All entries for Monday 12 July 2010

British Council project update

Writing about web page http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/al/research/collect/elt_archive/britishcouncil/

select_bibliography_1980_onwards_11.7.10.pdf

unpublished_elt_project_evaluation_reports_and_bowers_papers.docx

I've just sent an update to the British Council about our Jan-Dec. 2010 project 'Building an archive and a record of the history of British Council involvement with ELT, 1934­-2009’. Achievements so far this year (against project aims) have included:

·        cataloguing and shelving of remaining published material

The main catalogue now contains 4,458 entries (up from 3,643 entries at the end of 2009). A Third Edition of the catalogue will be published online at the end of the year.

A list of 525 duplicate pre-1980 publications has been made and circulated to RIE South India in the first instance (for a possible donation of historical material).

We have also catalogued a selection of 1980+ publications, with a focus on British Council publications (currently, 176 items) – attached above

·        completion of cataloguing of unpublished materials

The catalogue of unpublished materials now extends to 37 box files (up from 24 at the end of 2009). A Third Edition of the catalogue will be published online at the end of the year. A sample of work completed so far this year (catalogue of all unpublished reports on British Council administered projects received during last year’s project, plus Roger Bowers papers) is attached above

   ·        gaining permission to republish or publish for the first time selected published and unpublished items (books, reports, photographs and interviews)

·        when permissions are granted, scanning or otherwise digitalising, and then uploading selected items to our website; otherwise, encouraging/enabling copyright holders to upload to their own websites

Scanning of selected unpublished items (photographs and autobiographical accounts) has begun recently, and permissions have begun to be gained for uploading some of these materials by the end of the year. Support is continuing for the British Council’s own ‘Milestones in ELT’ scanning initiative. Links have been made on the website to further documentation of the career of Lionel Billows.

·        publicising the Warwick ELT Archive to the wider ELT community

Publicity has been gained via presentations at IATEFL and to Accreditation UK inspectors; also, a forthcoming presentation at the BAAL conference.

The research dimension of the proposed project involves systematically increasing the stock of knowledge relating to the overall history of British Council involvement with ELT, 1934­-2009, by means of:

·        systematic review of both secondary and primary sources in our collection

This process has begun, with an initial focus on British Council support for the establishment of applied linguistics and other postgraduate ELT teacher training in the UK; also, support for the South India MELT campaign and Bangalore project.

·        recording, transcription and analysis of interviews with selected informants

Transcripts have been made of reminiscences by Council officers which are already in the Archive collection (specifically, Bernard Lott and L.A. Hill).

·        continued updating of the UK-funded ELT Projects database

There has been some updating as a result of information received following publicity within the British Council network.

Richard Smith : 12 Jul 2010 02:36 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Lionel Billows (1909–2004) in Hall of Fame

Writing about web page http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/al/research/collect/elt_archive/halloffame/billows/

This is not 'new' news, but I've been away from this blog for a while. Back in May I created pages for Lionel Billows (1909-2004) within the Archive website 'Hall of Fame', incorporating biographical details, along with a good photograph courtesy of Hans-Joachim Lechler. There are also links to further information on pages maintained by Professor Burkhard Leuschner, to a blog entry by Mark Andrews and associated personal reminiscence by Rod Bolitho, and to an unpublished account of 'A crash education programme - the Madras snowball' (uploaded on Prof. Leuschner's site).

Another candidate for induction into the Hall of Fame might be L.G. Alexander, author of New Concept English among many other books (I've just come across an interesting article in English Today (no. 78, 20/2, April 2004) describing a statue erected in his memory in Beijing.

Any other suggestions for candidates gratefully received!

Richard Smith : 12 Jul 2010 02:29 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem