RAWALPINDI, June 2: A two-day Phonetic Workshop kicked off here on Thursday to provide an opportunity for the teachers to learn the techniques to improve pronunciation and communication skills of the children.
The workshop was organised by 'Dawn Media Group' in collaboration with Oxford University Press as part of its 'Dawn in Education Programme.'
Dawn Media Group annually holds these workshops before the event of Spelling Bee in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad. The Spelling Bee aims at expanding children's horizons beyond the classroom and enhancing their scope of learning. The contest is designed to help students improve their spellings, increase their vocabulary, learn new concepts and develop the correct usage of the English language.
Muhammad Ali Khan, Senior Instructor and Coordinator Professional Link Committee at the Centre of English Language, Agha Khan University Karachi, conducted the workshop.
As many as 65 teachers attended the two sessions of the workshop from 10:00am to 12:30pm and from 02:30pm to 05:00pm on the first day at Grammar School Junior Branch, Chaudhry Bostan Khan Road, near Chaklala Scheme-III. These teachers belonged to different schools from Rawalpindi, Taxila, Wah, Mianwali, Abbottabad, Mardan, Chakwal, Peshawar, Mirpur and Mandi Bhauddin.
On the second day, 65 more teachers will attend the workshop at City School, Capital Campus, Pitras Bokhari Road, H-8/1 Islamabad on June 3 (today). Total 130 participating teachers belong to those schools which have already been registered for the Spelling Bee Competition-2011 scheduled to be held in September in Islamabad.
During the workshop, the instructor informed the audience how the pronunciation of the children could be improved and explained the phonetic symbols in an easy way. The teachers took part in different activities and discussed their experiences regarding English language teaching.
The participants were of the view that the workshop was very informative and Dawn Media Group should continue to hold such workshops to provide an opportunity to the teachers to learn and understand the new techniques in language teaching. They said that the teachers were anxiously waiting for the Spelling Bee Competition and they would try to make it possible for the children of their schools to win the contest.
“The workshop is an excellent opportunity for English teachers to put their students on right track to correct their pronunciation and spellings,” said Zakir Hussain, a teacher at Fazal-e-Haq College, Mardan.
Marryum Afshan, a teacher at City School Mianwali, said: “It was awesome. We really appreciate the efforts of Dawn Media Group and look forward to similar workshops in future.”
Mrs. Shafaq Javed from Roots International at Defence Housing Authority-I (DHA-I), said that the workshop was effective as the instructor highlighted the problems relating to the teaching of the language and provided various techniques to apply in the classroom so that the children might learn correct pronunciation.
“It was very comprehensive and through this workshop we understand to adopt easy way to improve communication and pronunciation skills of the children,” said Naheed Ghazanfer from Grammar School, Ch. Bostan Khan Road.