There is still a great deal of project activity worldwide in the field of English Language Teaching and it remains a priority as English is increasingly recognised and accepted as the global language of communication.  However, the orientation of many projects has shifted markedly from a ‘pure’ language focus towards integration with other educational and societal initiatives in areas such as curriculum reform, human rights, citizenship and peacekeeping. This has called for new thinking in the conception and delivery of projects.

Accordingly, this seminar will address both broad- and narrow-focus issues in project management from the perspective of good practice in project design and implementation, backed up with case study accounts. Inputs will be underpinned by a sequence of tasks and activities covering micro-issues and culminating in a presentation by participants of action plans for implementation on their return to post.  An anticipated outcome of the seminar will be the formation of a project managers’ network including participants and other interested parties.  Depending on agreement by contributors and participants, it may also be possible to put together a  publication with guidelines on good practice in ELT project management.  Topics to be covered will include:

• project design: needs analysis and baseline work; finance and sponsorship
• project implementation: stakeholders, roles, teams, relationships; communications; managing change; project documentation
• synergy, networking and dissemination
• quality and sustainability in projects.

Participant profile
The seminar is designed to be of interest to anyone concerned with the management of ELT projects, working in donor agencies, project teams, link institutions, as counterparts or as consultants.  Ideally, we would like to have representatives of as many different perspectives as possible among the participants, to ensure that the seminar experience will be rich and varied at both the formal and the informal level. Participants will be asked to submit, in advance, a 250-word statement about the project/projects they are working on or setting up and may be invited to present their project as a case study.