State-Level Workshop on
Developing Soft Skills
(February 20, 2009)
Manasa, Chairman of the English Association, lighting the lamp at the inauguration
The Centre organized a State-level workshop on ‘Developing Soft Skills’ for students on 20 February 2009. Over 100 students and 10 lecturers from 26 colleges in Andhra Pradesh, including Visakhapatnam, Eluru, Guntur, and Chirala participated in the workshop. Though it was a State-level workshop, two undergraduate students from Karanataka also participated in it. The focus of attention at the workshop was on three areas: interpersonal skills, team work, and group discussion. The workshop was facilitated by three resource persons: Dr P Ramanujam, Director of the Loyola ELT Centre, Mr Rennis Joseph, Director, Ignis Careers, Hyderabad, and Ms Immaculate Mary, also from Ignis Careers.
The workshop was inaugurated by Mr K Chandrasekaran, Regional General Manager, The Hindu, Vijayawada. Reinterpreting the old hare-and-tortoise story, which went down well with the audience and struck the right note for the soft skills workshop, Mr Chandrasekharan concluded his 25-minute-long well-prepared and appealingly delivered inaugural address with this advice: ‘Be as fast and reliable as the hare, while being as steady as the tortoise.’
Dr P Ramanujam, who facilitated the workshop on interpersonal skills, took the participants through some of the processes involved in successful interpersonal communication, discussed the principles underlying the processes, and demonstrated each process with examples from real life.
It was followed by a lively workshop on team spirit, facilitated by both Mr Rennis Joseph and Ms Immaculate Mary. This fun-filled workshop in which all the 110 participants acted out a variety of situations in different groups and learned, in the process, how to work as team members/leaders was preceded by a carefully conceived input session and followed by an insightful feedback session.
In the afternoon session, two group discussions were conducted, one for the UG group and the other for the PG group. The winners in each category received their prizes from Fr Dr S Emmanuel, Principal of Andhra Loyola College, in the valedictory session.
During the inaugural session, the Loyola ELT Centre’s maiden publication, Reflective Practice in the English Classroom, by Dr P Ramanujam, Director of the Centre, was released by Fr Dr D Showraiah, Rector and Correspondent of Andhra Loyola College. The book, which is a collection of research papers, was commended by Fr D S Emmanuel, Principal, and Mr K Chandrasekaran, Chief Guest, who had high praise for the significant work the Loyola ELT Centre had been doing for enhancing the quality of English teaching in this country.
British-Council-Sponsored Workshop on
Business English Certificate
(October 6 – 8, 2010)
The participants with the Course Trainer and the Course Director
Twenty-five teachers of English from 14 colleges, including a university, participated in the Business English Certificate (BEC) Teacher Support Programme (TSP), a 3-day training programme of the British Council, meant for teachers of English who want to train students for the Cambridge University’s international examination, BEC. The workshop was organized by the Loyola ELT Centre from October 6 to 8, 2010 with Dr P Ramanujam as the Workshop Director.
Explaining the significance of BEC, Dr CLN Prakash, Training Consultant, British Council, and the Course Trainer, who was the chief guest of the inaugural ceremony, said, ‘BEC is offered at three levels – Preliminary, Vantage, and Higher. These examinations are aimed primarily at individual learners who want to gain a business-related English language qualification; they also provide an ideal focus for courses in business English. Though the tests are set in a business context, they do not test business knowledge; they only test the examinee’s competence in the English language.’
‘Examinations such as BEC demand mental and linguistic abilities of a higher order,’ said Dr P Ramanujam, Director, Loyola ELT Centre. ‘They have, therefore, a potential to expand the mental and linguistic horizons of not only the students who are preparing for the examination but also the teachers who train them for it. A teacher training students for BEC can hope to gain a level of expertise which is far beyond what half a dozen teacher education programmes of the academic staff development system can effect.’
Both Fr A Stanley, Rector of Andhra Loyola College, who presided over the inauguration, and Fr Dr A Francis Xavier, Principal of ALC, commended the efforts of the Loyola ELT Centre in enriching the English learning-teaching environment. Mr Ashish Goyal, Education Information Officer, British Library, Hyderabad, was also present at the workshop.
There were ten workshop sessions on the TSP focusing on all three levels of BEC and considering a range of activities to develop students’ abilities in the skills and sub-skills tested on BEC. On the concluding day of the workshop, the participants undertook micro teaching to put to test the techniques they had learned at the workshop and received feedback from their fellow participants, who acted as observers, as well as from the Course Trainer.
‘The BEC workshop at ALC is one of my best TSPs,’ said the Course Trainer, Dr Prakash. At the valedictory ceremony held on 8 October 2010, the Loyola ELT Centre was given a standing ovation by all the participants for organizing a series of professional development programmes of great value.
