Improving English language

proficiency in state schools: policy

and systemic implementation

Michael Carrier

Highdale Consulting

& UK ELT Working Group

Regional Policy Dialogue,

British Council, Guadalajara,

Sep. 2017

Outline

1. Context & impacts of English

2. Challenges & bottlenecks

3. Policy framework

4. Strategic framework

5. Teacher capacity building

6. Embracing digital

2

The Global

context

English changes lives, opens doors

Young people want access to education, jobs, mobility

Parents want kids to have wider opportunities

Employers need multilingual and global workers

Societies need multilingual & multicultural citizens

Government wants increased competitiveness

English becomes more ‘instrumental’

33

Economic role

of English

44

English targets for social goalsLearners:

• Reaching min. B1 at 18

• Reaching min. B2 at BA graduation

Teachers:

• Entering teacher training with min. B2 level

• Leaving teacher training with min. C1 level

Society:

• A bilingual workforce who can compete internationally

• Globally-oriented, multilingual citizens who gain access

to the world’s knowledge, employment and business

opportunities5

State of English in state schools

6

Challenges• Low learner outcomes at 18

• Low student graduation levels at BA degree

• Students unprepared for post-grad study

• Graduates unprepared for international company work

• Teachers demotivated and overstretched

• Teachers underpaid – linguists tempted to other jobs

• Teachers & unions resistance to change

• Lecturers/professors unprepared for EMI

• Insufficient investment in education & teachers

• Society suffers from under-investment from abroad

• Society suffers from under-employed young people

7

What doesn’t work so well?

• Classes of 50

• Short class hours

• Lack of English exposure outside school

• ‘Drip feed’ teaching eg 2 x 40mins per week

• Lack of online access

• Multiple choice exams for English grading

• Over-theoretical PRESETT

• Teacher language proficiency

• Lack of investment in teachers

• Short term planning focus

• Small scale solutions

• Lack of political continuity

8

OptionsWe can change:

• Policy

• Curriculum

• Entry exams

• Teacher certification

• Learning materials

• Exit exams

• Methodology

• Technology

• Social status

9

Language

Policy

Policy components include:

• Goals of English programmes

• Which standards are set

• Targets for learner outcomes

• When English begins

• How much time is spent

• How budgets are prioritised

• How teachers are trained

• Which content is taught

• How learners are measured

• How teachers are measured

10

11

InterAmerican Dialogue

Policy framework

InterAmerican Dialogue

Policy framework

12

InterAmerican Recommendations

1 – Address policy bottlenecks

2 - Improve teacher training, while

also looking for innovative solutions

to address the teacher shortage

3 - Look beyond the K-12 educational

system for learning opportunities

4 - Towards a regional learning

community

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www.thedialogue.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/English-Language-Learning-in-Latin-America-Final-1.pdf

IAD key takeaways

• Lack of consistent assessment and standards – for learners and teachers

• Inadequate proficiency testing of teachers; need language upskilling

• Lack of government regulation of private ELT providers

• Lack of government influence on university training of teachers

• Insufficient innovation in blended learning and digital learning initiatives

• Insufficient engagement *beyond* classroom: self-learning, further ed.

• Lack of regional coordination & sharing

• Lack of teacher certification & accreditation

• Lack of evaluation of teacher development programme impacts

14

Strategic &

systemic

change

process

Vision

Baseline Analysis

Strategic planning

Implemen-tation plan

Milestones

Evaluation

15

• Develop an achievable Vision for English in 20xx

• Conduct a Baseline Study to provide evidence of current

situation, to input into policy change

• Develop a Strategic Plan for English in 20xx

• Language Policy

• Curriculum Development

• Teacher Development

• Research Program

• Develop an Implementation Plan

to achieve the strategy

A five year national plan

16

Baseline studies

• Benchmarking of students’ English language ability

• Benchmarking of teachers’ English language ability

• Benchmarking of teachers’ Teaching ability

Situational Analysis:

• Review of current curriculum

• Review of teacher training

• Review of teacher performance

• Review of learning materials

• Review of assessment procedures/exam specifications

• Attitudinal surveys (qual/quant)

17

Sample Strategic plan

1. Conduct baseline analysis - assess the current situation and identify deficits

2. Revise language policy - set new outcome targets and standards

3. Revise curriculum standards

4. Revise assessment goals and instruments

5. Develop the new policies, structures and resources to facilitate reaching of these targets

6. Build teacher capacity & expand teacher workforce

7. Design or revise teaching and learning materials

8. Engage parents and society - communicate the need for change and how to achieve

change to all stakeholders

9. Develop Digital learning approach & provide online/blended learning out of class

10. Design an action plan and implement the plan

11. Evaluate progress through M&E

18

Strategic

components

19

Curriculum (high level content)

Syllabus (sequenced)

Scheme of Work (lesson by lesson)

20

Key:

Keep curriculum

textbook-neutral but

provide mapping

Provide teachers with

detailed guidance

through Scheme of Work

Curriculum

21

Implement-

ation

priorities

Prioritise

22

Teacher Training

Learning Content

Devices

22

Opportunity cost

Fast track:

• Baseline testing to get data

• Language upskilling for current teachers

• New school-leaving exams for English – with international standards/comparability

• Curated self-study - Online self-access for all citizens

• Focus on Upper Secondary English level improvement

Slow track:

• Higher level teacher methodology courses

• Primary level English

• New curriculum development

• New localised textbook

23

“Better a bad curriculum and a good teacher”

Eduardo Andere

Teacher

Capacity

Building

Issues:

• Workforce shortfall

• Language proficiency

• Pre-service training

• In-service training

• Performance evaluation

• Access to resources

• Motivation

• Social status

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Teacher capacity building - keys

