Brunei Fellows leave for language placements

Posted date: January 20, 2013 In: Headline, National

THE five Brunei Fellows under the English as a Foreign Language Fellows (ELF) Exchange Programme of the Brunei – US English Language Enrichment Project (ELEP) for Asean have left Brunei to begin their 10-month placements at their respective countries.

The five Fellows will serve as full-time teachers of English of a foreign or second language to diverse groups, ranging from college students to professionals, for up to 20 contact hours a week, according to a press release.

Group photo of four of the five Fellows leaving for their respective host institutions. From left: Pg Zunaidah, Hernie, Muniratul-Ain and Mahanom

In addition to the 20 contact teaching hours assigned by the Fellows’ host institutions, they will also be engaged in other activities such as teachers training; English for Specific Purposes (ESP) instruction in the fields of law, management, economics, medicine, and tourism; curriculum and materials development; text book analysis; research; summer camps; English club or ‘cultural corner’ programming; and other outreach projects. Other than professionally enriching their teaching experience, the Fellows will also be contributing to the improvement of the English teaching capacity of the institutions where they are based.

Each of the Brunei Fellows will be paired with an American Fellow at the host institution. Together, the pair will work on English-related professional activities and programmes under the supervision of the Public Affairs Section of the US Embassy in the country of assignment, and the Regional English Language Officers of the US State Department.

The five education officers comprise the first batch of Bruneians to undergo this prestigious fellowship programme under the Brunei – US ELEP for Asean. The Fellows from Brunei and their host institutions are Dyg Mahanom binti Hussain, National Institute of Education, Cambodia; Dyg Muniratul-Ain binti Dato Hj Adnan, the Institute of Foreign Affairs, Laos; Pg Zunaidah binti Pg Hj Mohd Yassin, Prateepsasana Islamic School, Thailand; Awg Kamaluddin bin Hj Ahmad, Medan State University, Indonesia; and Dyg Hernie Shalwati binti Abd Hamid, Thai Nguyen University, Vietnam.

The Fellowship is open to Bruneian education officers who have had at least three years of English teaching experience in schools.

The programme runs forfive years and the selection of the Fellows is a joint effort between the Ministry of Education, Universiti Brunei Darussalam and the East-West Center in Hawaii. Application for the second cohort will commence in March 2013 and further information can be obtained by contacting office.cec@ubd.edu.bn.