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.
Play
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Around 20%of the , making it an integral component in global business operations. But the question remains for business leaders and HR professionals: how can language learning, specifically, business English courses, drive your organization forward?Here are 8 ways language training can impact your business.
Stories can make us laugh, cry or tremble with fear. They can teach us valuable life lessons and transport us to other worlds. They've been around since the beginning of language itself, but can they actually help us learn a language?
Stories are one of the most useful toolswhen teaching childrenEnglish. Not only do they help with listening and reading skills, but they can also support speaking and writing skills by providing context, language and structure.
Very young learners may already be familiar with stories – they may hear them in daycare, school or at home with their parents. Therefore, incorporating these into their language classes may help them to feel more comfortable in their surroundings. And if children feel comfortable, they are more likely to be receptive to learning.
Storytelling usually happens as part of a group in the classroom. This means that it becomes a bonding activity for children where they can communicate and subconsciously pick up the key language. While having fun listening and interacting with the story, theysoak up information without even realizing they’re learning.
So, what storytelling activities can we use with younglearners? Let’s find out.
Often, we think of storytelling simply as reading a book aloud to children. Yet, there are other activities you can do. These include:
To get young children interacting with the story, first read out a sentence alone. Then, have the children repeat the line with you as a group. Repeat as many times as necessary, until the children feel confident with the language.
If your learners are happy to, ask them individually to repeat the sentence after you. Make sure each one has a turn and praise them for being brave and trying to use the language.
An activity that works well with children is to act out the story’s characters. For example, there may be animals, fairies, monsters or other exciting characters that they can each act.
Ask them to make the noises of the animals, the wind, or the scenery to create an atmosphere while you read. This gets them interacting with the story and the rest of the group, which will help their communication and listening comprehension skills.
Young learners react particularly well to visual aids and realia. Why not use puppets or dolls to act out the characters, or even ask students to have a go with them? They will engage more with the story and the language.
Children’s story books are usually quite visual with illustrations and pictures. Make the most of these while telling the story. Try asking students questions about the images to get them using the vocabulary.
You could ask them, “what can you see?”, “what’s he wearing?” or “can you find an apple?”. This is another great way to reinforce the vocabulary they’re learning in class.
Use these activities individually orincorporate a mix into your lessons. Either way, storytelling will help your learners with more than just developing their English language skills.
While we often think of storytelling as a pastime for children, it can also be a useful language learning activity for adults.
Stories are part of our daily lives, from news to social media to books and movies. Therefore, they can be extremely beneficial tools for English language learning.
Yet, the way we approach storytelling as a class activity for adults differs to that of young learners. While we typically read fairy tales to young children, we can bring in a much wider range of content for adults, such as:
Storytelling can be a wonderful language learning tool for both children and adults. If you’re looking for a new way to engage, inspire and motivate your learners, why not try it in your next class?
Language learning is more than just something you study—it's a strategic move that integrates into every aspect of your life—socially, professionally and mentally. With English often being the common ground for global business, communicating effectively in this language has never been more important.
In this post, we uncover the benefits of language proficiency, particularly in English, backed by relevant statistics and insights from app's recentground-breaking new research.
