Thursday 23 May 2013

The British Council has announced the winners of the ELTons 2013. Celebrating its eleventh year, the awards, run by the British Council and sponsored by Cambridge ESOL, are a celebration of innovation and excellence in English language teaching (ELT) from around the world.

This year sees a diverse range of products winning a prestigious ELTon award. These include a professional development programme using low-cost mobiles phones for teachers in Bangladesh and DVD readers that bring British TV to the classroom.

The awards have been organised into five categories: Excellence in Course Innovation, Innovation in Learner Resources, Innovation in Teacher Resources, Digital Innovation, and Local Innovation, as well as The Macmillan Education Award for Innovative Writing and the British Council Lifetime Achievement Award.

Since last year, UK and international ELT professionals have competed alongside each other in the same categories – in recognition of the increased mobility and globalisation in the sector.

The winners are:

The Macmillan Education Award for Innovative Writing:

CLIL-Biology Towards IGCSE: Content and Language Integrated Learning towards International Science standards - Y.L. Teresa Ting.

Can EFL-teachers deal with science-content at upper-secondary? What if science-teachers master “only” elementary-level English?” CLIL-Biology Towards IGCSE is a product that answers these challenges in a pragmatic way.

Excellence in Course Innovation:

Hooray! Let’s play! - Helbling Languages

Hooray! Let’s play! is a brand new innovative course for teaching English to 3 to 5-year-olds. The course has a unique multisensory approach that develops young children’s core thinking and motor neuron skills.

Innovation in Learner Resources:

DVD Readers - Mary Glasgow Scholastic

British TV comes straight to the classroom with the Scholastic DVD Readers series! The Scholastic DVD Readers are a new innovative form of graded reader, blending non-fiction content area topics with episodes from top British TV series.

Innovation in Teacher Resources:

Film English - Kieran Donaghy

Film English is a website which seeks to explore the possibilities which moving images, especially short films, offer to both language teachers and language learners.

Digital Innovation:

Cool Speech: Hot Listening, Cool Pronunciation - Speech in Action/Firsty Group

Cool Speech: Hot Listening, Cool Pronunciation is an iPad application - a course in listening and pronunciation for upper-intermediate and advanced learners.

Local Innovation:

English in Action: Teaching and Learning Programme – English in Action

English in Action is a professional development programme, which helps teachers in Bangladesh teach English more effectively. Teachers are provided with a low-cost mobile phone, pre-loaded with resources

Lifetime Achievement Award: 

Brita Haycraft

Described at the ceremony as ‘having total commitment to the school, its teachers and students’. Brita and her husband John started International House.

Speaking from the ceremony, Anna Searle, Director English Language, British Council said: “We are delighted to be honouring those who have made a significant contribution to English language teaching over the past year. The demand for English language teaching around the world continues to grow and innovations in English language teaching contribute to meeting new demands and reflecting new learning styles.

We are also proud to support awards in English language teaching and these include the award for English Language Teaching Masters Dissertation. This is a new award that recognises and promotes the achievements of masters students on UK university masters programmes. The scheme is an opportunity for UK institutions to promote their programmes and for recent graduates to establish themselves in the field.”

The British Council is the UK’s cultural relations organisation, and builds relationships for the UK through English, education and the arts. It teaches English in more than 80 countries through face-to-face contact and innovative methods including radio, the internet and mobile technology.

To find out more about the winners and to see footage and photos from the awards ceremony, visit http://englishagenda.britishcouncil.org/eltons

Notes to Editor

For more information, please contact Nisha Pawar in the British Council Press Office on +44 (0)207 389 4967 or nisha.pawar@britishcouncil.org  

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.

We work in more than 100 countries, and our 7000 staff – including 2000 teachers – 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: http://www.britishcouncil.org/. You can also keep in touch with the British Council through http://twitter.com/britishcouncil and http://blog.britishcouncil.org