• Build a research-based professional competence framework

• Design language up-skilling - Teacher language improvement courses to raise classroom

standards

• Provide context-sensitive UK teacher training qualifications – eg CiSELT (British Council),

CELT-S (Cambridge)

• Re-evaluate current teacher qualifications and training model

• Advise university training providers

• Provide national cascade training with Master Trainers

• Provide a range of in-service development courses

• Build a bank of innovative & free teaching and learning resources (eg British Council) on

National Resource Platform website

• Build an Online Community for teachers to join on the National Platform

25

Teacher capacity designs

SachsenAnhalt – British Council ‘sandwich’ course:

Stage 1

• Face-to-face language development in home city

• Optional language proficiency test – which carries eligibility for

selection to study abroad

Stage 2

• Online language development to support F2F hours

• F2F & online methodology seminars on key issues

Stage 3

• Study Abroad 4 weeks in UK: teacher development course, tailor-

made with partner to include language and methodology

Stage 4

• Post-study Abroad group – online followup after return

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Teacher language proficiency improvement

Language For Teachers:

• Online and face-to-face course

content

• 100 hours+ content study

• Audio & video materials

• Focused on the teacher’s professional

school context

• Focused on improving level from A2

to B1 and then to B2

• Cambridge ‘Language For Teachers’

Certificate

• Customisable to local needs and

conditions

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State school-specific qualificationsBritish Council

• CiSELT

• CiPELT

Cambridge English

• CELT-P

• CELT-S

• ICELT

Less urgent:

• Masters, CELTA, DELTA, TKT

28

Secondary school teachers

CELT-S Cambridge Certificate

• Online and face-to-face course content

• 100 hours content study + observation,

reading, reflection

• Video lesson observation & evaluation

• Focused on Secondary school context

• Focused on language level A2 to B2

English teacher shortfall

Strategies:

• Shift qualifications (eg accept CELT-S)

• Remote teachers

• Non-degree teachers with high

language levels

• Volunteers (local & overseas)

• VSO, Fulbright etc

• BC CELTA scholarships

• Question assumptions on teacher

background & role

• Classroom assistants with lesser

qualifications

Greece: ‘Frontisteria’ teacher

model:

• no degree required

• min. 18 years old

• passed Cambridge Proficiency

(C2) exam

• local / school-specific methods

course

• only allowed in language

schools

29

www.teachingenglish.orgCurating teacher resources

30

Teacher

competence

frameworks

Cambridge CPD Framework

31

32

Digital learning competences

33

Innovation & disruption

Learning:

• In-country intensive programmes

• Facetime Pals with English-speaking schools

• One-day Language Immersion in-school

• Tablet loan sets

Teacher development

• English Summer Town for teachers

• National MOOCs

Resources:

• National ELT Platform (LMS)

• Curated online content – by level, aim, task, theme

34

Digital

Classroom

• E-learning / Online learning

• Virtual Classroom

• Blended / hybrid learning

• Social Learning

Digital Learning models

35

Digital Learning ecosystem

Face-to-face

classroom

eTutors

Phone-Tablet-PC(device agnostic)

LMS-based

PracticeMyPortfolio

(& social media

community)

Blended Course

via LMSVOIP FaceTime

The Learner

36

1:1 learning, OLPC

37

Plan Ceibal – Remote teaching, local support

Remote teacher

using video-

conference

Students with

Classroom

laptops

Local class

teacher managing

activity

Local classroom:

TV screen

showing remote

teacher

2-way video

& audio

Joint

lesson

planning

38

In-class vs Out-of-class models

Before Class

In Class

After Class

Activities:• Writing

• Comprehension Qs

• Online workbook

• Vocab practice apps

• Formative

assessment

Activities:• Reading & Listening

activities

• Study text

• Learn vocab online

• Grammar in Use

activity with Apps

Activities:• Speaking activities

• Pairwork

• Concept questions

• Communication

activities, games

storytelling

• Mentoring

39

Do you speak digital?

Reflection• BYOD

• VLE

• Flipped

• Blended

• IWB

• VR

• AR

• MOOC

• SPOC

• Bluetooth

I speak

Geek

Score yourself

out of 10 for

concept

recognition

40

Digital

Media

Strategy

TV, radio, apps, platforms

• TV shows in English for students

• TV shows for teacher training

• Radio phone-in discussions for students

• Radio chat shows for teachers and experts

• National apps for English practice – linked to curriculum

• National Online Platform for interactive and/or tutored

practice

41

Beyond the Classroom: curated content

42

Digital

Assessment

43

Writeandimprove.com

44

Speech-enabled activities

Speech-

enabled

technology

(ASR)

45

Speech to Text

46

Speech-enabled translation

47

Low resource

technology

Power & connectivity

48

Infrastructure:

• Solar power - LifePLayer

• Offline server – RACHEL project,

Guatemala

Partners for

reform

UK partners:

• ELT Working Group

• British Council

• Cambridge English, OUP

• Trinity, Pearson, Macmillan etc

• NILE, Bell, TransformELT, IATEFL

US partners:

• TESOL, State Department

• mEducation Alliance

• IDB, OAS

• World Learning

• InterAmerican Dialogue49

5 key actions• Focus on teacher spoken language proficiency

• Focus on getting large scale data on:

• language of students & teachers

• teacher performance

• Focus on exposure to language, & time on task, via Digital Learning

• Focus on entry/exit assessment tied to international comparability

• Focus on long-term sustainability & continuity of programme design &

teacher support50

Thank you!

email: michael@highdale.org

PDF: http://www.michaelcarrier.com

InterAmerican Dialogue:

http://www.thedialogue.org

Digital Framework:

http://thedigitalteacher.com

TIRF/Routledge book:

http://www.tirfonline.org

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