English Teacher Awards 2024: Understanding the categories

Thomas Gardner
A smiley woman and one of her friends/students working in a cafe.
Reading time: 4 minutes

Teachers shape every aspect of our learning experience, especially when it comes to language learning. Great teachers give learners not only the skills but the confidence to go out in the world, start speaking up and discovering new opportunities.

We’re celebrating those exceptional educators with the app English Teacher Awards 2024.

With five different categories and a Gold, Silver and Bronze winner in each, there are 15 chances to take home thousands of pounds worth of top prizes for the winning teachers and their schools.

Find out more about who can enter and the different categories in this article.

Teacher Awards 2024
Play
Privacy and cookies

By watching, you agree app can share your viewership data for marketing and analytics for one year, revocable by deleting your cookies.

The 5 award categories

The app English Teacher Awards celebrate educators across five different categories, and closely tailoring your application to the category description is a great way to stand out to the judges.

Teachers can only be nominated for one category, so take a look at the five categories below to find out which is the best fit for your nominee.

1. Teaching Young Minds English

Those very first experiences of learning English can shape a love of language that lasts a lifetime.

This category is for primary educators who’ve set young learners up for long-term success in English through their nurturing, engaging approach.

From fun-filled lessons to creative ways to give young learners opportunities to use their new skills, we want to hear about the educators that have filled children with the confidence to get their language learning journey off to a great start.

2. Empowering Teen Confidence in English

Filled with exams, competing priorities and big decisions, the teenage years can be a make-or-break moment for language learning and the future paths it unlocks.

Making progress with a language rests on feeling confident enough to put skills into practice, which can be difficult for all learners and especially for teenagers.

This category recognizes dedicated teachers who’ve helped teen learners maintain their engagement and commitment to learning English. We’re looking for teachers who have helped teenagers build the confidence they need to speak up and start to discover the joy of being themselves in English.

3. Cultivating Lifelong Learners in English

Learning English as an adult comes with its own unique set of motivations and challenges. Learners are often balancing a whole range of competing responsibilities, with high-stakes opportunities, like studying or employment, that rely on language proficiency.

This category celebrates educators who enable and inspire adult learners with their empathetic, innovative approach, giving them the confidence to learn, perform at their best and unlock new opportunities by learning English.

4. Innovation in English Language Teaching

Teaching is a dynamic discipline that changes with every year, every class and every learner.

Sometimes, it means finding a completely new way to help learners understand and connect with a subject.

This category celebrates those who are always striving to bring the best new technology and techniques to teaching English. We’re looking for educators who have challenged traditional practices, implemented innovative teaching methods and inspired change in the way English is taught.

5. Rising Stars of English Language Teaching

Teaching is a journey, just like learning English. This category recognizes those with less than three years of experience at the very start of their English language teaching career.

We’re looking for educators who’ve arrived in the classroom with a whole host of creative ideas and techniques for building learners' confidence.

Winners in this category will already be leading the way at their school when it comes to shaping the way English is taught and giving learners that “I can do it” confidence.

How to enter

Once you’ve decided on the right category, it’s time to start your nomination.

All applications are online via the English Teacher Awards entry pageand there’s just one question to answer:

How do you/your teacher/your colleague build learners’ confidence to be themselves in English?

The deadline for nominations is midnight (CST) on 1st November.

Your nominee will receive an automated email letting them know they’ve been nominated. Our team will contact them again if they’re shortlisted as a winner ahead of the online awards ceremony in November 2024.

More blogs from app

  • A teacher sat outdoors with young students looking at a book togethr

    Fostering self-care and wellbeing through the world of reading

    By Nicola Schofield
    Reading time: 6 minutes

    Growing up is an exciting time. Children are curious and open-minded, and every day welcomes a new thing to learn. They are constantly exploring and discovering themselves and the world around them. But children also have to face many challenging times too as they get older. It is, therefore, important that we teach our young people to be aware of their own wellbeing and self-care, what they can do to lead a balanced and healthy life, and give them the tools they need to help them in difficult times, both mentally and physically.

  • A teacher and student in a classroom looking at a laptop.

    Improving professional development with 'Teaching with the GSE'

    By
    Reading time: 2 minutes

    Leonor Corradi, MA is an experienced teacher of English and teacher trainer. As such, Leonor hasconducted workshops and delivered talks on best-practice teaching to ensure that learning really happens. The Global Scale of English has become a unique resource that clearly addresses the relationship between teaching and learning.

    Are you an experienced teacher looking for a tool to boost your teaching effectiveness? Or perhaps you're a novice educator seeking new methods for teaching English. Whatever the case may be, the '' course is your ultimate guide to mastering teaching with the Global Scale of English (GSE).

    "Tell me and I forget, teach me and I remember, involve me and I learn." - Benjamin Franklin.

    This quote encapsulates the crux of the 'Teaching with the GSE' course. A comprehensive professional development program designed to bridge the gap between teaching and learning.

    Many teachers are familiar with various scales, particularly the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). However, few may have delved deeply into its intricacies, as its connection to everyday teaching might seem somewhat remote. Each level of the CEFR provides a snapshot of learners' capabilities, while teachers are responsible for crafting the narrative that illustrates how students progress from one level to another. In this metaphor, the Global Scale of English (GSE) serves as a valuable script that educators can utilize to facilitate their students' progress.

    About the 'Teaching with the GSE' course

    The 'Teaching with the GSE' course offers educators a treasure trove of tools to assist learners in their language learning journey. Here is a sneak peek of what you can expect from the course.

    The GSE and the CEFR

    The course starts with an insightful introduction to the GSE and the GSE Toolkit. By the end of this section, you'll understand the relationship and distinctions between the GSE and CEFR.

    Learning Objectives

    The training course addresses the role of learning objectives in teaching and learning. It also helps teachers taking the course set learning objectives. They will, in turn, help their learners set their own learning objectives. Setting language learning objectives often results in students being much more involved and motivated to learn and make progress.

    The GSE Toolkit

    The GSE Toolkit is an incredible resource for teachers, learners, department heads and coordinators. The course shows how user-friendly it is and how it helps users personalize their own goals and monitor them.

    Course materials alignment to GSE

    The GSE is a general scale in that it is not course-based and can be used with materials of all sorts. However, those materials aligned to the GSE offer different resources that can help teachers in different areas: planning, teaching, assessing, monitoring learners progress, among others.

    Improving your professional development and student's classroom experience

    Teachers worldwide have already started using the GSE. This course will help them see how to use it for more effective teaching, lesson planning, assessment, and curriculum design. They will become aware of how many great, unforgettable experiences they can create together with their learners.

  • A woman on her phone smiling outdoors in a city

    Understanding accents and their role in language learning

    By
    Reading time: 4 minutes

    Accents are a fascinating aspect of language that can reveal a lot about a person's background and experiences. For language learners, accents often become a central focus, sometimes to the detriment of more important language skills. In this post, we’ll explore what accents are, why people have them, and why intelligibility is more important than mastering an accent.