English Certificates for Lao teachers 2017

Learning English is fun, at times challenging, but also very rewarding. To show our “students” how much we appreciate their learning English with us during their free time, and to provide them with a record of their achievement, we held a formal Certicificate Ceremony on January 10^th, 2017, at the primary school in Sikeud. Here are some pictures of this ceremony and our proud “students”:

Everybody waiting expectantly

Gerlinde Engel aka “Madame”

Mittaphone “Mit” Sichampa (English teacher at Sikeud primary school) receives her certificate from Johannes Zeck & Prof. Marti (“John & Izzy”)

Phovang “Noy” Inthavong (English teacher at Sikeud primary school) receives her certificate

Bouangeun Hanthavong (aka “Linda”, AfC Assistant) all happy

Souphaphone Vongphachan (Director of Sikeud Primary School)

Lathsamy Chanthavongsa & Bounpheng Singhalath (teachers at Phang Heng primary school) receive their certificates from their tandem teachers Silja Schäfer & Sara Stöhrer

Khanthong Vilaithong receives her certificate

David Schrep hands over the certificates to his tandem-teachers Sauvanh Vong & Bounleud Sengsavangvong (teachers at Phang Heng secondary school)

Anika Broghammer congratulates her tandem-teachers Donekeo Keositvong & Souksakhone Sindavan (teachers at Phang Heng secondary school)

All “non-English” teachers at Phang Heng secondary school with their certificates (teachers who do not teach English, but also learn English)

Yay, we love getting certificates and working together!

After all the teachers had gotten their Certificates we had one more achievement to celebrate. Johanna Landvogt, psychology student, had tested all the English teachers from the three schools that are supported by the AfC foundation. This comprehensive test consisted of four different types of tasks: Writing, listening, reading and speaking. The purpose of this test was to get a standardized evaluation of the level of English of these teachers to find out their level of proficiency on the CEFR scale (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages), and also to find out which areas in particular still need work.

Moreover, we plan to carry out the test again in a few years’ time and are expecting to see further improvement, which will in turn motivate the teachers to keep on studying (and us to keep on teaching). Here a some pictures from the handover of the individual test results:

Mittaphone “Mit” Sichampa & Johanna Landvogt

Johanna Landvogt hands over the test results to Donekeo Keositvong

Bounleud Sengsavangvong receives his test results

Text by S. Stoehrer

Photos by D. Schrep, S. Stoehrer