Explaining the significance of BEC, Dr CLN Prakash, Training Consultant, British Council, and the Course Trainer, who was the chief guest of the inaugural ceremony, said, ‘BEC is offered at three levels – Preliminary, Vantage, and Higher. These examinations are aimed primarily at individual learners who want to gain a business-related English language qualification; they also provide an ideal focus for courses in business English. Though the tests are set in a business context, they do not test business knowledge; they only test the examinee’s competence in the English language.’
‘Examinations such as BEC demand mental and linguistic abilities of a higher order,’ said Dr P Ramanujam, Director, Loyola ELT Centre. ‘They have, therefore, a potential to expand the mental and linguistic horizons of not only the students who are preparing for the examination but also the teachers who train them for it. A teacher training students for BEC can hope to gain a level of expertise which is far beyond what half a dozen teacher education programmes of the academic staff development system can effect.’
Both Fr A Stanley, Rector of Andhra Loyola College, who presided over the inauguration, and Fr Dr A Francis Xavier, Principal of ALC, commended the efforts of the Loyola ELT Centre in enriching the English learning-teaching environment. Mr Ashish Goyal, Education Information Officer, British Library, Hyderabad, was also present at the workshop.
There were ten workshop sessions on the TSP focusing on all three levels of BEC and considering a range of activities to develop students’ abilities in the skills and sub-skills tested on BEC. On the concluding day of the workshop, the participants undertook micro teaching to put to test the techniques they had learned at the workshop and received feedback from their fellow participants, who acted as observers, as well as from the Course Trainer.
‘The BEC workshop at ALC is one of my best TSPs,’ said the Course Trainer, Dr Prakash. At the valedictory ceremony held on 8 October 2010, the Loyola ELT Centre was given a standing ovation by all the participants for organizing a series of professional development programmes of great value.
Workshop on
Developing Creative Thinking
17 January 2012
The Centre organized a workshop on ‘Developing Creative Thinking’ for students on 17 January 2012. Dr P Ramanujam, Director of the Centre, facilitated the workshop.
‘Are you creative?’ – it was with this question that the workshop started. Not one student said yes. For some time the discussion was on the very notion of creativity. The students seemed to think that creativity was either inborn or something that operated only in some gifted people without their being aware of it. ‘Actually, creativity is like height and intelligence,’ said the workshop facilitator, demystifying the widely-held grand idea of creativity. ‘Everybody has height and everybody has intelligence, but in varying degrees. That’s the case with creativity also. You are all creative; don’t say you don’t have creativity. Only you are more creative or less creative than somebody else.’ His examples, which included Napoleon, Edison (and even Laloo Prasad Yadav!), gave the students an insightful idea of what made creative people creative.
The workshop proper focused on unlocking the door to creativity. Dr Ramanujam pointed out that two characteristics of creative people are striking: one, they are self-confident, and, two, they often go beyond vertical thinking and do lateral thinking. The students took part in a variety of activities which drove home the following:
The students also participated in a number of lateral thinking puzzles using random entry, provocation, and challenge, which were some of the methods suggested by the workshop facilitator, and sharpened their creative thinking skills.
‘Are you creative?’ – it was with this question that the workshop started. Not one student said yes. For some time the discussion was on the very notion of creativity. The students seemed to think that creativity was either inborn or something that operated only in some gifted people without their being aware of it. ‘Actually, creativity is like height and intelligence,’ said the workshop facilitator, demystifying the widely-held grand idea of creativity. ‘Everybody has height and everybody has intelligence, but in varying degrees. That’s the case with creativity also. You are all creative; don’t say you don’t have creativity. Only you are more creative or less creative than somebody else.’ His examples, which included Napoleon, Edison (and even Laloo Prasad Yadav!), gave the students an insightful idea of what made creative people creative.
The workshop proper focused on unlocking the door to creativity. Dr Ramanujam pointed out that two characteristics of creative people are striking: one, they are self-confident, and, two, they often go beyond vertical thinking and do lateral thinking. The students took part in a variety of activities which drove home the following:
- that positive self-talk helps, as indeed it did in the case of Wilma Rudolph, a paraplegic girl, to become the fastest woman on earth (in the 1960 Olympics);
- that imposing limitations on oneself often acts as a self-fulfilling prophecy;
- that it is possible to turn one’s adversity to one’s advantage; and
- that one of the surest ways of developing one’s self-confidence is to be aware of one’s own strengths – as well as weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT).
The students also participated in a number of lateral thinking puzzles using random entry, provocation, and challenge, which were some of the methods suggested by the workshop facilitator, and sharpened their creative thinking skills.