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 David Graddol
David Graddol is well known as a writer, broadcaster and lecturer on issues related to global English. David's publications include ‘The Future of English?’, a seminal research document commissioned by the British Council (published in 1997) and, ‘English Next’, an analysis of global trends in English and English language education published in 2006. His work on English and globalisation is frequently cited in the media and has been influential in strategic management responses by governments and large organisations around the world.
David is Managing Director of The English Company (UK) Ltd which provides consultancy and publishing services in applied language studies and is Managing Editor for linguistics for Equinox books and journals and is joint editor of ‘English Today’.David previously worked for 25 years in the Faculty of Education and Language Studies at the UK Open University where he was responsible for developing open learning and audio visual materials related to the study of English.David has worked as a consultant on various ELT projects in China, India and Latin America since the early 1990s.
Abstract:
English in India: realising the potential
Most analysts agree that the availability of English-speaking workers has been a key ingredient in India's recent economic growth. But this conclusion raises many troubling questions, such as Does India have enough English speakers to support continued growth? Is English quite so important as the global economy is rocked by the recent banking crisis? And if not, what kind of English does India need? In this presentation I will examine these and other questions and describe how innovations in English teaching in vernacular-medium schools could transform the future of English in India.
 Ashok Sangwan
Ashok Sangwan is presently Additional Director & Deputy Secretary School Education, Government of Haryana, and Member Secretary, Utkarsh Society. Responsibilities include planning and implementation of ICT schemes for school education and coordination with Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India. He was a key resource in the conceptualisation, planning and installation of the Haryana EDUSAT network, which is one of the largest satellite education networks in the country. As Member Secretary of the Utkarsh Society, which is responsible for the implementation, operation and maintenance of the EDUSAT network, his responsibilities include day-to-day operation and management of the network, broadcast management, content development, coordination with the Indian Space Research Organisation and the user departments.
Abstract:
Edusat As An Effective Technology Platform For Delivering Uniform, Quality Education To The Largest Numbers.
With liberalisation and globalisation, the service industry has spurred the demand for qualified and suitably equipped manpower. Therefore, besides General Education, it has become imperative to offer opportunities for improvement of vocational knowledge and skills to enhance students’ employability. Quality education is still the domain of a limited number of institutions across the country. Delivering universal, quality education remains one of the most important issues for the government. The need is to reach out to the largest numbers with the best inputs. One viable alternative is to use Information and Communication Technology. EDUSAT has provided a platform to the States to carry out this task effectively and efficiently. My presentation will be about the use of EDUSAT in providing distance education and teacher training/ capacity building. It will have a brief presentation on the Haryana EDUSAT project and the need for English language training for education and employment: how EDUSAT can help bridge the gap?
 Gavin Dudeney
Gavin Dudeney is Project Director for the Consultants-E. Author of The Internet & The Language Classroom (CUP 2000, 2007) and co-author of How To Teach English with Technology (Longman 2007). He has worked in teaching and training with ICT for 19 years. He currently spends a lot of his professional time in Second Life as Dudeney Ge, training educators to use 3D spaces in their teaching practice.
Abstract:
Continuous Professional Development and Self Access
This session looks at the use of language laboratories and self-access centres in continuous professional development for teachers, and covers a number of issues from software and hardware considerations through implementation and upkeep. We will also consider how the development and nurturing of 'champions', mentors and online support communities are key to the success of large-scale teacher development projects of this nature. Download the presentation.
 Thelma Umeh
Thelma Umeh has nine years experience as an English Language teacher trainer. She taught English in a teacher training institution until she joined the British Council as the English Language teaching (ELT) Manager for Nigeria. A member of the pilot group for the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) course for teachers of English, she later became a trainer on the programme and also a coordinator, overseeing the progress of the programme in 7 states in northern Nigeria. Thelma has worked with the National Teachers’ Institute and the British Council in Nigeria on various teacher development projects over the past few years. She is at the moment overseeing a teacher development project by radio and has successfully rolled out one of the English global products for learners of English via the newspaper.
