The British Council organised two series of IELTS teacher training workshops in Colombo and Kandy recently. Over 25 teachers from the island-wide IELTS registration centre network of the British Council participated at these workshops, which covered one day of learning in each of the four IELTS modules: Speaking, Listening, Reading and Writing.
IELTS is the world’s most popular English language test, which was taken by over 2 million candidates worldwide last year. With a presence in over 100 countries and nearly 25 years of history behind it, IELTS is recognised by over 8,000 institutions across the world. In Sri Lanka too, IELTS continues to be a popular and much sought after test by candidates as partial fulfilment of their applications for work, study and migration. This has resulted in a keen interest of English teachers to obtain specialised training on preparing students to sit for all four modules of the IELTS test.
The workshops organised by the British Council were conducted by Ewen Arnold, PhD, a British Council teacher and an IELTS examiner. “These workshops are intended to build confidence and competence in the preparation of students for IELTS. All participants in the workshops were already teaching IELTS, and this made the workshop more meaningful and created a platform for greater learning and exploration,” Ewen stated at the end of the series of workshops.
“Dr. Arnold’s expertise and years of experience ensured that the participants were enriched with a wealth of information and innovative training techniques that would enhance their IELTS teaching skills. The workshop additionally addressed the issues faced by teachers and students in the four IELTS modules and provided practicable solutions for these concerns. Learning the IELTS marking procedures and systems from the perspective of an examiner was an important aspect of the programme. This invaluable experience will undoubtedly be reflected in higher scores for future IELTS candidates”, said Noeline Honter, Director/CEO of Life English Academy and television personality, who participated at the workshop.