College of Education and Human Development

CEHD Faculty Awarded U.S. State Department Grant to Provide Professional Development to English Language Teachers in Turkmenistan

Joan Shin

Joan Shin, Associate Dean for Faculty Success and professor in the English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) Education and Foreign Language Education programs within the College of Education and Human Development (CEHD) at George Mason University, has been awarded a U.S. State Department grant in support of an initiative providing professional development to enhance the teaching skills of English language educators in Turkmenistan. The project will be administered by fhi360, a nonprofit organization that mobilizes research and resources to provide people with access to opportunities needed to live full and healthy lives. The educators receiving this training will be able to share the pedagogical strategies they learn with peers in their own schools, thereby facilitating improved English language acquisition for students in those schools. The professional development coursework will be delivered online through George Mason’s Global Online Teacher Education Center (GOTEC), where Shin serves as Director. This project is a continuation of GOTEC’s “Teaching English to Young Learners (TEYL)” suite of programming which introduces educators in the international community to current methods and evidence-based approaches to teaching English as a foreign language to young learners.

Anya Evmenova

Collaborating with Shin on this project are Anya Evmenova (professor, Special Education), Jered Borup (associate professor, Learning Technologies in Schools), and Woomee Kim (GOTEC Postdoctoral Fellow) from George Mason’s School of Education. The TEYL courses are taught by the GOTEC academic team with instructors Virginia Doherty, who is a George Mason alum, and three Graduate Research Assistants who are pursuing their PhD in Education degrees from George Mason—Kendra Staley, Vinita Abichandani, and Michelle Siembida. Teaching assistants include Bilgehan Ayik and Dildora Khakimova, both of whom are Graduate Research Assistants also pursuing a PhD in Education at George Mason.

Jered Borup

The online professional development program for educators in Turkmenistan will be structured as a series of weekly modules, spanning a period of eight weeks, that will include videos and practical readings connecting research to practice. Individuals will be exposed to pedagogical strategies that can be used in the classroom and they will explore approaches for teaching English that are not only effective but also fun and engaging for children. Specific course topics will include the characteristics of young learners, classroom management, teaching the four language skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) in an integrated and communicative way, and lesson and thematic unit planning. Participants will be able to interact with each other and share ideas for teaching through discussion boards where they will have the opportunity to demonstrate their understanding of course content. The educators taking this professional development course teach English to a broad range of primary school and secondary school aged learners, as well as some adults in Turkmenistan.

In addition to the project focusing on educators in Turkmenistan, GOTEC has initiated two other grant activities during the 2023-2024 academic year which include the “Teaching English to Young Learners (TEYL) Global Online Course (GOC)” and the “Teaching English to Young Learners (TEYL) Massive Open Online Course (MOOC).” Both initiatives were developed for the U.S. Department of State Online Professional English Network (OPEN) Program, and both seek to increase global access to high quality professional development for English language teachers in other countries. Commenting on these activities, Shin stated, “Since the start of our work with the U.S. Department of State and fhi360 on these professional development projects, we have reached approximately 35,000 teachers from 135 countries. Our approach encourages these teachers to reflect on how research-based practices can be applied and adapted for their classrooms and learners.”

Shin discussed how the widespread use of English and the growing trend of teaching English to children at an earlier age have highlighted the need for greater access to professional development that is focused on improving the ability of educators to work with young learners. “Around the world, ministries of education have lowered the age of English language education to the primary school level,” she stated. “English is an important and widely used global language. It is used internationally as the language of science, technology, travel, tourism, diplomacy, and global problem solving.”

“When the age of English education lowers in schools around the world,” Shin continued, “then there is a greater need for English language teachers at the primary school level. Often, English language educators are looking for professional development opportunities to enhance their teaching skills, particularly for those teachers who have never instructed young children before. Learning about child development and classroom management are frequently cited as the most valuable content in our courses.”

In other endeavors, GOTEC is developing a new project based on a recent Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with The American College of Greece and the American Community School in Athens. Shin explained that the purpose of this new project is to construct a comprehensive professional development program for teachers across the primary, secondary, and higher education sectors in Greece, focusing on inclusive education and universal design for learning and teaching. She emphasized, “We are utilizing the capacity built through our many GOTEC-funded projects to develop this new initiative centered on inclusive education.”

For more information on GOTEC and its professional development activities for English language teachers in the international community, please visit the center website at https://gotec.cehd.gmu.edu/projects.