Abstract:
This paper is an overview of technology - based professional (teacher) training programmes in Nigeria. It selects as case studies, the Continuing Professional Development course for teachers of English and the Teacher Development by Radio Programme of the British Council in Nigeria and attempts to ascertain what needs assessment results led to the initiation of both projects. The impact of the two projects, both on teachers and the students, is then analysed. Finally, the paper highlights the benefits of using radio as a medium for teachers’ professional development and recommendations are made as to what pre-requisites are required for embarking on a project of this nature and magnitude. An analysis of the risk factors involved is made and suggestions proffered, on how these can be overcome.
 Adam Edmett
Adam, an Online Education Consultant, has an MA in Online and Distance Education from the Uk Open University and is currently completing a doctorate with Bath University. He has worked in the field of online education for the past eight years – specifically the design, development and evaluation of online courses and conducting research into web communities. Most recently he has been working with the Turkish Ministry of National Education to set up a blended teacher development programme with the aim of providing in-service training for around 26000 primary school English teachers in state schools across Turkey.
Abstract:
English Teacher Training Online (ETTO) has just completed its first pilot phase with some promising results. A subsequent evaluation has provided thought provoking feedback from participants and stakeholders. We’ll examine a number of areas which transcend the Turkish context, such as, the power, both positive and negative, of surveillance; the English teacher and a number of other key contributory factors to success. The aim is to set this particular example of blended learning within broader trends and other themes in the field of online education. Download the presentation.
 Sadhana Parashar (Sharma)
As Education Officer in the Academic Unit of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), Sadhana Parashar is Program Manager for several projects, which include managing the Adolescence Education Programme (AEP) —a UNFPA-funded Government of India Project that involves reaching out to adolescents across the country as part of the Central Board of Secondary Education.
She also manages and coordinates with WHO (India) and CDC regarding a Global Health Survey among adolescents. She handles the CBSE ELT Project, a ten-year curriculum reform project funded partly by DFID through BCD, India. Its implementation stages involve designing, training materials, needs analysis, arranging workshops, financing exercises, arranging for consultants, resource persons and support material generation. In addition she has various other responsibilities and her skills involve the training of trainers, administrators and educationists. She has also organised several seminars and workshops on education.
 Geetha Durairajan
Dr Geetha Durairajan is head, department of evaluation, EFL University, Hyderabad. She teaches post graduate and research level courses in language testing, bilingualism and bilingual education and in teacher development and supervises research in ELT, (M Phil and Ph D.). Her research interests are primarily in evaluation for pedagogy and in problematising plurilingualism in educational contexts in India.
 Rama Matthew
Rama Mathew is Professor of Education in the Department of Education, Delhi University, Delhi. Previously she taught at the Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages, Hyderabad where she was involved in English language education with specific focus on language teacher education and assessment for more than twenty years. She has worked with teachers at secondary and tertiary levels especially in the area of classroom based assessment. The projects she has worked on have essentially focused on concretising the notion of teacher as researcher in the classroom. She was Project Director of a national curriculum evaluation study (1993-98) called the CBSE-ELT Curriculum Implementation Study. Her current interests include language teacher education, online teaching and testing and qualitative approaches to curriculum inquiry. She is presently coordinator of a project in mentoring in collaboration with the Open University, UK, under the UKIERI scheme. She is also coordinating the English Language Proficiency Course for the students of Delhi University which will have an end test that will assess all the skills of the language.
 Romola Rassool
Romola Rassool is head, English Language Teaching Unit, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka. A visiting faculty in the MA in Linguistics program, she teaches second language acquisition, and Communication for Managers for the MBA and Postgraduate Diploma in Human Resource Management programs. She was also a part of the team of writers who designed the General English textbook, which is used by A/L students in Sri Lanka.
Presently a Resource Person of the National Institute of Education (NIE), assisting in programs related to Bilingual Education and Teacher Development in particular. She is a Member of the Standing Committee on English of the University Grants Commission, Sri Lanka and Member of the Board of Management of the Postgraduate Institute of English, Sri Lanka. Romola is also Secretary of SLELTA (The Sri Lanka English Language Teachers’ Association)
 Nick Charge
Nick Charge is an Examinations Manager at the University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations which is in turn part of Cambridge Assessment, Europe’s largest educational assessment organisation. Nick’s background is in language teaching, teacher education and school management and before coming to Cambridge ESOL in 1994 he worked at language schools in Sweden, Indonesia, New Zealand and the UK. At Cambridge ESOL he has had responsibility for the development and management of a number of different ESOL examinations, including the International English Language Testing System (IELTS). His current responsibilities are for the development of Cambridge ESOL Teaching Award schemes and examinations for teachers and the Young Learners examinations. He also has joint responsibility for e-learning strategy within ESOL and for the deployment of a Learning Management System delivering training to internal staff and blended learning courses in English language to external customers.
