Special programs

In 2004, the English Language Institute welcomed several groups of students, teachers and professionals––from Algeria, Bahrain, Chile, Colombia, Japan, Jordan, Morocco, Russia, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia and Yemen. ELI faculty also trained graduate students from around the world as teaching assistants for a variety of departments at the University of Delaware. Coordinating these programs were faculty members Susan Coakley, Deborah Detzel and Janet Louise, staff member Dolly Desiderio, orientation assistant Eddie Worrilow, assistant director Joe Matterer and associate director Kathy Schneider.

International Teaching Assistants Training Program
ELI once again conducted training programs for the University of Delaware to prepare international graduate students to be teaching assistants. A two-week program was held in January and a four-week program in August. Over 100 students from about 20 academic departments participated in the programs. The objective of the programs is to familiarize the international students with good teaching practices and higher education in the United States. Another important objective is to develop the students’ English speaking proficiency and intelligibility. Instructors in the programs included Dave Cassling, Leslie Criston, Kathy Hankins, Ken Hyde, Sandy Nickel, Sarah Petersen and Olive Yazid. The programs were coordinated by Joe Matterer with assistance from Kathy Schneider.

Colfuturo
Through the auspices of the Fundacion Para el Futuro de Colombia (Colfuturo), seven Colombian professionals studied at ELI for varied lengths of time throughout the year. This is the ninth consecutive year that the agency has sent Colombian nationals to the Institute.

Hiroshima Institute of Technology students celebrate at their graduation.

Hiroshima Institute of Technology
On February 28, ELI was pleased to welcome eight students from the Hiroshima Institute of Technology (HIT). These young men, who lived with American families during their three-week stay in the United States, took advantage of every opportunity they could to experience American culture, reported academic coordinator Deb Detzel. “From wanting to eat their first lunch at Burger King to trying to get a basketball game going at Rodney Hall with whoever walked by, to making friends with classmates from all over the world, these students used every minute of their time to be a part of the action at the ELI,” said Detzel. “Their teachers and host families wished they could have stayed longer.”

Chilean university students and professors
Students and professors from two Chilean universities joined ELI in January and February. Six undergraduates from the Universidad del Pacifico in Santiago, Chile––a university which offers degrees in communication, design, business, humanities and information technology––attended regular ELI classes and participated in ELI trips to Philadelphia,Washington, DC and the Blue Mountain ski area during their stay.

In addition, five business professors from the Universidad Católica del Norte, located in Antofagasta, a silver mining region in northern Chile, studied English at ELI for eight weeks. During their stay they also visited MBNA bank and attended a business class in the University of Delaware’s Executive MBA program in Wilcastle, where they had the opportunity to chat with class members during the dinner break.

Teachers from Incheon and Gyeongsanbukdo, South Korea
For the second consecutive year, the English Language Institute provided short-term English teacher training to primary and secondary school teachers from Incheon, South Korea, in January and February. (See the feature story -- "Incheon teachers.")

	Teachers from Gyeongsanbukdo, South Korean enjoy an explanation of American body language by ELI faculty Janet Louise and Susan Coakley

In addition, 20 enthusiastic public school teachers from Gyeongsanbukdo Province, South Korea, arrived in September for four weeks of language and cultural training, pedagogy workshops and school visits. The participants became active members of a variety of regular Listening/Speaking classes and took special classes in American culture and foreign language pedagogy. The group lived with American families for two weeks and spent their final week visiting ESL classrooms in and around Newark.

Chonnam National University, South Korea
As they had last year, students from Chonnam National University in Kwang-ju, South Korea, attended ELI classes. This year eight students from the engineering school, which specializes in automotive engineering and design, studied English for seven weeks in January and February. The school’s study abroad program, which disperses students among several sites worldwide, was created by Professor Hyung-Koo Park, a prominent engineering professor, out of the belief that English language skills were important for all of the school’s graduates. The agreement with ELI was established subsequent to a visit by Professor Park to ELI in 2002. The program is administered by Mr. Songhee Kim, coordinator of international programs at Chonnam National University

Algerian teachers
Fourteen faculty members from the University of Algiers studied language teaching pedagogy at ELI during March and April under the second year of a program sponsored by the U.S. Department of State. (See the feature story -- "Algerian teachers".)

Nabil Ahmed, Majed Al-Sharafi, and Ali Mohamed Al-Ejl, employees of the Ministry of Oil in Yemen, studied at ELI under the sponsorship of Amideast.

Amideast
Two groups administered by America-Mideast Educational and Training Services, Inc. (Amideast), a private, nonprofit organization that strengthens mutual understanding and cooperation between Americans and peoples of the Middle East and North Africa, arrived at ELI in March. The first group consisted of three professionals from the Ministry of Oil in Yemen, who studied at ELI for several months.

