DELHI GOVERNMENT PILOT PROJECT ON SPOKEN ENGLISH

“English Language is a work in progress. Have fun with it…”

-Jonathan Culver

When the summer vacations were round the corner, Directorate of Education collaborated with Academy for Computers Training (Gujarat), Trinity college of London and British Council India-Macmillan Education to enhance the spoken English skills of its students.

 The project deserves a big round of applause and is well worthy of praise from all of us as it has made an impact on more than 10,000 students of government school as well the faculty and the teams that were involved. It stands successfully completed despite some major challenges which were tactfully taken care of by dedicated team and timely problem solving skills.

Project Initiation:

The project begun by selection of right candidates as trainers to deliver the required training during the Project. It was required to hire a huge pool of more than 300 trainers to train over 12000 students. It was perfectly done, as well planned was half the job done, moreover, a very strong and a dedicated team of expert trainers was formed that comprised of young trainers from the corporate world. It saw a vast inclination from school teachers & some principals as they were also inducted in the team.

TRAINERS ORIENTATION PROGRAM

The Orientation program included.

1.      Articulating the objective of the project.

2.      Training Methodologies to be incorporated.

3.      Technical aspects involved related to audio visual aid.

4.      Applicable administrative Policies etc.

Among the speakers were

1.      Mr.Sarabjit Singh.

2.      Mr. Jasvinder Singh Goolry (CEO, ACTUniv).

3.      Mr. Harpreet Singh (Director).

The content:

The Content used must be mentioned here as it had splendid impact on the project. The content was so beautifully designed as it was very interesting, student engaging with such an ease that the students as well the faculty loved & enjoyed it thoroughly that helped them to beat the heat and to forget the tragedy of blistering weather.

The content comprised of audio visual aid with more emphasis towards speaking and creating an environment of English language learning. It also consisted of practice & workbooks which were in Sync with the audio visual lessons. It helped the students a lot to grasp the concepts and to bring to usage in daily life the moment they learnt it. Unlike regular day to day classes, the classes were full of fun activities and ice breakers.

The Project:

The project began successfully but with some major initial challenges. The project saw in the starting few days low turnout from the students mainly due to:

1.      Home visits

2.      Late communication

3.      Most of the them had joined some or the other coaching classes

4.      Low motivation levels

But the problems were taken care of efficaciously as Directorate, The concerned schools, Team Wordsworth worked as a team and counteracted on each and every problem that served as hindrance towards the project.

Soon after the initial challenges, the project saw a huge turnout of students as the schools & team ACTUNIV did their best to keep the motivation levels high.

 The students after attending 3 – 4 classes started to gain confidence and build vocabulary, Sentence formation & articulation of their thoughts. Soon after they were through 9 – 10 classes, they began speaking on stage and could introduce themselves and speak confidently in front of any known, unknown individual and also in front of crowd. With this they also began to get rid of stage fear that made them hesitant from participating in leaning.

Along with English language skills it also helped them to build confidence, remove stage fear, and imbibe questioning ability by becoming more interactive.  

Conclusion

Everybody who was a part of this project that included the faculty (Trainers), schools & HOS, directorate and the students have gained a lot and an experience worth remembering. Perhaps, our most distinguishing feature, however, has been the strong sense of teamwork reinforced by our dedicated team of experts, ease of access, flexibility and the many cultural, social activities & initiatives observed during the entire project.

The successful impact has fructified into yet another project to carry on this journey more efficiently which is to be started in a little while.