News
Costa Rican English teacher praised by Cambridge for innovative approach in the classroom
1 December 2011
An English teacher from Costa Rica – who developed a classroom blog to improve students’ pronunciation – has been praised by University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations (Cambridge ESOL) for his creativity and innovation in the classroom. Jonathan Acuña who teaches at Universidad Latina in Costa Rica, won the Laureate International Universities’ Teacher Competition 2011, which was set up in collaboration with Cambridge ESOL, Cambridge University Press and Bell Educational Trust. The competition challenged teachers from the Laureate network to submit 150 words on their own innovative approaches in the classroom and Jonathan’s student blog won first prize.
As part of his prize Jonathan was awarded a place on a two-week residential teacher development course at Bell Teacher Campus – at Homerton College, Cambridge. Cambridge ESOL’s Simon Wright said:
“The idea behind the competition was to find the most innovative ideas from the Laureate Network of teachers and we had some really interesting entries. Jonathan’s blog really stood out from the crowd as it was a creative but practical way of engaging students in their English studies.”
Jonathan - who has been a senior Professor since 1998 - teaches English Teaching Majors at Universidad Latina. His award-winning blog allowed students to download audio and video resources over their 15 week English course. It also included additional exercises and a chat room where students can contact Jonathan direct. Jonathan said:
“Blogs are becoming a really effective teaching tool as they encourage students to interact in a user friendly environment. Since I launched the blog it has grown well beyond my immediate class with over 12,500 visitors to date. It’s really satisfying to see the difference it makes to language learners across the world.”
And on the subject of blogs, Simon Wright said: “In terms of innovation, it’s a really exciting time for teachers. Technology is increasingly playing an important part in the classroom and platforms such as blogs can comfortably sit alongside more traditional teaching methods.
The teacher innovation competition is one part of a ten year strategic agreement between Laureate Education, Cambridge ESOL, Cambridge University Press and Bell Education Trust, to establish the Laureate English Program across the Laureate network of universities. Together with colleagues in Cambridge , Laureate is creating a state-of-the-art English language program encompassing quality teaching materials, solid assessment, and a focus on teacher training and development, the first of which is a baseline exit proficiency of B1 (the emerging global standard for basic English language proficiency) across the Laureate network.
