Fridriksson, Tamin, and Tweed - Cambodia 2014

Brunei-US English Language Fellow team Heidi Fridriksson and Hanita Haji Tamin and Senior English Language Fellow Andrew Tweed conducted a teacher training workshop with 9 high school teachers (the school’s entire English department) and the school director in a small village in rural Cambodia called Speu. The workshop focused on how to integrate more speaking into the Cambodian public school system’s provided curriculum and on strategies for teaching large, multilevel classes.

The fellows had been contacted several months earlier by the high school’s Peace Corps volunteer, Tara Kelly, who felt that her host institution’s teachers, while eager to learn, had limited access to professional development opportunities. By working with Kelly, the fellows were able to tailor their workshop to the participants’ needs and levels. The result was a highly successful and interactive workshop, in which the teachers were able to discuss new ideas about teaching, to learn strategies for dealing with everyday challenges, and to participate in and analyze new kinds of activities use in their own classrooms.

The teachers admitted to feeling nervous about trying some of the fellows’ communicative language teaching methods in their classes, particularly things like group work or class mingles that asked students to get up and move about the room. However, they were also very curious and asked many questions about implementation, ending the workshop energized to challenge themselves. In a follow up email the next week, Kelly reported to the fellows that she had had requests from several of the teachers to come into their classes to co-teach with them and try out some group work!