 Ray Mackay
Dr Ray Mackay has an M Ed from Edinburgh University and his PhD supervisor was Roy Harris, Emeritus Professor of General Linguistics, University of Oxford. His teaching career has spanned the globe - Kenya, Morocco, Scotland, Poland, the erstwhile Czechoslovakia. In India, Ray has worked on behalf of the British Council in Assam, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Orissa and West Bengal. Ray has written several books and his numerous articles have been published in international journals like the Modern English Teacher, English Language Teaching Journal and Practical English Teaching. Ray is also a farmer and a member of a crofting community in the Scottish Highlands.
Ray’s most recent work in India has been with the West Bengal Board of Primary Education, where he has led a team of local writers to produce new materials for the state’s primary pupils. The Year One pupil’s book is currently being used by 3.3 million learners in West Bengal and the corresponding Teachers’ Book and Teachers’ Companion are being used by over 200,000 primary teachers in the state. Ray has also conducted extensive trainer training in West Bengal to ensure that materials are delivered as close to the original design and purpose as possible.
Ray will make the presentation with inputs from members of the textbook team consisting in Jaya Biswas, Arindam Sengupta, Janajit Chakraborty, Suchibrata Gupta, Sipra Bhaduri, Indira Sarkar, Anup Ghosh, Aditi Roy, Kuheli Mukherjee and Bijoya Ray.
Abstract:
Developing teaching materials at state level
In this presentation, we shall try to outline what we have learnt, as a team, through participating in the West Bengal Primary English Project. We shall try to answer the following questions, before inviting more questions from the audience:
- The context: Who are the users? What came before? Who loses? Why now?
- The process: Who is involved? Who is left out? How is a writing team assembled? How is the team supported? How is the team maintained?
- The product: How is it prepared for? How are the teachers supported? How does it change the existing classroom reality? How is it received?
Rina Ray
An officer of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), She is currently the Secretary of Education, Sport and Culture, GNCT of Delhi. In her current role she has been responsible for introducing radical improvements in education across the entire spectrum, from pedagogy, curriculum, capacity building, ICT to Infrastructure. The reforms introduced by her have resulted in a marked improvement in the results of students over the last three years. Additionally, this approach has led to India winning Bronze Medal in the Beijing Olympic Games.
 Alison Barrett
Alison Barrett started her career as a teacher in a government school in a remote part of Nepal. Since then she has worked as a teacher and teacher trainer in Japan, Pakistan, London, South Korea and finally India, where she has worked with the British Council since 1998. Alison is a certified Cambridge CELTA tutor, a Local Distance DELTA tutor and has designed and conducted a range of programmes for Indian teachers from a variety of different contexts. She is currently the Head of State Partnerships for Project English and is based in Chennai.
Abstract:
YUVA’ Joyful Learning for Teachers and Students in the NCT of Delhi
The Department of Education in the NCT of Delhi has been focusing its efforts on developing a joyful learning atmosphere in its schools and classrooms. This has paid off as the pass rates have increased from 48% to 84% in the last 3 years. One major challenge has been how to give teachers and students the skills and confidence to use more English in the classroom.
Department of Education, NCT of Delhi and British Council have collaborated on an ambitious Teacher Development programme to train 40 Mentors, 400 Master Trainers, 4,000 teachers which will impact on one million government school students.
 Duncan Wilson
Duncan has worked for the British Council since 1991, with postings in Egypt, Dubai, Vietnam and Sri Lanka. He currently manages the large and vibrant Teaching Centre in Colombo, which has 5,000 students each term and a team of over 50 teachers. He is also the Manager of Project English for Sri Lanka, which has a well established reputation for developing and delivering both large and small scale capacity building projects in the Sri Lankan state sector, for establishing effective networks of Sri Lankan teachers and for providing advice and consultancy services to the ELT sector in the country.
