English In Action

English in Action is a nine-year programme to help 25 million people in Bangladesh to improve their ability to use English language for social and economic purposes.

The programme was requested by the Government of Bangladesh, and is funded by the UK Department for International Development (DfID). This project will create resources for the classroom and for teacher professional development using mobile technologies.

These will be deployed by primary and secondary school teachers and reach millions of school children.

Currently there is a critical shortage of English language skills, both throughout Bangladeshi society and within the teaching profession.

EIA will provide opportunity across the whole country and target the whole education system through a consortium led and managed by BMB Mott MacDonald which has won substantial funding from DFID.

BMB provide the project management team for the consortium. Other members of the consortium are:

• The Open University UK
• BBC World Service Trust
• Friends in Village Development Bangladesh (FVDB), Bangladesh NGO
• Underprivileged Children’s Education Project (UCEP), Bangladesh NGO

There are four major strands to the EIA programme:

Primary:

- engaging students and developing teachers' practice through innovative classroom resources.

Secondary:

- empowering teachers to change their classroom practice.

Both these interventions are school-based, delivered through supported distance learning and enhanced by mobile technologies.

These will involve both primary and secondary school teachers and reach millions of school children.

Adult learning:

- enabling lifelong learning via interactive and digital media;

Research, monitoring and evaluation (RME):

- evaluating and researching impact.

The trainer in your pocket

English in Action is developing resources for teacher professional development and for use within the classroom as teaching materials.

As the video above explains, teachers are provided with several video clips which can be loaded onto mobile devices and used by the teacher as a way of exemplifying how the mobile device can also be used to provide audio resources within their classrooms.

The mobile device is thus being used both as a teaching and learning tool for the teacher, the 'trainer in your pocket' and as a provider of audio classroom resource for the primary school students.

Teachers will meet regularly in clusters with other teachers on the scheme and will have an opportunity to share their experiences and gain support from others.

The mobile devices are again a key feature of these cluster meetings as they provide access to the materials and focus the teacher's professional development in a supported environment.