Once again, British Council trainers have fanned out across 11 provinces to support local trainers in the delivery of a series of Access English teacher training workshops on www.teachingenglish.edu.vn, a new bi-lingual website for Vietnamese high school teachers of English

After two rounds of trainer training workshops – one in Hanoi for the 20 trainers from the north followed by a second round in Ho Chi Minh City for the 24 trainers from the southern and central provinces, local trainers were familiar with the new teachingnenglish website and ready to share their knowledge with over 500 teachers from 11 different provinces across the country.

The aim of the teacher training workshops was to introduce secondary school teachers to the features of www.teachingenglish.edu.vn, and to encourage them to integrate resources from the website into their classrooms.

The site itself was launched by the British Council in February this year, in partnership with the Ministry of Education and Training. For teachers who need to fulfil the requirements of the curriculum but also want to motivate their learners through more interactive activities, it is now just a simple matter of logging onto www.teachingenglish.edu.vn, clicking on the grade and unit you are teaching and selecting an activity to supplement your lesson. Guidelines for using the activities are in both English and Vietnamese. And there are also low-tech options for using the materials in classrooms where computers are not available.

In addition to lesson ideas, teachers can also find tips on dealing with a range of everyday problems such as error correction and managing large classes. There is also a section on professional development, with a specific focus on teaching speaking, and opportunities to become part of a global network of teachers via our online forum.

Both the training workshops and the website were extremely well received by teachers and trainers alike:

‘We can use the website as an abundant resource for our teaching at school and help teachers to get access to the website and learn some interesting techniques to use in their teaching at school.’ Trainer from Ho Chi Minh City

‘I can get a lot of materials, teaching ideas and experience which help improve my teaching techniques. I have gained a lot of teaching experience. I have a chance to share with other teachers the problems I face in teaching English.’ Teacher from Thai Nguyen

As the new teaching year begins, we look forward to seeing how the teachers apply their new knowledge and skills in the classroom.

For more information about the project, please contact Rebecca Hales at rebecca.hales@britishcouncil.org.vn