Localised teachers’ portals in East Asia: Access English by British Council

Author: Caroline Meek, Regional Project Adaptation Manager, British Council, Singapore

What is Access English?

The British Council project, Access English, started in 2008, currently encompasses ten countries in East Asia comprising Burma, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, South Korea and Vietnam. Access English has a tag line, “Transforming the Teaching and Learning of English in East Asia”.  That is precisely what it has been doing but in so many different ways across so many countries. One of the ways has been to set up localised websites for teachers, with teaching resources and lesson plans linked to the curriculum alongside methodology articles and other professional development materials, all in the s language.

One region, many needs

Despite all the countries being in East Asia, these countries have very different needs. Take Singapore for instance. Singapore is unique in so far as English as a foreign language speakers are in the minority. English in the Singaporean classroom will inevitably be delivered very differently from how it would be in an Indonesian classroom yet the physical divide is a few meters of open sea. The needs of Singaporean primary school teachers are also without doubt very different. Singapore is at the cutting edge of internet technology and all schools are wired up. In contrast, countries like Indonesia because of their sheer size still have isolated communities whose status can only be described as “no-tech”, leave alone “low tech”.

Having said that, it is clear that Indonesia is keen to move forward. The Director of Pustekkom, Ir. H. Lilik Gani, MSc, PhD, says that he backs the initiative for the newly launched Indonesian teachers’ portal, similar to an online staffroom, and will ensure the agency fully supports the provision of the necessary infrastructure. So for Indonesia the future looks rosy.

Anticipating issues like internet access, the project has made resources available to support teachers in almost any situation. Caroline Meek, the project manager overseeing the development of teacher support systems, says that anything available on the internet can be accessed through resource packs suitable for a “low-tech” classroom, where the teacher can use a CD player or photocopy, or a “no-tech” situation, where the teacher literally has no resources.

A lot of the resources have been adapted from British Council websites such as LearnEnglish Kids, learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org, LearnEnglish, learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en and TeachingEnglish, www.teachingenglish.org.uk. These are open access sites for anyone who wishes to browse. The content is a mixture of learning and teaching resources created by devoted British Council teachers from around the globe plus some commissioned input from English teaching specialists.

Recognising that teachers within the region are not confident enough to use these sites as the content is in English, British Council have worked with Ministries of Education to set up localised online portals in a number of countries in the project. Myanmar, Indonesia, Korea, Philippines, Singapore (private, password-protected site), Taiwan and Vietnam have already launched their own sites with Malaysia going live in the very near future.

• Myanmar: myanmar-english-teaching-scheme.ning.com
  
  
• Indonesia: h2te.jardiknas.kemdiknas.go.id
  
  
• Korea: www.ebse.co.kr
  
  
• Philippines: bee.deped.gov.ph
  
  
• Taiwan: ttet.kh.edu.tw
  
  
• Vietnam: www.teachingenglish.edu.vn

For more information on Access English, visit our website: www.britishcouncil.org/accessenglish or contact Caroline.Meek@britishcouncil.org.sg.