The second group––nine undergraduate students from Bahrain, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Tunisia––attended ELI for eight weeks under the Department of State’s Partnership for Learning Undergraduate Studies (PLUS) Program. The PLUS Program is a new initiative that selects outstanding students who have already completed two years of undergraduate study in their home countries and provides scholarships for enhancing their English language and study skills at American institutions before completing undergraduate degree programs at a U.S. university. In the fall, participants entered various U.S. universities: Alabama, Arkansas, Beloit, Grinnell, Montana State and Oregon State.

Teachers from Jordan

Teachers from Jordan and Morocco
A dozen primary and secondary school teachers from Jordan and 12 teacher trainers and supervisors from Morocco attended five weeks of workshops in teaching pedagogy at ELI from June through August. (See the cover story -- "Teachers from Jordan and Morocco.")

Teacher Trainers and Supervisors from Morocco

Kobe Shoin Women’s University
In August, 30 students from Kobe Shoin Women’s University in Kobe, Japan, and their two escorts, Naomi Kuratani and Takae Kato, came to ELI to study English language and American culture for one month. The students gained first-hand experience of American lifestyles while living with local families. During the first week, the students studied spoken English and American culture with academic coordinator Janet Louise and faculty member Ken Cranker. They joined the full ELI program for three weeks of intensive English language training supplemented with visits to UD Japanese classes, the Newark Senior Center,West Park Place Elementary School, Philadelphia,Washington, DC and New York City. (See the group’s website www.kuratani.net/ud for a photo journal.)

Russian high school students
Linguistic Gymnasium 91 in Ufa, Russia, for the fifth straight year sponsored a group of students for summer study at ELI. Escorted by their teacher, Ms. Inna Fenina, the eight high schoolers arrived in Newark in August for four weeks of language training and cultural visits to New York,Washington, DC, Philadelphia, Hershey Park and Rehoboth Beach. One participant, Aida Abdulmenova, remained for further English language training at ELI in the fall in order to enter the University of Delaware through the Conditional Admissions Program.

Hankuk University of Foreign Studies students in New York City during the winter session

Hankuk University of Foreign Studies
2004 brought two groups of Hankuk University of Foreign Studies students to ELI, one in the winter session and one in the summer. Both groups included 20 students and their escorts.

Despite the cold, cold weather, the January-February group of HUFS students, escorted by Mr. Jin-Oh Ok, warmed up the ELI with their friendly personalities and cheerful involvement in every part of the ELI program, reports academic coordinator Deb Detzel, including trips to New York City on a weekend when the temperature was 24 degrees Fahrenheit and to Philadelphia and Washington, DC, on days that weren’t much warmer.

The summer group of HUFS students, led by Mr. Moon-Bae Kim, arrived the end of June for eight weeks of study. The students enjoyed traveling so much that, in addition to scheduled visits to New York and Washington, DC, the group took a couple of weekend road trips on their own, including one to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, the famed site of the largest battle of the American Civil War. The group hosted a party on the ELI lawn at the end of their session, complete with Korean food from the local Korean Bar- B-Q restaurant. The event was attended by more than 125 people––students, faculty, language partners and host families.

Seinan Gakuin University
Five undergraduate students from Seinan Gakuin University in Fukuoka, Japan, came to ELI in July and August for eight weeks of English study, under the first year of an exchange agreement between the University of Delaware and the Japanese university. Professor Tadasu (Todd) Imahori, director of the Center of International Studies and professor of communication at Seinan Gakuin, came to Newark to sign the agreement in order to expand study abroad opportunities for students at his institution. Delaware is the fourth study abroad site for Seinan Gakuin students, after Hawaii, Australia and Great Britain.

Chilean teachers
In November, 25 Chilean school teachers came to ELI to improve their English and to study the latest language teaching methods. This was just one in a series of teacher training programs for English teachers from Chile which began in 1999.

The teachers were kept even busier than regular ELI students in a program coordinated by Susan Coakley. In the mornings, they joined regular Listening/Speaking classes, followed by their own Culture and Pedagogy classes. Afternoons were spent in two seminars taught by ELI faculty on special aspects of teaching English, with occasional visits to local schools and community sites. At the end of the program, the Chilean teachers put on a conference to show what they had learned and to practice for the training workshops they will be giving to their colleagues next spring. They also assembled portfolios of their independent work and binders full of materials they had gathered. While here, participants enjoyed cultural visits to Washington, New York and Philadelphia. Before leaving, the Chilean teachers were hosted by local families for a traditional Thanksgiving celebration.