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Nearly 2 billion people worldwide ‘use’ English commercially. It is the first language of 300-400 million people and a second language for 500 million more. India and Sri Lanka, like many other countries, have realised that there is a need to ramp up skills and competencies in English to remain competitive.
In November last year, British Council India and Sri Lanka launched its new regional project in English at English for Progress: First Policy Dialogue in Chennai, South India.
The conversation continues on 17 and 18 November 2008 in Kolkata, East India, at the two-day English for Progress – 2nd Policy Dialogue, which aims to take forward the issues that came up and raise new concerns.
In Chennai we drew on our global expertise in English language teaching, training, research and certification, and brought together almost 100 representatives from industry, academia and government in India, Sri Lanka and the UK to discuss concerns regarding the teaching and learning of English and the problem of employability faced by young people in our respective countries because of the lack of language training.
The speakers and delegates — policy makers in education and employment, from government and private sectors — considered ways to work together to address them.
The first Dialogue signalled the need to:
- develop or improve examinations and assessments to meet the needs of stakeholders while following a clear pedagogy
- motivate teachers to embrace new methodologies and implement change on the ground
- improve society’s perceptions of teachers and to ‘professionalise’ the profession
- harness new technologies to reach more teachers and learners
- ensure teaching and learning programmes are scalable and sustainable in the long term
In Kolkata we hope to delve deeper into issues around language development, teaching and examine the role of language training in recruitment and retention.
The conference will this time be divided into two strands, devoted to the state and corporate sector. Plenary sessions and panel discussions will revolve around the following:
For the corporate sector:
- Testing and assessment
- Intercultural communication training
- Training corporate trainers
- Train the gap: Skills profiling your business processes
- Recruitment and retention
And for the state:
- Testing and assessment
- Technology platform for larger numbers
- Capacity building in teacher development and trainer training
- Sustainability and scaleability: Planning and implementing large-scale projects
- Reaching and motivating larger numbers
- Empowering teachers
Download the full Programme (17 and 18 November)
Find out the speakers of the programme.
India, poised to be the among the world’s three largest economies with the Government of India’s Economic Survey predicting that the size of the economy would cross US$1.16 trillion in 2007-08, has the world's second-largest English speaking population (72 million).
The debate, recognised in part at English for Progress: First Policy Dialogue, centres around whether we are simply looking to ‘equip’ young people with the English they need to operate in a particular industry or context or whether we should ‘enable’ them to develop a full range of language skills.
It was generally felt that we should be looking at how we can equip young people in the short term, but at the same time, we should focus on ways to enable them to achieve more in the long term.
Teachers are of course absolutely key to the development of our young people’s skills, as many delegates and speakers said in one way or another, a society is only as good as its teachers.
The conference brought to focus the needs and constraints of the education sector in providing quality English language skills and also the crunch the employment sector was facing in finding recruits with the right competencies.
As we enter into another Dialogue, it is now the British Council’s challenge in the region to engage with partners to enable and equip the rising generation of aspiring young people with world class opportunities, of which good English skills are a mainstay.
The stress is on English’s new role as the language of commerce. And Project English hopes to help establish norms, make the language accessible to all speech communities and ensure that English is taught well to those who will truly benefit from it.
If you are interested in English for Progress - 2nd Policy Dialogue or would require more information about it contact: Nirupa Fernandez or Debanjan Chakrabarti.
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