Abstract:
The TELT (Training for English Language Teaching Communities) Projects were delivered by the British Council in 6 districts of Sri Lanka in 2004 and 2005, as a partnership with the Ministry of Education and donor-funders USAID and UNICEF. Utilising a cascade model of trainer and teacher training in order to reach some X teachers in mainly remote areas, the projects were considered innovative and effective at achieving high impact for relatively low cost and have formed the model on which the BC’s Project English for the Indian and Sri Lankan state sectors is based. In his short presentation, Duncan looks at the structure of the projects and highlights the key achievements, he also looks at the less effective elements of the projects and highlights the lessons that have been learnt and their implications for the design of future large scale teacher training projects.
 Seamus Harkin
Seamus Harkin has been teaching and training for over 20 years in a variety of contexts including Italy, Portugal, Brazil, Costa Rica, Vietnam and Thailand. As consultant to the Colombian Ministry of Education, he led the teacher development strand of the ambitious Colombia Bilingüismo programme for five years. Now based in Sri Lanka he is part of the Project English team working with local teachers in India and Sri Lanka.
Abstract:
In this very practical workshop, participants take part in a series of awareness raising activities which focus on learning processes. Participants will then draw conclusions about helpful classroom routines and behaviours. The activities in this session were developed by the British Council to help teachers uncover their beliefs and re-evaluate their role in the classroom.
 Priyatha Nanayakkara
Priyatha Nanayakkara works at the Ministry of Education in Sri Lanka as a Deputy Director of Education. As the In-charge officer of the Bilingual Education Programme, she is responsible for policy formulation, implementation and monitoring of the programme in the school system. She graduated from University of Sri Jaewardanepura, Sri Lanka, and completed her Masters Degree in Public Administration from the Postgraduate Institute of Management, University of Sri Jaewardanepura, Sri Lanka.
Abstract:
Under the Bilingual Education policy in Sri Lanka, students are given the option of learning some subjects in the English medium from Grades 6-13. A maximum of five subjects are to be taught in English. One of the major challenges of this programme is to develop subject specialist teachers as bilingual teachers. It is necessary to address this issue in two areas: in developing English language skills of subject teachers and making available literature of the target discipline at academic and practical levels to enhance potential of teachers. The National Institute of Education has been developing a series of manuals on Bilingual Education for teachers and in collaboration with the Ministry of Education training programmes are conducted for provincial trainers. Separate training is also being conducted on subject matters. Teacher Development Programmes are being run continuously through Teacher Centres and Regional English supporting Centres at regional level. Download the presentation.
 Mina Patel
Mina Patel is Managing Director of Ten Education Consultants in Malaysia. Prior to this she was English Language Projects Manager at the British Council Malaysia. Part of Mina’s Current portfolio is working as a consultant for British Council East Asia. She has a Masters in Applied Linguistics and her areas of interest are Continuous professional Development for teachers and Humanistic Language Teaching and Learning. Previously Mina has worked for the British Council in Sri Lanka and for other organisations in Thailand, Greece and England.
Abstract:
English has been introduced in primary levels in almost every country in East Asia over the last five years. This has pushed Young Learner issues and Primary teacher development needs to the top of the ELT agenda. The results of research conducted by the British Council Primary Innovations Project in the region revealed tremendous similarities in policies, policy implementation mechanisms, issues and approaches to solutions aimed at mitigating those issues.
Access English is a three year British Council programme designed to support countries in the region with some of these solutions. Therefore, the project seeks to carry out research in order to influence institutional change, engage in trainer training in order to build capacity and provide support materials for teachers and learners of English.
This presentation will give an overview of the Access English project, its aims and components and then focus in more detail on how the project has supported teachers and teacher educators with respect to training and materials. Download the presentation.
 Tony Wright
Tony Wright is Professor of Language Education at University College Plymouth St Mark and St John (Marjon) in Plymouth, UK. He is Head of Postgraduate Programmes in the Centre for International Education, leading Masters and other courses for teacher educators and teachers, and conducting consultancy and research work in language education worldwide. His professional interests include the professional development of teacher educators and teachers, classroom life and pedagogical change. His most recent publications are Classroom Management in Language Education: Palgrave (2005) and Trainer Development (with Rod Bolitho) www.lulu.com (2007).
