English teaching materials fly the NEST
A year ago, CAR covered the progress of the English for Community Tourism project in the Miraflor Nature Reserve near Estelí and the production of a teaching toolkit. Now the materials look set to boost English teaching in secondary schools. As part of a commitment to improving the education system and making it more accessible, the Ministry of Education is reforming primary and secondary syllabuses and training teachers in more participative methodologies. Maths and science are current priorities, while materials printed and recorded by the NEST Trust could give a boost to English language teaching.
Back in April, I had the chance to talk to Ramon Bermudez and Wilman Garcia, president and vice president of the Nicaraguan English teachers’ association (ANPI - Asociacion Nicaraguanse de Profesores de Ingles). They were enthusiastic about the contribution the syllabus and materials, The NEST, could make to secondary English teaching and invited me to share them with teachers at NICATESOL. Thanks to the generous support of the British Embassy, which funded my international travel, and ANPI, which sponsored my stay in Managua, I was able to accept.
September 4: I’d promised myself I’d never do this again, not now I’ve retired. But here I am, standing on a platform, this time in Managua, powerpoint presentation at the ready, staring down at a sea of people. Why, oh why have I let this happen?! Because it is such a fantastic opportunity to support much needed changes to English language learning, I tell myself. And now 450 teachers each have a syllabus and a chance to learn about the materials.
NICATESOL is a very impressive two-day event. There are 700 participants at the University of Central America (UCA) campus; a hot lunch; two plenary sessions; dozens of parallel sessions - each with a steward to ensure that they run to time and to prevent overcrowding - and a final standing-room-only ceremony with lots of laughter and action.
My plenary over, I can enjoy it all. I run two workshops and spend time at The NEST’s display table in the exhibition space, meeting teachers and chatting to them about our inexpensive local-context materials. We sell over 100 copies of the book and recordings and the event results in two teacher-training workshops in Ometepe and Esteli. There we explain the syllabus and materials, and share activities to help introduce communicative methodology into a previously grammar-based curriculum.
Already there are books in El Ostional (on the southwest border with Costa Rica), various parts of Chinandega (in the northwest), up in the mountains of Esteli and Matagalpa, near Granada and Masaya, and some recently went to Solentiname. There’s a possibility of further dissemination through Books in Boxes, a programme in which volunteer teachers from UCA and UNAN travel to far-flung regions to run workshops, leaving a donation of books.
The US Embassy may come up with funds to burn CDs and photocopy teachers’ notes and The NEST Trust would donate the student books. Best of all, though, would be the go ahead for a pilot project in a range of secondary schools supported by the Ministry of Education and the US Embassy. Watch this space!
NEST CD recordings can be downloaded from:
http://www.box.net/shared/abnrdon85x
The student’s book will also be available here soon.
