The ELT e-Reading Group was created by a collective of English language educators from all over the world with the support of the British Council. It aims at encouraging ELT professionals to read literature in English, helping to build bridges between cultures and contributing to build tolerance and intercultural competence through the discussion of works literature.

Call for English Language university and college teacher trainers and their trainees
We are inviting university and college teacher trainers to join us in the ELT e-Reading Group project, phase 2. We need university and college teachers to act as co-ordinators and tutors for their trainees; and we need trainees to take part in the reading of short and stimulating texts, and to get involved in discussing them online with their peers in other countries.

How does it work?
The group meets online and participants post their comments to a discussion board, sharing their points of view on short stories and poems written in English. A new story is added to the website each 6 weeks but the forum is permanently open and group members can post their comments about any story that has been published as well as the one currently being discussed. All texts come from free online sources with no copyright restrictions. Texts are likely to come from the BritLit Project, New Writing and the Project Gutenberg.

The technology used in the website is quite simple and registration is likely to be easy; however, we expect local coordinators to have an introduction section with their groups to show students the platform, help them to make their registrations and support them with the technical issues in their first time accessing the website.

It is important that coordinators design pre-reading and post-reading activities to use with their students in face-to-face sessions, as basis for a forum discussion. In this way students will feel more confident to participate and can also have an opportunity to work on language issues raised from the text.

We expect that each student will post ONE initial personal comment about the story and reply at least ONCE to a comment made by a colleague. In this way discussion can be generated.  

Objectives

• To encourage pre-service English language teachers to read literature in English, creating opportunities to get in contact with texts from different countries, periods and authors.
• To enable the pre-service Language teachers to understand the importance of creating space for language learners to promote critical thinking and learner autonomy by allowing them to participate in a democratic discussion.
• To sensitize the future teachers about the critical role of Literature in human life in general and to inculcate in them a sense of comfort in using Literature in ESL/EFL classroom.
• To promote debate and an in-depth engagement with relevant issues through the discussion of works of literature.
• To provide opportunities for future teachers to talk to each other online underpinning the reading habit and building an ELT community of readers.
• To help future English language educators to see other points of view connecting them to a wider world, other philosophies and new ideas building bridges between, and insight into, other cultures thus contributing to building tolerance and intercultural competence.
• To create opportunities for trainee teachers to develop their own language skills, increasing vocabulary, improving pronunciation and increasing their understanding of idiom and expressions as well as their command of the language as a whole. This forum can bring about a lot of incidental learning for the future teacher in providing feedback and responding to others’ views which is very important for a teacher’s job.
• Improve the literacy of the future generations of teachers through possible partnership with Universities around the world that have TESOL undergraduate students. In this way we will be moving from remedial work to promoting the contact of would-be teachers with Literature in English from their formation years.
• To help the future teachers of English realise the necessity of teacher-initiated professional development and networking for the success of their respective professional life. 
• Establish a network of universities and scholars interested in promoting literacy among students with the support of British Council, which is a UK charity institution with a long history and tradition of promoting the development of ELT professionals around the world.

How can I join?
If you are interested, you can download an application form in the Attachment box below.

The piloting
During the piloting phase of this project students from two universities in India and one in Brazil discussed and analysed two texts: ‘Amy Foster’ by Joseph Conrad and ‘Ullswater’ by Romesh Gunesekera. Here are some comments made by the local coordinators.

'I think the project is very useful, especially in a field (reading) that is slowly loosing its sheen due to various factors. The very idea of combining technology with reading is quire innovative.'
Atanu Bhattacharya – Sardar Patel University, Gujarat, India

'I created some of my own comprehension questions to help students understand what happened in the story. Then when we met as a group we re-told the story and talked about the vocabulary related to the personalities of the characters and the setting of the story as well. Basically it was just discussion because there was a small group who came to the meeting in person. But I think they all felt they had a much better sense of the content of the story after discussing it together.'
Margaret Pederson - Universidade Estadual de Londrina, Brazil.

'I feel this innovative forum will have a great impact on our students’ professional life in future. Though the progress and participation does not show a steady upward movement (at least from students of my college) it will pick up a momentum after some time. Their keenness will help them be a more active partner in the project.'
Sanghita Sen - Presidency College, Kolkata

Visit the enCompassculture website to learn more about the project

http://www.encompassculture.com/readinggroups/eltereadinggroup/

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