Go Teacher Noncredit Certificate Program

This project is part of a broad initiative to increase English language skills in Ecuador. It is funded by the Ecuadorian Ministry of Education and administered in North America by Kansas State University. Several U.S. universities will be selected to provide training for groups pre- and in-service Ecuadorian high school English teachers. Upon completion of training, the Ecuadorian teachers will return to, or be placed in, schools with 1) improved English language skills and 2) increased capacity in English language teaching. At the University of Kentucky, the project will be administered by the Center for English as a Second Language (CESL; Cost Center # 1013160270). The CESL, an independent unit reporting to the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. Tom Clayton, Executive Director of the CESL, will serve as project PI, and Jill Cargile, Lecturer in the CESL, will serve as Co-I. The CESL will administer all aspects of the program: curriculum, housing and meals, health insurance, enrollment and billing, extracurricular cultural and historical visits, local transportation (including airport pick-up and delivery), and formal program activities (welcoming reception, completion ceremony, etc.). At Kentucky, the Brazilian cohort will enroll in non-credit language and teacher education classes in the Spring and Summer semesters 2013. 1. In the Spring 2013 semester, participants will be integrated into language skills classes in the Center for English as Second Language. The CESL curriculum comprises 20 hours of total instruction per week in four classes which meet five hours each per week. a. Writing b. Reading c. Grammar d. Listening / Speaking Ecuadorian teachers will be tested up on arrival and placed in the classes appropriate to their skills level in one of six levels of instruction. In these classes, Ecuadorians will be integrated with CESL students from around the world. 2. In the Summer 2013 semesters, participants enroll in classes on teaching English as a second or foreign language. Over the course of the four- and eight-week summer terms, participants will receive 268 total hour of instruction in three classes: a. Culture and Language in Classroom Practice b. ESL/EFL Methods c. Applied Linguistics/SLA. These classes will be offered specifically for the Ecuadorian cohort, in groups of 15 to 20. These classes will follow the Classic ESL / EFL model curriculum developed by Professor Socorro Herrera at Kansas State University. In addition to the noncredit classes in English language skills and teaching English as a second language, the Ecuadorian cohort will engage in educational extracurricular activities including visiting sites of cultural and historical interest in Lexington and central Kentucky. The project will organize an opening reception and a graduation ceremony for the group, and will hold regular information sessions with the cohort, to answer questions, receive feedback, and solve problems.