Chilean teacher training follow-up

	Teacher trainer Susan Coakley received a warm welcome from English teachers in Chile and their students in Vicuna, Chile

In October 2002, 21 English teachers from Chile came to ELI to improve their English and to study the latest language teaching methods. The program, part of a series of teacher training programs for Chilean teachers begun in 1999 and sponsored by the Chilean Ministry of Education, was coordinated by ELI instructor Susan Coakley. In October 2003, Coakley traveled to Chile to meet with program participants in order to help them evaluate how they have implemented the new methods they learned here. Coakley stopped first at La Serena, on the coast north of Santiago, then at Osorno, halfway between Santiago and the southern tip of the country, and then finally at Santiago, the capital. In each area she visited schools and met with English teachers, not only the 2002 participants but also participants of earlier programs as well as with teachers who have not had the chance to come to UD. In addition, in Santiago, the Chilean teachers put on a conference to share with each other and with their colleagues the classroom activities they have been developing in the year since their Delaware visit. “The teachers in Chile remember their UD stay vividly,” said Coakley. “Every day in their classrooms, they utilize the methods and strategies they learned at the University of Delaware.”