Bahrain

The British Council organized a very busy programme of events in Bahrain.
The idea was to interact with a wide network of teachers and trainers on the topic of content and language integrated learning.
We met hundreds of colleagues in meetings spread over two days,
Nov 7th-8th, 2007.

Day 1, Wednesday Nov 7th

Christina Phelps (Christina.Phelps@britishcouncil.org.bh) our host at the British Council in Bahrain set up a meeting with curriculum specialists at the Bahraini Ministry of Education chaired by English Language Specialist Dr Minas. There were 16 participants from a range of subject areas from Science through English to Commerce and Engineering.  We gave a generic presentation on Science Across the World, an outline of the Young Ambassadors of Chemistry project and an outline of CLIL issues and theory. 


MoE Curriculum Specialists

We had the delightful experience of meeting a colleague who was already familiar with Science Across the World.  Dr Fatan, curriculum specialist for Chemistry, informed us that in fact Bahrain was the first country in the programme in the Middle East joining in 1997.  Dr Fatan also told us that the Ministry would like to reintroduce the programme in schools in Bahrain.  Madina Hasan Taha, Head of Science and Technical Studies, was specifically interested in CLIL training for teachers working through the medium of English.

British Council Teaching Centre cosmetics workshop

Lida mixing her chemistry

This was a practical workshop for BC TC teachers.  14 colleagues participated.  There was a lot of interest from the teachers in the practical workshop and its applicability to their teaching.  For me it was great to see teachers who are already very busy giving time for voluntary training.

This is potentially an area BC TCs around the world might like to develop.  It would be good to see such an influential institution for language learning adopting a broad practical approach to language education.

=13.3333339691162pxpotions and lotions

In this workshop colleagues created their own line of cosmetics in groups and prepared a one minute marketing advertisement to 'sell' their products to the group.  The best products and presentations got prizes.

EFL Professionals group launch





Christina Phelps of the British Council gets us under way

This was the launch meeting of the EFL Professionals Group at the Directorate of Training of the Bahraini Ministry of Education.  

Dedicated colleagues turn out for the launch of the EFL professionals group.

16 colleagues participated and we focused on Science Across for cross-curricular project work...

Lida demonstrates flashmeeting

...giving the background to the programme and focusing on flash-meeting and communication in project work.

Day 2 Thursday Nov 8th

Meeting with senior teachers of English

Lida invites the world to her house in Amsterdam

45 teachers participated, Science Across – from the perspective of cross-curricular project work for English classes, we looked at the tasks in the Exchange Forms, the students’ pages, the content and language integration.

Bahraini senior teachers of English

Communications department of the Bahrain Institute of Technology

'Communication' is the focus of the work of English teachers at the Bahrain Institute of Technology... so we thought that producing and marketing a line of cosmetics in a one minute commercial was just the ticket for these colleagues...

with the face cream, the more you whisk it the better the cream... the oil particles break down into ever smaller droplets producing a smoother cream...

pink is always popular

team work is the name of the game... delegating roles makes sense when you're against the clock...

Lida brings the main chemical ingredients, but local colleagues provide all the rest of the materials needed... bottles, jars, spoons, water, colouring, perfumes...

Jaffa, our host, makes a funnel to be able to get his cosmetics product into a small bottle

...the Natureen group produced a very attractive line of cosmetics...

...and the presentations were very good, as you might expect from communications specialists!

...but it was the team with the snappiest, well-delegated, striking commercial which won our prize...

...visuals helped...

...Paradise Sensation...

...Everlasting Gulf...

Outcomes:

- We worked with 103 colleagues from all levels of education including teachers, trainers, inspectors and advisors over the two days.
- Free membership was offered to Science Across the World to all participants
- Science Across the World offers a mechanism for the British Council initiative to link schools in the UK with schools in the Middle East.  The programme guides schools in curriculum linking.
- A number of invitations were received to return to Bahrain to deliver similar training for the MoE in areas including English for vocational subject teachers.
- BC TC teachers were given a taste of practical work in the English language classroom.
- A teachers' network was launched with a CLIL / Science Across the World theme.

The British Council organised a CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) fact-finding mission to Bahrain (http://www.britishcouncil.org/me-zbahrain-contact-us.htm), Sunday 25th to Tuesday 27th February 2007.  

The visit was part of the regional project for improving the teaching of English and building networks of English language teachers.  Within this remit there is a lot of interest in the region in CLIL among the English language teaching community and a number of initiatives in the content teaching community which would benefit from such a visit.

Bahrain Content and Language Integrated Learning

The British Council organised a CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) fact-finding mission to Bahrain (http://www.britishcouncil.org/me-zbahrain-contact-us.htm), Sunday 25th to Tuesday 27th February 2007.   The visit was part of the regional project for improving the teaching of English and building networks of English language teachers.  Within this remit there is a lot of interest in the region in CLIL among the English language teaching community and a number of initiatives in the content teaching community which would benefit from such a visit.

Anne Wiseman (anne.wiseman@britishcouncil.org.bh), BC ELT Projects Manager, coordinated my visit to the region and Eilidh Hamilton (eilidh.hamilton@britishcouncil.org.bh), Senior Teacher Teacher Training, hosted my visit to Bahrain.

Min Ed School Teachers

Monday, 26th Feb, 2007.  A seminar was set up for MOE teachers.  There were 15 participants of which two were advisors from the Ministry of Education.  The seminar presented important questions to the group on integrating content with a foreign language, in this case English.  There was a lot of interest from the group, especially in terms of CLIL from an ELT perspective, resources and the Science Across the World programme.

The Ministry of Education here is investigating ELT CLIL and is piloting two language course books at the moment which may lead to developing more content input into language teaching in Bahrain.

BC TC Ts

There was a seminar organised for a small group of teachers from the British Council Teaching Centre in Bahrain.  The teachers were interested in the issues related to integrating content and language.  There was particular interest in Science Across the World and what this programme can offer to language teachers looking to bring more content into their language teaching.  These colleagues like the Science Year CD resources very much (www.sycd.co.uk). 

Outcomes and suggestions


There is interest globally from teaching centre teachers in Science Across the World.  I will make contacts with the Director of Science Across, Marianne Cutler, to suggest that we promote the programme specifically at the YLS level in British Council TCs for its potential in offering communication between groups of learners in different TCs around the world.  There was also some discussion of integrating BC activities with language work along the lines of the Climate Change CLIL initiative run by BC Poland. 

BC Poland have commissioned the Fields Studies Council UK to write English-medium climate change materials for secondary schools in Poland. The colleagues here will look into how these resources may be used in Bahrain and the region.  This makes a lot of sense and is a good example of joined-up thinking.  It’s great to see colleagues actually sharing really good materials and ideas rather than reinventing wheels again and again.

Good luck to colleagues in Bahrain, welcome to the FACTWorld family!!!