English “Lending Library” in Ban Sikeud Primary School

In the teachers’ room of Ban Sikeud Primary School we now have a Lending Library with many English books. There are books for reading for pleasure during free time as well as books for explicitly improving one’s English skills. The Library also hosts many didactic books on teaching English as a foreign language, some of which are geared towards the interests and needs of children, whilst others respond to the needs of adult learners. Furthermore, the Library features monolingual English dictionaries for both children and adults. Working with monolingual dictionaries is an important step in language learning and teaches the correct usage of words, fosters the underlying cultural concepts that are connected to language and supports the learners with semantic organization.

One of our cooperation English teachers in Laos, Mittaphone from Ban Sikeud Primary School, has taken on the librarian’s tasks since we left. She helps the other teachers when they want to borrow a book and makes sure the books are returned after 4 weeks

Over 170 books, more than 30 CDs, around 5 DVDs, and the hand puppets Sally, Mr. Mole, Mopsy and Little Birdy inhabit the new library.

All of the items in the English Lending Library were donated by various parties. We would like to thank

Angels for Children,

Pearson Education,

Finken,

Oldenbourg,

Cornelsen,

Hueber,

MacMillan,

Helbling,

Oxford University Press.

Additionally some private donations were also made, by Prof. Dr. Isabel Martin, Leonora Fröhlich-Ward, Monika Schellberg, Susanne Frister, and D. Gray.

We are all really grateful for this enormous support from so many different parties. Without such a contribution, the project of teaching Lao English teachers and students could not have had such a successful start.

 

Text by F. Frister