Speakers
Description
This presentation reports initial findings of a British Council funded research project addressing the challenges of teaching linguistic minority students in rural Vietnam and evaluating the effectiveness of Teacher Activity Groups (TAGs) as a professional development approach. TAGs brought together primary English language (ELT) and generalist teachers to create multilingual, inclusive, language-aware teaching strategies. Recognizing the need for improved teacher training in multilingual education, the project positioned ELT teachers, with their expertise in additional language learning, as key agents in reducing language barriers and fostering multilingualism. ELT teachers underwent training on multilingualism, the role of language in education, and TAG facilitation, enabling them to lead collaborative efforts to tackle multilingual teaching challenges across the curriculum. The project involved 15 ELT teachers, 30 generalist teachers, and 5 teacher educators, and we collected data with interviews, TAG meeting observations, and reflective journals. In this presentation, we will share snapshots of the training we designed for the English language teachers and we will share the initial findings and reflections on the project. Ultimately, we would like to promote our proposal of teachers of English as agents of multilingualism to a wider audience of teachers in Vietnam.
Biography
Dr Melike Bulut Albaba is Senior Lecturer in TESOL and teacher education at Sheffield Hallam University. She is the Co-Principal Investigator of the “Teachers of English as agents of multilingualism” project. She is an experienced teacher educator in TESOL and higher education with a growing research portfolio and recognition of expertise on teaching multilinguals.
Dr Thi Phuong Dung Cao is the Associate Dean/ Chair of DEL and lecturer at University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University, HCMC. She is the Co-Principal Investigator of the “Teachers of English as agents of multilingualism” project. She has extensive experience in language teacher education and expertise in linguistics. She is a widely published author.
