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Archive
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English Language Courses for Journalists
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With the support of Azercell Telecom JV and US Embassy in Baku, AzETA organised English Language Courses for journalists.
Azercell Telecom JV, implements a new media-oriented strategy “Inkishafi Paylashmaq Platformasэ” (Development Sharing Platform) which focuses on development of quality journalism in Azerbaijan since the beginning of 2007.
This strategy is a new stage in Azercell's close relations with mass media and it aims at sharing its development as a leading telecommunication company of the region with press, which is a mirror of society.
Taking into consideration that independent and powerful media is an important factor for the development of civil society, Azercell have started implementation of different projects within this strategy in order to support this mission of journalism in Azerbaijan. The next project focusing on development of press is a language courses for journalists.
“Azercell Telecom” JV and US Embassy in Baku jointly launched English Language Courses for Azerbaijani journalists. The project was offered to AzETA considering high level professionalism of the organisation, as well as, successful implementer of a series of projects funded by the US Embassy to Azerbaijan.
The participants of the courses were active mid-career journalists working for print, electronic and broadcast media.
English courses wre conducted at AzETA Baku office from 1 November 2007. It was a 7-month course and fnished on 31 May 2008. 30 participants were selected for the course. There were 3 groups: one Elementary, one Pre-Intermediate and one Intermediate level group.
Eligible applicants were selected by the Selection Committee and later interviewed by ELT professionals, Ronnie McDonald, Senior English Language Fellow, Georgetown University, US and Ragsana Mammadova, AzETA President to identify their language level.
The classes were conducted on Monday-Friday between 18:30 - 20:30 with 3 hours of teaching in each group per week. For the first 3 months, different level of Headway were used as a textbook for all groups. Afterwards textbooks specifically meant for teaching journalists were used to help the journalists develop their article and report writing skills.
Some enrichment activities were also organised to encourage the journalists to learn the language better.
Nicolle Boujaber-Diederichs meets the journalists
Nicolle Boujaber-Diederichs is a Social Studies Teacher from the US. She was visiting Azerbaijan under the IREX/TEA programme on 25 March-4 April 2008. An AzETA member was hosting her.As such, AzETA decided to benefit from this opportunity and invited her to meet different groups of AzETA beneficiaries, including journalists.
On 2 April she observed the conversation class volunteered for Pre-Intermediate group of journalists where the discussion was on the seasons of the year. She enjoyed the discussion and decided to have some talk with them. She answered interesting questions positioned by the journalists, described media in the US, asked them some questions about media in Azerbaijan, too. As the journalists enjoyed the discussion with her, they invited her to their next lesson on 3 April where they had an opportunity to ask her questions about cultural differences and similarities, her impressions on Azerbaijan, generation gap in the US, political structure, economic situation, etc.
Nicole was very impressed to learn that they had started the classes only a couple of months ago, yet reached the level where they could communicate with a native speaker fluently. |
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