Abstract:
Trainer Training: Practices and Issues
Trainer training is a relatively new activity in Second Language Teacher Education, but is increasingly seen as a central contributory factor in successful teacher education (initial and continuing) programmes. This talk explores the rationale for trainer training and argues that teacher trainers (or educators) have such an influential role in the whole formal education process that their professional development as trainers is perhaps one of the most vital tasks of any educational endeavour. The basic parameters of trainer training programmes will then be sketched out, and examples of recent practice in a number of contexts will illustrate the main pedagogical practices in trainer training. Drawing on these cases, I will raise issues and questions about trainer training in the context of educational change. Download the presentation.
 Helena Gomm
Helena Gomm was an editor and publisher at Longman in the late 1980s when she returned to UK after teaching English in Japan. In 1993 she became a partner in Phoenix Publishing Services and since then has worked on a range of materials in a variety of different roles: publisher, editor, writer and project manager. Her books include the Teacher's Books for Macmillan's popular Inside Out series, and she is presently working on a course for Austrian secondary school students.
She is also editor of English Teaching professional, the leading practical magazine for teachers around the world, which provides a forum for the exchange of ideas about methodology and language teaching issues.
Abstract:
Helena will talk about how to get articles published in ELT journals, with particular reference to English Teaching professional, of which she is the editor. She will explain the criteria used for choosing articles for English Teaching professional and give tips on how you can make a successful submission. She will also put you in the role of editor and show you a series of submissions, inviting you to decide whether you would or would not accept them for publication and why. Download the presentation.
 Aniruddha Lahiri
A Chemical engineer from IIT, Madras, Aniruddha Lahiri joined Hindustan Lever Ltd, the Indian subsidiary of Unilever, the largest multinational and FMCG Company in India. He worked through manufacturing, project management, technology, Industrial Relations and in 1992 joined the Board of Hindustan Lever as Director responsible for the Agri business of the company. He then became the Technical Director of the Company responsible for manufacturing, technology, capital investments and engineering management across all businesses of Hindustan Lever. He switched his Board responsibility once again to take over as Director Human Resources and Corporate Affairs.
In 1998, he was seconded to Unilever at its corporate centre and shared time between the Netherlands and UK as Senior Vice President Manufacturing and Supply Chain Technology with worldwide responsibilities. He simultaneously headed the Safety, Health and Environment Action Committee of Unilever as its Chairman.
He returned to India and joined ABP Pvt Ltd, a leading media publication company as its Managing Director till 2005. He is also on the Executive Committees of various industry associations and is the past President of the Bengal Chamber of Commerce & Industry and the Calcutta Management Association. He has been recently appointed Chairman of Board of Practical Training by the Ministry of Human Resource Development.
He is currently the President of The Chatterjee Group (TCG). Some of the Companies which belong to the Group are: Haldia Petrochemicals Limited, TCG Real Estate, TCG Ivega, TCG Lifesciences, SkyTech Solutions, FiTech Solutions and LabVantage Solutions. He is on the Board of Directors for TCGIvega, Skytech Solutions Pvt. Ltd and other Group Company.
 George Pickering
George Pickering is a freelance coach, consultant and trainer. He is the senior tutor on the English UK Diploma in Language Teaching Management and a tutor on the Cambridge ESOL accredited International Diploma in Language Teaching Management. George is an inspector of language schools for the British Council in the UK (Accreditation UK). As a senior teaching fellow at the University of Sheffield, he works on their Distance Learning Masters in Education.
He was the treasurer of IATEFL (International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language) for six years and is the co-ordinator of the ELT Management SIG (Special Interest Group). George has given seminars in over 30 different countries and has directed courses for the British Council on a wide range of subjects including ELT management, quality management in education, managing change and strengthening Teacher Associations. George lives with his pet camel and monkey in Ramsgate, England.
Abstract:
Opportunities and Challenges in the Globalised Workplace
We are entering a new world economic order in which the rise of the west is being eclipsed by the ‘rise of the rest’. Globalisation or globality, as some like to refer to it, offers tremendous opportunities as well as considerable difficulties for those operating in the increasingly complex markets of today. In this seminar I will seek to:
•provide a framework for the rest of the day;
•highlight some of the linguistic, communication and cross-cultural challenges faced by organisations;
•outline some of the ways in which these challenges can be successfully met.
Reference will be made to specific developments in the Sub-Continent, in addition to exploring general cultural, communication and management models.
