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More than 190 primary and secondary school teachers are receiving training in English as a second language instruction. This has been made possible thanks to In Situ, a teacher training program led by Universidad de Antioquia in partnership with the local government.

Photo: Teachers attending the In Situ program at the municipality of Chigorodó, western Colombia.

The teaching of English as a second language has become a major problem facing basic education not only because students must face the challenge of learning a foreign language but also due to the lack of qualified faculty.

In Colombia, the general level of spoken English is very low, especially in rural areas. This is mainly due to the lack of opportunities for English teachers to practice their language skills after graduating, says Jaime Usma Wilches, a professor of English at the UdeA School of Languages and coordinator of the In Situ program. Professor Usma added that the country faces a shortage of qualified English teachers, which has resulted in teachers in other subjects serving as English teachers. In fact, several studies show that few English teachers are willing to settle in remote rural areas of Colombia.

To address this issue, UdeA in partnership with the government of Antioquia and the Colombian Ministry of Education have launched the In Situ training program, an initiative that aims at providing a solid, practical foundation for teaching as well as a range of effective English as a second language instructional techniques to more than 190 teachers of public schools across the department. This program seeks to make English teaching and learning a more enriching experience for both students and teachers.

This training program is currently available in nine municipalities of Antioquia including Amalfi, Cáceres, Peque, Tarazá, Tarso, Chigorodó, Yarumal, Santa Fe de Antioquia and Santuario.

True to its name, the program offers in-class advice and support to teachers.  “The program includes training seminars distributed on a weekly basis and provides teachers with in-class guidance and support. In Situ staff visits classrooms in order to support teacher development,” said In Situ’s academic assistant Ederson Silva.  

Teaching teachers to teach English

With an estimated budget of 1,236 million pesos (about $ 400,000), In Situ is aimed at experienced educators in 9 regions across the department of Antioquia.  “The program seeks to encourage students in rural areas to learn English as a second language by spending some extra hours at school,” Silva said.

The program provides a stimulating and supportive learning environment as well as a solid curriculum in line with the educational and cultural needs of students in various regions of Antioquia. 

The training seminars are held either at the University’s regional campuses or in educational institutions.  Teachers from neighboring towns also attend the seminars.

Both Usma and Silva agree that it is no easy to be a teacher trainer. “It is not the same to teach English than teaching educators to teach English. Teacher trainers must have a range of skills to effectively deal with the curriculum and methodologies of the program. Likewise, they must have the abilities that allow them understand the difficulties faced by the educators and help them adapt to new teaching methodologies since they have been using the same methodologies for years,” Usma said.    

One way to restructure the curriculum is to include issues that are familiar to students, for example, by developing modules where the teacher makes a detailed description of the student’s hometown, including information such as how is it, what is its population, and what are its main characteristics, as well as photographs of the town, so that students become more familiar with the language.

According to Usma and Silva, teachers must be open to change in order to transform their teaching methods.  In Situ’s trainers provide teachers with new methods of teaching English while encouraging them to develop curricula to suit the needs of today’s students.