Report about the P4T Summer Institute 2007

The Partnership for Teaching (P4T) Summer Institute sponsored by the American Department of State and hosted by the University of Delaware started on July 7, 2007 and ended on Aug 18, 2007. The program was organized for the Moroccan and Egyptian teachers of English as an initiative to help the ministries of education in both countries to improver the teaching of English in public schools. The participants had the opportunity to improve their teaching skills, update their academic knowledge, and discover the American culture through two main ways, the academic activities and cultural trips and meetings.

The Academic Activities

These activities consisted mainly of workshops and tutorials that aimed at raising the participants’ awareness to a number of issues related to ESL/EFL such as using drama in teaching, strategic interaction, Story telling, teaching listening, etc. such activities aim also at correcting some misunderstandings that the participants might have about ESL/EFL teaching practice. Most of the workshops were in the form of interactive presentations that gives a theoretical background and practical tasks.

The merit of these activities resides in the fact that they combine theory with practice in dealing with any issue in ESL/EFL. This gave the participant a clear picture about the issues discussed. Another merit is the fact these activities was the fact that most of the presenters used cooperative approach to learning. In other words, the participants contributed their ideas to the workshop and helped to make it a success.

The academic activities were concluded with a final mini-conference that was entirely prepared by the participants. The conference topics featured what the participants learned from the whole training either in terms of form or content. In terms of form, most of the workshops presented at the conference reflected the techniques of presentation stressed during the training. In terms of content, most of the conference topics reflected either the issues dealt with during the training or the participants’ cultural experience during the training. Even if there was not enough time to prepare for the mini-conference, the participants managed to demonstrate their understanding of the different workshops and cultural activities. The mini-conference was also a form of preparation for the participants for the follow-on conference in the home country either in terms of organization or delivery.

The Cultural activities

On the cultural level, the P4T summer institute was an opportunity for the participants to discover the American culture, since it was the first time for all the participant in the USA. This objective was achieved through a number of cultural trips to monuments and places that constitute landmarks of the American Culture such as Dover, Philadelphia, New York, Lancaster, and Washington D.C. In addition to that, the cultural aspect of the training was fostered through a number of meeting and social gatherings with people from different walks of life and professions. Examples of these meetings are The People-to-People dinner, the Dover teacher meeting, and The ELI teachers’ lunch. These gatherings provided opportunities for the participants not only to improve their linguistic abilities but to foster their cultural awareness and understanding as well.

Mohamed ELFATIHI