 Barry Tomalin
Barry Tomalin is Director of Cultural Training at International House, London and creator and director of the IH Business Cultural Trainers Certificate, which teaches HR managers, trainers and teachers in how to design and deliver cross-cultural training in business. He is co-author of ‘Cultural Awareness’ (OUP 1995) and ‘The World’s Business Cultures and How to Unlock Them’ (Thorogood, 2007) In a 30-year career he has worked for the Overseas Development Authority, The BBC World Service and International House and has trained in 60 countries. He is visiting lecturer in cross-cultural communication at the Diplomatic Academy of the University of Westminster in London and a member of the English Speaking Union English Language Committee. He has lectured for the British Council in Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai. International House is one of the world’s largest language and cultural training organisations with 148 centres in 50 countries.
Abstract:
India rising: the need for two way culture training
Culture is the invisible barrier to trade. Understanding the expectations and behaviour of the community you are dealing with is an essential ingredient of successful cross-border mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and operations, but all too often, it is ignored. By looking at examples of successful and problematic Indian and UK joint ventures, this presentation explores the issues that arise and offers a model for cross-cultural training for business managers and stresses the need for training of both UK and Indian managers to build successful international working relationships. Download the presentation.
Gordon Dunn
Gordon moved to Mumbai 12 months ago to take up his current role as Head of Offshore Recruitment and Training. Prior to this, Gordon was Head of Learning & Leadership Development for Barclays UK Retail Bank, based in London. Gordon started his career as a French and German teacher. After two years in the classroom, he moved into the commercial world and worked in various Human Resources roles. He has worked in the travel industry, management consultancy and in retail. Prior to joining Barclays, Gordon was Head of Learning at Marks & Spencer. Gordon's main passion is travel and experiencing new places and cultures. He has worked in Asia and in various parts of Europe. He goes on holiday as often as he can and is enjoying lots of weekends away to various parts of India. So far his favourites are Udaipur, Kerala and the Himalayas!
 Jill Coates
Jill Coates is Head of Corporate Training at British Council, India where she is currently managing a range of professional development programmes for corporate trainers and trainer trainers across the region.
She has worked as a Language and Communications Skills trainer in Europe and Asia and has managed training programmes for Siemens and the German Arbeitsamt. She spent five years as a consultant for a European Social Fund project to up-skill the workforce in the former GDR, as part of a government strategy to attract new industry to the region.
She joined the British Council, Sri Lanka, in 2004 to work on a two-year project with HSBC to create an integrated Language and Communication development programme for offshore contact centres throughout South and East Asia. Jill led on the development of a language assessment test for recruitment. Jill’s current area of interest is intercultural communication training for the global workplace.
Abstract:
Improving Customer Satisfaction at Barclays
Early in 2007, Barclays Bank identified shortfalls in customer satisfaction with its offshore operation in India. A key gap identified was the fluency level of agents and their awareness of UK culture. Barclays started working with the British Council 12 months ago to improve the fluency level of agents and their awareness of UK culture. During this session Gordon Dunn (Head of Offshore Recruitment and Training) and Jill Coates (Head of Corporate Training, British Council South India) will lead a session outlining the innovative approach taken to improve recruitment and training to drive improvements in customer satisfaction and sales productivity. They will share their experiences, lessons learnt and progress to date.
 Jane Lockwood
Dr. Jane Lockwood is currently Head of the Centre for Language in Education at the Hong Kong Institute of Education. Before that she founded FuturePerfect Business English Specialists (Manila). From 1995-2003 she headed up the Centre for Professional and Business English at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and completed her PHd at Hong Kong University on Workplace ELT Curriculum and Evaluation procedures in 2002.She has published widely in the area of workplace curriculum and assessment development and is currently training in and writing about the Business Processing Industry with specific reference to the nature of communication breakdown , teacher education and language assessment.
Abstract:
Everyone agrees that communications trainers within the workplace sector require pre- and in-service professional development teaching English as a second language (TESOL) support. However, what should the nature of this professional input and support comprise?
Too often companies are looking for off-the-shelf solutions that may not sufficiently address the specific needs of the workplace.This session will look at what language trainers in the business processing outsourcing (BPO) sector need to know in order to carry out their roles effectively. It will draw on the experience of working with teams of BPO workplace trainers in Manila and Bangalore in delivering tailored pre- and in-service level training programmes. Download the presentation.
