Empowering Language Teachers and Learners in Uzbekistan: Opening Doors through Formal English Reading and Writing Development

在2014年世界教师节，教科文组织/劳工组织/儿童基金会/开发计划署和教育国际的负责人申明，“教育系统的好坏取决于它的教师”[1]。联合国教科文组织2015年发布的一份关于教师职业与联合国《世界人权宣言》第26条[3]--受教育权--之间关系的报告[2]报告称，教师往往缺乏资源和培训，无法提供良好学习成果所需的高标准教学。乌兹别克斯坦是一个中低收入国家，教育部门没有足够的资源来充分利用学习者和教师的发展，这对其经济劳动力产生了连锁反应。然而，2010年欧安组织的一份报告[4]发现，乌兹别克斯坦只有1%的学生、教师、教授和公务员在他们的职业生活中使用英语或阅读英语文章，这一发现可能是因为英语水平较低。因此，提供一个提高英语正式阅读和写作能力的项目将为乌兹别克学生、语言教师以及通过涓滴效应为整个国家带来好处。这将使学生拥有在网上/国外成功学习的技能，将有价值的知识带回国家，使教师能够访问国际专业期刊，以改进他们的教学并分享他们自己的实践和研究，并使乌兹别克斯坦公民能够更有效地与世界其他地区交流。我的博士研究重点是非英语母语学生正式阅读和写作技能的发展。此外，我在乌兹别克斯坦和英国分别担任了4年和6年的正式英语教师，我看到了某些技能和实践如何从英国转移到乌兹别克语环境中。我的目标是创建两个相互关联的教育工具，旨在通过自下而上的方法在乌兹别克斯坦启动和保持高质量的正式英语教学和学习。这些工具将基于我的博士发现和教学经验，1)接触英语正式写作风格和使用具有广泛反馈的范文，2)培训教师如何驾驭英语知识网络，培养对英语正式写作风格的敏感度和知识，这对语言学习者的结果都是有益的。我的第一个目标是通过我与乌兹别克斯坦英语教师协会的密切联系，创建一个互动的范文网站(Package 1)，其中包含乌兹别克斯坦背景下的正式学生英语写作语料库。课文将按主题进行分类、数字化、审查和注释，并就课文组织、语言适当性等问题提供广泛的反馈。这些将交互地允许学生和教师注意并尝试更正错误，并就他们选择的更正提供详细的反馈。这些材料将是一个宝贵的教学工具。第二个目标是一个关于提高正式阅读和写作技能的自我延续的讲习班(第二组)。为期3天的课程将以模块形式向英语教师提供教学方面的指导，教他们在乌兹别克语背景下感到缺乏的正式阅读和写作。研讨会将以我的博士研究结果和在线问卷形式的简要需求分析为基础。这些材料将通过在乌兹别克斯坦与来自不同教育部门的教师共同制作的过程来制作。讲习班一揽子计划将通过与一群教师一起有效地运作来实施，因此也将成为这些教师如何举办讲习班的典范。所有资源都将在网上提供。与会者将被鼓励在自己的机构举办类似的研讨会，从而引发多米诺骨牌效应，可能会在全国范围内蔓延。

On World Teachers' Day 2014, the heads of UNESCO/ ILO/ UNICEF/ UNDP and Education International affirmed that "an education system is only as good as its teachers" [1]. A 2015 UNESCO report [2] on the relationship between the teaching profession and Art. 26 of the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights [3], the right to education, reported that teachers often lack the resources and training to give the high standard of teaching required for good learning outcomes. Uzbekistan, a lower-middle income country, has insufficient resources for the education sector to fully capitalise on learner and teacher development, with knock-on effects on its economic workforce.A working knowledge of English is an important facet of a professional education. However, a 2010 OSCE report [4] found that only 1% of students, teachers, professors and public servants in Uzbekistan used English in their professional lives or read articles in English, a finding potentially explained by low levels of English proficiency. Thus, providing a program to improve English formal reading and writing abilities will bring benefits to Uzbek students, language teachers, and, via a trickledown effect, the country as a whole. This will give students the skills to successfully study online/abroad bringing back valuable knowledge to benefit the country, give teachers access to international professional journals to improve their teaching and share their own practices and research, and allow Uzbek citizens to more effectively communicate with the rest of the world.My PhD research focused on the development of formal reading and writing skills of non-native English speaking students. Also, I have been a teacher of formal English in Uzbekistan for 4 years and in the UK for 6 years, and have seen how certain skills and practices could be beneficially transposed from the UK to the Uzbek context. My goal is to create two inter-related educational tools, which aim to initiate and perpetuate high-quality teaching and learning of formal English in Uzbekistan via a bottom-up approach. The tools will be based on my PhD findings and teaching experience that 1) exposure to formal writing styles in English and the use of model essays with extensive feedback, and 2) training teachers on navigating English language knowledge networks and engendering sensitivity to and knowledge of English formal writing styles, are both beneficial to language learners' outcomes.My first aim is to create an interactive model essay website (package 1) containing a corpus of formal student writing in English from the Uzbek context, via my close links with the Uzbekistan Teachers of English Association (UzTEA). The texts will be sorted thematically, digitised, reviewed and annotated with extensive feedback on issues such as text organisation, appropriacy of language, etc. These will interactively allow students and teachers to notice and attempt to correct errors and provide detailed feedback on the correction they choose. The materials will be a valuable pedagogical tool.The second aim is a self-perpetuating workshop on improving formal reading and writing skills (package 2). The 3-day workshop package, in a modular format, will provide instruction to English teachers on aspects of teaching formal reading and writing felt lacking in the Uzbek context. Development of the workshop package will be based on my PhD findings and a brief needs analysis in the form of an online questionnaire. The materials will be constructed via a co-production process, in Uzbekistan, with teachers from varying educational sectors. The workshop package will be implemented by effectively running it with a group of teachers and will thereby also serve as a model for those teachers of how to run the workshop. All resources will be made available online. Attendees will be encouraged to run a similar workshop in their home institutions, thus, initiating a domino effect that can will cascade through the country.