[MLE] Training Materials and other resources

Dear MLE friends,
Some of us are always looking for good training material in areas like multi lingualism, reading, writing, language learning, etc. The Training for Early Literacy Learning (TELL) department of the South African National Centre for Learning and Literacy is offering all their materials for free on the internet.  Check it out on http://www.tell.praesa.org/
Some of the details are copied below.
 
Thanks to Pam MacKenzie for the tip.
 
Regards,
Karsten
 
Karsten van Riezen/ Education Consultant, SIL Int. / SIL, South Asia Group
LinkedIn
www.sil.org
 
Recommended website: http://www.nmrc-jnu.org/
 
Disclaimer: This mailing list is an informal way to share MLE related information. The sender neither claims credit or responsibility for the reports and events shared through this mailing list. Subscribing or unsubscribe by writing "[MLE] Subscribe" or "[MLE] Unsubscribe" in the subject-line and send a message to: karsten_van_riezen@sil.org. Any contributions or suggestions are welcome.
 What is TELL?
The TELL project was set up to improve the quality of literacy and biliteracy teaching in Early Childhood Development in South Africa by developing training materials for initial and in-service teacher education. Funding through the British Council Higher Education Link Award scheme has made it possible for colleagues at the University of Reading and PRAESA (Project for Alternative Education in South Africa), an NGO based at the University of Cape Town, to work together on the development of the materials.
Although the materials were initially designed for training teachers in South Africa, it is anticipated they will be of use in many other multilingual settings, particularly in Africa.
The philosophy behind the TELL materials
The project is guided by the following principles:
  • Early literacy is both socio-cultural and developmental. Children learn to read by reading and learn to write by writing.
  • The materials are based on the additive bilingual approaches promoted by the national Language in Education Policy for schools in South Africa and promote mother tongue based bilingual education.
  • The materials are task-based rather than lecture-based and encourage participants to build on their existing knowledge and experience
    • participants are asked to work in pairs, small and large groups to discuss issues, share ideas and problem solve together.
    • tasks are followed by feedback sessions, which provide an opportunity to compare ideas with others, to check answers and clarify areas of difficulty.
Organisation
The TELL materials are freely downloadable. They are intended to be used in flexible ways: they can be used as the core of a training programme, or they can supplement existing materials in various programmes. They can be used for short workshops or longer courses. Although they are not meant to suggest a fixed curriculum, to be presented in a set order, topics grouped together as modules.
Currently available modules are:
Learning through talk
Learning to read
Learning to write
Learning an additional language
Language, culture and identity
Languages of education
Multilingualism
Multiliteracies
Materials development
In some cases, the same topics are included in several different modules to avoid the problems which sometimes arise when trainers fail to see interrelationships between modules. Materials around emergent literacy, for instance, are relevant for learning to read, learning to write and multiliteracies.
The materials are presented for use in 2 ways:
1) A Trainers Handbook for each training module contains a selection of relevant topics grouped together. These are intended to provide an overview of each module and are downloadable as PDF files. If you decide to teach from a Trainers Handbook, you then need to download and print out the individual wordfile for each topic.
2) 'Pick and mix' to suit your own requirements (the Trainers Handbooks are useful for deciding what you want to use). Choose the topics you need for your training from one or more modules. Download Individual Word files as and when you need them.

How you can help
We welcome feedback on the existing materials. We would also like to encourage those working in this area to submit their own ideas for training. We would also like to know if you think that the materials would be useful translated into other languages.

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Good website
Date: Fri, 19 Feb 2010 05:33:41 -0500
From: pamelajmackenzie@aol.com
To: karsten_van_riezen@sil.org


Karsten:  A good website on language learning.
Pam

Dr Pamela MacKenzie
International Network for Development, UK
Tel India: +91 (0)93463 39863
Tel UK: +44 (0)7719 971382