 Jason West
Jason has almost 20 years’ of sales, marketing, management and English teaching experience. Starting his career in media sales, at HTV, he left in 1992 to set up an English language school in the heart of London’s West End. Within two and half years the school had achieved British Council accreditation.
A long-standing interest in the psychology of learning lead Jason to feel that there was a lot more that could be done to increase language learners’ overall fluency and confidence, so he created the Out There concept, whereby classroom time is restricted and students engage with fluent or native speakers at every stage of their language development. Out There have recently published their unique teaching and learning materials which can be used both offline and on. The online element came out of a fascination with internet telephony and is now an on-going search for the ultimate virtual learning space.
Apart from founding and running Languages Out There, Jason has also worked closely with Linguaphone, Guardian News and Media and Voice Commerce Group, founded by Nick Ogden, the creator of WorldPay. He also works with a number of other companies in the languages and communications fields. He currently lives in London with his partner and two young children. A former first class rugby player, he now relaxes by playing loud electronic music, cycling and having the occasional warm beer.
Abstract:
Virtual Learning Spaces
Virtual learning spaces come in all shapes and sizes. Everyone agrees that they will become crucial in our working lives. And everyone with any interest in training is trying to work out how best to buy, build, or use one.
The problem is there are so many to choose from; open source ‘VLEs’ used by universities to slick video conferencing tools created by and for multi-nationals (often with a multi-national price attached). All have multiple features that require the user, that’s you and me, to learn a whole new set of skills and add to our workload.
Over two years ago I started thinking about how to deliver my company’s unique English lessons over the internet and unwittingly set off on a journey that has taken me around the web and into (and out of) partnerships. I have scoured Google to try and understand what works. I have even re-designed an internet telephone.
I’m not technical or what you would call a ’geek’. But I have, through necessity, thought long and hard about what would be the most effective (and cost effective) virtual learning space and in this session I will try to share some of my research with you. Download the presentation.
 Richard Lunt
Richard Lunt is General Manager of the Intensive English Programme of King Saud University's Preparatory Year Programme. With 6,500 students, and 340 teachers, it is the largest intensive English programme in the world, and is managed by the Bell Education Trust with its Saudi partner organisation, Obeikan Research and Development. Previously, Richard worked for the British Council, most recently in Tanzania, but before that in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and the Middle East.
Between working for these two organisations, Richard followed an MA in TESOL at London's Institute of Education. His dissertation, due for completion in 2009, is on communication breakdowns in call centre dialogues.
Abstract:
Call centres have a poor reputation in the United Kingdom, and especially those based overseas. A common complaint is that the existence of a language barrier makes communication difficult. Is this actually the case? In the presentation I will describe the sample I took, listening to over sixty banking-related conversations in a Madras call centre. Illustrating with a selection of transcribed data, I will describe the communication problems that were encountered and show how, generally, these were repaired relatively simply. However, the data does reveal a problem, severe enough to be characterised as a fault line, when an advisor tries to move from one register to another against the customer’s expectations of how a conversation progresses. This can lead to previously satisfactory conversations becoming unsatisfactory, questioning the value of the attempted move from customer service to sales.
 Nick Walker
Nick Walker has been involved in ELT for 15 years and has worked in 7 different countries, three of which with the British Council: Turkey, Poland, Thailand and Spain and later Portugal, Vietnam and India. Embarking on a career as a teacher of both children and adults he later moved into teacher training, educational management, materials design and trainer training. In his current position as Senior Training Consultant India, Nick provides corporate training solutions for the ITES sector. Specific areas of involvement include: streamlining recruitment, training and operations.
Nick was an initial member of the ‘Project English Team’ and sees the work in corporate India as unique, challenging and highly rewarding.
In his spare time Nick pursues many interests to varying degrees of competency, namely, cricket, tennis, football, playing music, art, photography and motorcycling.
Abstract:
‘Tailored Solutions’ – Recruiting the right people for the job
A critical business area for the IT sector is recruitment. If selected, a candidate then undergoes several expensive weeks of training before starting the job, whereupon their performance is a key success indicator outsourcing. Historically however, the industry has not matched the specific requirements of the job to the recruitment process.
