Teacher training hits the road

In its largest-ever on-site teacher training program, ELI sent five faculty members to South Korea in January for a fourweek “winter camp” for English language teachers. The camp, nestled on top of a mountain overlooking Young-in city about one hour south of Seoul, was organized by the Hyundai Learning Center for the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, a school district which serves 1.5 million children. In addition to attending English language classes taught by local instructors, the more than 150 elementary and secondary school teachers participated in a variety of workshops on language teaching pedagogy led by ELI faculty.

Faculty members Dr. Barbara Gillette and Grant Wolf, ELI director Dr. Scott Stevens, assistant director Deb Detzel and associate director Joe Matterer each spent one week in rotation at the Learning Center on a 9 to 5 schedule of weeklong back-to-back workshops. Topics for the workshops, which were attended by 35 to 75 participants, included teaching the four language skills, assessment, syllabus design, drama-based instruction, strategic interaction and using Internet resources.

	ELI instructor Dr. Barbara Gillette (left) and Hyundai Learning Center Director Paul Yi (third from left), with representatives from the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education and Hyundai Learning Center staff.

“Participants were extremely motivated,” said Dr. Barbara Gillette. “The government of South Korea is making such a huge investment in its teachers to help their country, and the teachers take it so seriously. They worked incredibly hard.”

“What impressed us most was that participants spoke English all the time,” said Dr. Scott Stevens. “They had to sign a contract promising to do so.”

The on-site ESL program coordinator was Ron Stefan, a graduate of the University of Delaware’s MA TESL program.

“I was somewhat worried beforehand about doing training on such a large scale,” said Stevens, “but we got a lot of support. The whole thing went off without a hitch.”

Despite the grueling training schedule, some faculty members were able to take advantage of their geographical location by hiking on the nearby mountains or by hopping on a bus to the Insadong tourist district in Seoul for souvenir shopping before leaving the country.

“People were incredibly nice,” said Gillette, “and buses to Seoul left the Center every five minutes, even on Sunday.”

As a direct result of the program’s success, Ms. Chun Ok Choi, supervisor for curriculum policy at the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, decided to send an additional group of 16 English teachers to ELI in June for pedagogical training.

¶ ELI INSTRUCTOR DR. BARBARA GILLETTE (LEFT) AND HYUNDAI LEARNING CENTER DIRECTOR PAUL YI (THIRD FROM LEFT), WITH REPRESENTATIVES FROM THE SEOUL METROPOLITAN OFFICE OF EDUCATION AND HYUNDAI LEARNING CENTER STAFF.