And all of this was achieved at the seminar she conducted titled, ‘Train the Trainer – Teaching Grammar to Secondary School Students’, held at the British Council in Chennai from 29 July to 2 August 2008.

The seminar was organised by the British Council, together with the Hornby Trust, for over 30 teacher trainers from different states across India. Participants included trainers from the State Council Educational Research and Training (SCERT), District Institutes of Education and Training (DIET), Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas, the Regional Institute of English, Bangalore and the English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU), Hyderabad.

The programme was designed to provide teacher trainers input on various practical issues of English teaching methodology and teacher training, with opportunities to discuss both theoretical and practical issues and some experiential work on selected classroom procedures. The seminar equipped teacher trainers with tools and techniques for conducting teacher training programmes and raised awareness of the benefits of a variety of approaches so they are able to identify suitable and effective approaches for their training context/programmes. It also enabled trainers to design teacher training programmes which move teachers away from adherence to a single conventional methodology and towards a flexible language-teaching pedagogy based on principles of effective (language) teaching and learning appropriate for large classes with minimal resources. The teachers who participated will cascade the training in their own institutions.

The programme

I had prepared to introduce a variety of topics which I thought would interest teacher-trainers in India, such as English as a lingua franca, or teaching English in large heterogeneous classes. While some participants had expected there to be more about “teaching grammar” others were really pleased at the variety of topics discussed and felt they learnt a lot.

The participants

The participants were a mixed bunch, some quite senior and experienced teacher trainers, others younger and only just beginning to take on a training role, their main activity being still classroom teaching in various types of schools. So inevitably, some of the ideas I was putting across were new to some and old to others: I tried totake this into account by giving a new ‘slant’ to conventional ideas I put forward myself, and through involving participants as much as possible in contributing input of their own. The participants seemed to appreciate the opportunity to exchange ideas between themselves andto pool their different experiences.

The results

I have the impression that participants went away enriched with new ideas, though inevitably there was too much for everyone to learn everything! This is a fault on the right side, as it were: it’s better for participants to feel there was too much to take on board immediately, and a lot of rereading and studying to do when they get home, than to feel that they were wasting their time doing stuff that is too easy, or trivial, or not ‘meaty’ enough. A couple of days into the seminar I suggested creating a CDROM for all participants, which they could take home, and which would contain all my and their presentations, including handouts and powerpoint presentations. This was received with enthusiasm.

The future

I think that I have something to contribute to Indian teachers and teacher trainers in the future. Although my own professional experience is quite different, I have learnt a lot about the Indian scene during my visit – through the sessions and through informal discussion with participants and members of the British Council. I would consider it an honour and a privilege to be invited back to do further seminars in the future.