Friday 14 June 2013

The British Council Award for English Language Teaching (ELT) Writing (£2,000) celebrating an outstanding contribution to the field goes to Jeremy Harmer for Essential Teacher Knowledge - Core Concepts in English Language Teaching (Pearson)

The Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy presented the £2,000 British Council Award to Jeremy Harmer at the Society of Authors’ awards party at the Army and Navy Club, Pall Mall, on Thursday 13th June 2013. Anna Searle, Director English Language at the British Council, introduced the award:

‘The British Council English Language Teaching Award, now in its second year, was introduced to celebrate authors who turn their talents to educational writing - specifically writing which benefits more widespread and better quality teaching and learning of English worldwide.

Over 1.5 billion people are learning English - that's one in seven of the world's population. English language proficiency provides access to education, employment and social mobility. As well as this, we hope that millions of new readers will discover works of fiction, non-fiction and poetry in the English language - along with a genuine love of reading.’

The British Council Award was judged by Jan Bell, Desmond O’Sullivan and last year’s joint winner, Catherine Walter. They described Essential Teacher Knowledge – Core Concepts in English Language as:      

‘A magisterial work of real importance and authority, without doubt it is the ELT Book of the Year.’

‘This impressive and attractive book is a must for every teacher’s shelf.’

The runners-up for the 2013 award are Jeremy Taylor and Jon Wright for IELTS Advantage Reading Skills (Delta Publishing)

The judges felt the book was ‘very well-conceived and designed…and, unusually, really teaches rather than just tests a wide range of reading skill, necessary for the exam and for real life’

Notes to Editor

For further information contact www.societyofauthors.org / tel. 0207 373 6642

About the British Council

The British Council creates international opportunities for the people of the UK and other countries and builds trust between them worldwide. We are a Royal Charter charity, established as the UK’s international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations.

Our 7000 staff in over 100 countries work with thousands of professionals and policy makers and millions of young people every year through English, arts, education and society programmes.

We earn over 75% of our annual turnover of £739 million from services which customers pay for, education and development contracts we bid for and from partnerships. A UK Government grant provides the remaining 25%.  We match every £1 of core public funding with over £3 earned in pursuit of our charitable purpose.

For more information, please visit: www.britishcouncil.org. You can also keep in touch with the British Council through http://twitter.com/britishcouncil and http://blog.britishcouncil.org