Teacher Trainings

ELTA Teacher Trainings are characterized as hands-on workshops focused on skill transfer.  The aim is to outreach to English teachers around Albania and share best practices and educate them in classroom techniques, new methodologies, etc.  ELTA members also have the opportunity to receive training from organizations such as the British Council to be qualified as National Trainers.  With these skills and ELTA’s pool of resources, ELTA has successfully completed several national and regional teacher trainings in Albania.

Classroom Activities 

ELTA works to include students in learning workshops, as well as teachers.  European Language Day (26 September) is celebrated by ELTA in Albanian classrooms by incorporating themes like ‘Languages Unite People’, ‘Language Builds Bridges’ and ‘Language Opens Doors’ into lesson plans that can be executed by teachers.

Creative Writing

In Gjirokaster 2003, ELTA worked with local teachers to have:

·          A better understanding the writing process

·          Shared personal feelings and experiences

·          A variety of writing activities to use in classrooms

·          An idea that writing can be enjoyable and that everyone should do it

·          Started to think about learning and teaching writing

The one day workshop involved over a dozen sessions using sample lesson plans that can easily be implemented by teachers.  Trainers worked on skills such as how to teach students to expand sentences and writing strong descriptive paragraphs.

English for the World of Work (EWOW Pilot Program)

ELTA is also interested in diagnosing practical English needs based on student feedback.  Working with the British Council, ELTA completed a survey of students at vocational school to (1) see if they were aware of the benefits English brought to their fields, (2) evaluate the level of collaboration with language teachers, (3) evaluate supplementary materials, and to (4) see to what extent the English learned reflects their industrial context.  ELTA will soon begin to propose trainings to further develop strengths address and to address problems.