This article explores the impact that Open Educational Resources (OER) can have on eliminating the “Education Divide.” Advances in information technologies have created unique opportunities for the free exchange and ...
Match: collaboration

Guidelines for the creation of institutional repositories at universities and higher education organisations
Gonzalez, Atilio Bustos; Porcel, Antonio Fernandez
The Institutional Repository (IR) is understood as an information system that collects, preserves, disseminates and provides access to the intellectual and academic output of the university community. Nowadays, the IR ...
Match: institutional

The Open Textbook Toolkit: Seeding successful partnerships for collaboration between academic libraries and university presses
Waller, Mira; Cross, William M.
Libraries and university presses coexist in a complex and increasingly consolidated scholarly communication ecosystem. Each brings different strengths, values, and viewpoints that can inform and enrich a joint project. ...
Match: collaboration

Institutional collaboration on MOOCs in education—A literature review
Nortvig, Anne-Mette; Christiansen, René
This literature review seeks to outline the state of the art regarding collaboration between educational institutions on Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) launched in Europe and in the US for the past 10 years. The ...
Match: institutional; collaboration