Armenia | Building English Language Capacity for Armenian Students and Teachers | 25 Aug 2020

Throughout August 10-21, 2020, within the U.S government funded “Building English Language Capacity for Armenian Students and Teachers” program implemented by PH International, 12 Armenian teachers and trainers of English, selected from a pool of over 38 applicants through a rigorous, merit-based nationwide recruitment, participated in a 50-hour, 10-day online “Training of English Teachers as Mentors”. The training was conducted by Steven Gomez, a TEFL specialist from the U.S., with extensive experience of integrated teaching.

During this highly participatory and interactive online course, the participants were first equipped with new knowledge, skills, attitudes and practices relevant to mentorship, and afterwards, individually or in assigned pairs, conducted lessons in which the rest of the participants acted as virtual students. After these lessons, which incorporated the theories, the key principles and approaches taught to them during the course, the participants as well as the trainer provided to their counterparts with feedback and recommendations for improvement. All participants successfully graduated the course and were awarded with Certificates of Achievement by the U.S. Embassy and PH International.

Following this online course, the trained mentors, supported by other trainers, will design and conduct a 5-day training program for another pool of 40 in-service Armenian teachers of English to be recruited by PH International by December 2020. After the training, each of the mentors will be matched with 4 in-service teachers to serve as their mentor throughout the end of the “Building English Language Capacity for Armenian Students and Teachers” program.