Through British Council work with HSBC and Barclays – a great deal of time has been spent on improving, rationalising and communicating new approaches to level testing at recruitment within the BPO/KPO. This presentation outlines the roadmap taken during the BC consultancy and describes the challenges, actions and ultimately the success that has resulted. Download the presentation / handout
 Stephen Jenner
Stephen is a Senior Training Consultant, based in Chennai for the last year. Before this he worked in Delhi for a year and a half, managing teacher training programmes. He began his English teaching career in 1995 and worked widely in Europe for five years, mostly in the corporate sector. In 2000 he went to Egypt and began training teachers and working on e-learning projects. He has continued to develop his professional interest in teacher and trainer training and innovation in online education. He is currently working on a distance Masters degree from the UK Open University in Open and Distance Learning. Although Stephen doesn’t find he has much spare time, he is the proud owner of a 2005 Bullet Machismo, and can sometimes be seen speeding down the coast of Tamil Nadu on glorious summer days. Download the presentation.
 Matt O’Rourke
Matt is a Senior Training Consultant, based in Chennai. He has taught English in the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, Latvia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria and Armenia. Matt has worked in a number of unusual places for the British Council. These include training in English for Specific purposes on an off shore oil platform and three years on a military base in the Caucuses managing a project for international peacekeepers. In his previous position Matt was the English Outreach manager for Russia and Northern Europe, and worked on promoting English language in eight countries. Matt specialises in English for Specific purposes and educational technology, the subject in which he took his Masters degree. In addition to this, he has published a series of English language guides for peacekeepers in collaboration with the British MoD and Macmillan publishers. In his spare time, Matt is (or at least was) a keen musician and plays a number of brass instruments. He has played for several orchestras and bands, including the National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain.
Abstract:
Pot Moodle: A case study of a successful distance course for corporate trainers using Moodle.
In June this year the British Council was asked by Intelenet to train eight master trainers as course designers. The result was a blended course delivered via Moodle. This presentation describes the journey taken by course designers and course participants, the challenges faced and the lessons for future online delivery of trainer training for the ITES/BPO sector.
 Philip Clegg
Philip is a Senior Training Consultant (corporate) for the British Council in India and has been based in Chennai for the past two years. He first started teaching English in 1986 in Hong Kong and then went on to teach in Japan, Thailand, Brazil and the UK. Philip started teacher training in Thailand in 1995 and since then he has trained primary, secondary and tertiary level teachers in Libya, Oman and India. Philip is also an experienced soft skills trainer for the corporate sector, having been responsible to help set up and train in the British Council’s Management Training Centre in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1999. He is now responsible for managing and delivering corporate training projects across India. In his spare time, Philip enjoys practising yoga and meditation and giving classes in raw and living food preparation (he is a U.K. qualified nutritionist and a U.S. certified raw food chef and instructor). Download the presentation.
 Janaki Murali
Janaki is a Group leader with Education and Research at Infosys and works out of Electronic City in Bangalore. She initiates programs on English and is part of a ‘Campus Connect’ initiative, which partners with 500 colleges all over India. Janaki is also on the core-committee spearheading a pan-Infosys initiative to look at raising aspirations of students, from high school to engineering college. Before joining Infosys, Janaki spent over 25 years in the media working for a range of publications, including a stint as Assistant Editor with the Deccan Herald. She has written editorials and breaking news stories on topics from globalisation to IT and she has interviewed several leaders in their fields, including Amartya Sen, C.K. Prahlad, Lord Swaraj Paul and Narayana Murthy. In her spare time, Janaki enjoys writing and taking part in quizzes. Her first novel, The Colour of Dawn was published by Harper Collins in 2002. It is a saga about three generations of women set in Bombay. Janaki is currently working on her second novel which is set in the IT industry.
Abstract:
English on your desktop: A free British Council resource supporting English efforts at Infosys
The British Council now offers its clients the opportunity to provide a banner and link to their dynamic website ‘LearnEnglish Professionals’ (LEP), an online e-learning free-to-air web portal. The first part of this presentation takes you on a guided tour of the LEP site and shows you how it can promote autonomous self study for busy professionals. The second part of the presentation focuses on the latest efforts to raise English standards at Infosys, one of India’s largest and most successful IT companies. Download the presentation.
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