With 58 English medium schools in the district, there was a need to foster an English-speaking environment within classrooms. In response, DIET-Ramanagara collaborated with Caring with Colour to assess the needs of teachers and improve their spoken English skills.
In light of our findings, the District Institute of Education and Training (DIET) – Ramanagara reached out to us to identify the needs of the teachers and help improve the Spoken English skills of the school teachers.
Based on the scores obtained during our evaluation, it was identified that there are primarily three categories of English-speaking skills among the teachers:
| Elementary | Can understand and use familiar everyday expressions and very basic phrases. Can introduce him/herself and others. Can ask and answer questions about personal details such as where he/she lives, people he/she knows and things he/she has. Can interact using simple phrases provided the other person talks slowly and clearly and is prepared to help. |
| Intermediate | Can understand sentences and frequently uses expressions related to areas of most immediate relevance (e.g. very basic personal and family information, shopping, local geography, employment). Can communicate using simple phrases during a simple and direct exchange of information on familiar and routine matters. Can describe in simple terms aspects of his/her background, immediate environment and matters in areas of immediate need. |
| Advanced | Can understand the main points of clear standard input on familiar matters regularly encountered in work, school, leisure, etc. Can deal with most situations likely to arise whilst travelling in an area where the language is spoken. Can produce simple connected text on topics which are familiar or of personal interest. Can describe experiences and events, dreams, hopes & ambitions and briefly give reasons and explanations for opinions and plans. |
We observed that 75% of the chosen government school teachers had only an elementary level of spoken English proficiency. These teachers have yet to acquire the skills required to initiate conversation in English. We noted that the optimal growth path for these teachers should start with comprehensive spoken English basics. Among the group, 22% of teachers had an intermediate level of spoken English proficiency. These teachers can respond to questions in English but will require conscious practice to initiate and sustain a good-quality conversation. Optimal Growth path for these teachers includes an intermediate to Advanced spoken English course. Only 3% of the Teachers had an Advanced level of spoken English proficiency. These teachers have a mature and advanced spoken English level and therefore are ideal candidates to be developed into English Resource Persons (RP) who can train and support other teachers.