Innovator: Yuliya Michshenko, https://www.linkedin.com/in/yuliya-michshenko-742ba322
Organisation: Access Teaching program sponsored by the US Embassy in Kazakhstan, Pavlodar
Setting of the practice: hybrid
Description of the practice:
This program is being implemented by the teachers working in over 10 different cities around Kazakhstan. The candidates (students) for this experiential English learning program are selected by the US Embassy from the vulnerable families in Kazakhstan to help them grow and develop as successful members of society and highly qualified English language teachers. The syllabus incorporates Communicative English classes, American Culture and pragmatics, Enhancement classes, Project Work and TESOL Methods (for groups of University students). Each team of 10 University students or 10 teenagers from local schools from every city needs to work on social/cultural/innovative projects to develop an online course / online educational product to be further used by the youth in Kazakhstan. The main idea is to incorporate English, Culture and subcultures, Enhancement and updated teaching methods (looking deeper at history, gender issues, literature, ethnic tolerance, equality and equity, ecological worldview, volunteering in English, CLT, innovative methods of teaching English) and project management stages to collaborate and share with all other 250 participants around Kazakhstan in the format of constant idea sharing, challenges, marathons, tasks and workshops. Since this program is aimed to help future teachers to apply innovative approaches and techniques, a course of Methodology is taught in a way of workshops and seminars where students are able to enjoy hand-on training and practice with other groups of teenagers who are also the participants of the same program. All the cooperation is maintained through a specially designated platform (OpenEdu), Telegram and WhatsApp messengers, summer camps, joint meetings, online workshops and webinars with special guests invited by the US mission or the Department of State.
The practice, which proved to be the one to encourage learners to actively participate in their own learning path, acquire second language implicitly, engage students of different learning styles, develop soft skills and 21rst skills, stimulate leaders’ qualities and volunteer to help others is a fusion of CLIL and Project-based work where students can learn how to launch their own start-up / own online product/ try themselves as future entrepreneurs. The schedule covers all the project development and management nuances and aspects in a simplified way of trials and errors and is handled by the invited experts, phycologists and young entrepreneurs. The teaching activities offer a lot of hands-on practice and implementation by the participants within the English-speaking community. The learning activities include: surveys, open questionnaires, mini-analysis, problem-solving, case-studies, critical thinking assignments, blogging, vlogging, Ed.Tech application, digital literacy, writing portfolios and much more in the blended format.
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