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Pirates of the Caribbean help to improve English skills of students in Argentina
6 May 2010
Pirate-themed English language project in Corrientes Province scoops British Council 2010 Innovation in English Language Teaching Award
In the city of Curuzu Cuatia in the Corrientes Province, Argentina you’ll find Escuela Nº 435 Pcia de Tucumán – a school of 400 pupils and scarce resources. In these conditions, teaching is often a challenge – but this did not deter Patricia Raimondi and Norma Alicia Cornaló from developing an award-winning English language project in the region with the surprising inspiration of Hollywood blockbuster Pirates of the Caribbean. The language project recently won the British Council’s 2010 Innovation in ELT Award – a prestigious industry award jointly sponsored by University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations, the British Council, British Airways and IATEFL.
Set up in 2006, the programme continues to provide underprivileged 11–14 year olds with a basic knowledge of English through classroom activities inspired by the hit pirate movie. It was developed in conjunction with two institutions in the region dedicated to language opportunities: Instituto Superior de Curuzú Cuatiá and Escuela Nº 365 “Provincia de Tucumán” and at the helm of the ship was project lead Patricia Raimondi who has been a teacher for 20 years. She explains some of the challenges they faced in the school:
“The school is made up of students from a very poor neighbourhood. By offering free English lessons to these children, we are able to support diversity and provide equal educational opportunities to everybody regardless of their circumstances. As we could not ask students to buy text books, we made our own resources which included flash cards, posters and CDs. We also had many people from the community to help with the project which was very inspiring.”
Assisted by Norma, Patricia prepared a syllabus with basic contents and used the popular movie as a theme for classroom activities. This, Patricia explained, was a real advantage as: “It allowed us to teach dialogue and vocabulary through characters who were well-known to the children.” The programme involved a schedule of two hours a week within the primary school timetable to prepare the students for secondary school.
Dr Mike Milanovic, Chief Executive of Cambridge ESOL commented:
“Projects of this nature are very inspiring and they show exactly what you can do with the resources you have available to you. Using familiar authentic topics in the classroom is one best ways of teaching young learners to improve their English – a skill that will be of use to them their whole lives.”
At the end of term, the students took to the stage to perform their own adaptation of the movie. This was so successful in the community, a repeat performance was organised at the local theatre. Speaking at a special event at Cambridge ESOL’s head office in April, Patricia Raimondi explains the positive effects this project has had: “Throughout the last four years we have carried out follow up investigations which have found that those who took part in the programme adapt much more quickly to the English language than those students who did not.”
When not developing award-winning projects, Patricia and Norma both train people for a range of Cambridge ESOL Examinations including the popular Young Learners English tests. As part of their sponsorship they were funded to visit the International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language (IATEFL) conference earlier in the month in the UK.
Summing up the project, Patricia simply says: “Diversity is about recognising and embracing difference. Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.”
