Xay, Laos
I am Phonexay ‘Xay’ Bannavong from Laos. I graduated from teacher training college (TTC) in 2001. I want to share my teaching English experiences. After graduating from TTC, I taught English in a secondary school in Vientiane. At this stage, I was teaching English in grades 10 and 11. At that time, I met challenges because my training included little practical experience. Moreover, the classes were very large and most students only had basic English. I worked in the school for five years. Then I moved to the Ministry of Education and Sports (MOES), and now I am working for the division of Foreign Languages there.
Working in MOES I am in charge of policy for teaching foreign languages and also a trainer for teaching English. I cooperate with the English Language Institute China (ELIC) to train new teaching English skills and methodology for English teachers in secondary schools. The programme is called the English Language Teacher Training Program (ELTTP). The programme developed supplements for the grade 6 to grade 12 English textbooks based on the contents in the national English textbooks for those years. The programme has only started in three provinces so far. Now, many in-service Lao English teachers in three provinces – Xiengkuang, Vientiane and Huoaphanh – have received updated training on how to teach English using these supplements. A methodology used in the training consists of five-star lessons, which consist of: reviewing old lessons; presenting new vocabulary from new lessons; making base sentences from the new vocabulary; doing language activities to practise the base sentence; and doing exercises from the book. This methodology helps teachers teach English with a structure and helps students participate in learning almost 100%.
I am very proud to see that the teachers in three provinces have received new teaching skills and methodology, because in the past they used old traditional methods of language teaching. Now they can utilise the knowledge gained from the training in their classes as well. I hope we will spread the training to Lao English teachers across the entire country in the future.
