‘Learn English by Cooking’ – learner’s DVD
Szkola Jezyka Angieslkeigo - Program Bell, Poland – Becky Joslin, Katarzyna Lisiewicz, Pasquale Errico

Program-Bell’s  DVD Learn English By Cooking is an innovative and effective way to learn English in a natural environment. It is a film of regular monthly cooking classes as supplementary lessons for students who could learn English through performing this task. Viewers, when watching the dynamic culinary session unfold, concentrate on the necessary procedures in the cooking process and harmoniously acquire new words. The DVD captures the dynamic action of cooking in class, enhanced by sly editing and befittingly quirky music. It is lively and funny and it makes language learning easy and fun. Learn English By Cooking received the 2008 Bell Award for Innovation (Highly Commended).

Judge's comments: “This looked like a lot of fun and I really liked it. No question you’ve got real English and real learners using it in a context very different from the normal EFL classroom”.

‘English Language Textbooks for Mongolian Secondary Schools’ – course
English Language Teachers' Association of Mongolia (ELTAM), Mongolia – S Ulziijargal and the Curriculum Development and Textbook Writing Team

This is the first English language course book series for Mongolian secondary schools and consists of 18 books (Student’s Books, Activity Books, Teacher’s Books) covering 6 levels. Each level includes a cassette or CD recorded in a UK studio. The course was produced by a team of eight Mongolian teachers and a Mongolian publisher, who were supported by a UK-based consultant.

It is the culmination of an eight year curriculum development and textbook writing project, sponsored by the Mongolian Ministry of Education and the Mongolian Foundation for Open Society (Soros Foundation), and is used for teaching, teacher training and textbook writer development within Mongolia. The course was hard work to write, but is fun to use!

Judge's comments: “The organisation is simple and effective. The contents are clear. The topics are interesting and fun. It does a sound job”.

‘Enrich Your English’ – programme for mobile phones
Avon Mobility Solutions Rvt Ltd, India – Enrich Your English Team

Enrich Your English is a service that provides a simple and effective means of increasing one's vocabulary through the mobile phone, making use of its multimedia features.

The user is taught a new word or an idiom every day, along with its meaning, pronunciation, and how it can be used in day-to-day life. The word/idiom, its meaning and usage is explained using stunning graphics, funny animation, and high quality audio. This helps the user learn, recollect and use it precisely, with the correct pronunciation.

The service is available through Telecom Service Providers as a subscription service.

Judge's comments: “I like the overall concept. It is practical and innovative and one which would find great appeal in today’s society”.

‘Life Skills 1’ – activity book
Independent entry, Bahrain – Shahnaz Bahman

Too often our language classrooms focus only on developing children's linguistic skills. Life Skills 1 is an activity book that makes your language classroom more meaningful through using language to develop children's emotional intelligence and health. It is enriched with interesting hands on activities that help children use language in real life situations. Life Skills 1 brings joy and purpose into your classroom. In addition to language, it develops children's emotional, social and thinking skills through art, music, role play, reflection, self expression and problem solving activities. A real gift of skills you can give to the children you teach.

Judge's comments: "This is a very interesting entry. It touches on important areas and deals with them in a way which is simple enough for the young learner to be able to respond appropriately. It can be easily used to support existing textbooks".

‘Lexitronics: a corpus and technology informed approach to teaching, learning, and researching lexis’ – research  
Lexitronics, Cyprus – Ali Billuroglu, John Eldridge, Nilgun Hancioglu

Lexitronics is an ongoing research project with a strong practical portfolio of associated products. Lexitronics is founded on the belief that the acquisition of an extensive vocabulary is the basis of language learning. Lexitronics embraces technology, and holds self-directed and collaborative learning to be key learning concepts. Lexitronics challenges much conventional thinking about vocabulary, and has become a fascinating journey in which a brand new wordlist has been evolved, a corpus-informed academic writing course developed, and a series of electronic readers produced, along with numerous other projects. In short, Lexitronics is where the research gets practical.

Judge's comments: “This is a worthy piece of research which puts forward a convincing case for a more lexical approach to teaching”.

‘The Language Teacher’s Survival Handbook’ – handbook for teachers
iT's Magazines, Spain – Robert Campbell, Lindsey Clandfield, Duncan Foord

The Language Teacher's Survival Handbook gives teachers practical support and ideas on how to deal with key challenges in their work, both inside and outside the classroom. The handbook includes chapters on teaching methods, the history of ELT, teaching grammar, teacher body language, professional development, using L1 in the classroom, surviving technology, plus lots of tried and tested practical classroom activities, all presented in a fresh and appealing way.

"... a treasure trove ... what the reader is treated to is a smorgasbord of generally ignored features of teaching." Wayne Trotman, EL Gazette.

Judge's comments: “Every new teacher packing their bag for a first contract in Buenos Aires, Barcelona or Berlin should have a copy of the Survival Handbook”.