The Project leaders

University of Education Karlsruhe & Angels for Children (Germany)

We are Christian Engel and Prof. Dr. Isabel Martin and developed the vision of a project “Teaching English in Laos” in the summer and autumn of 2015 (details on page “Partnership“).
We launched the programme during our working visits in Laos in October/November/ December 2015 and January 2016 and visited many Lao institutions of education in the capital to introduce our expertise and new perspectives to the officials in charge of education in Laos.

Christian Engel
Chairman of the Angels for Children Foundation and managing director of BHS Corrugated,
is responsible for the foundation, the future development of the project, and the funding.

Prof. Dr. Isabel Martin
Director of the Institute of Multilingualism at the University of Education Karlsruhe (Pädagogische Hochschule Karlsruhe), Germany (2012-2016), and
Professor at the English Department and Language Study Centre,
is responsible for the academic side of the project and its development.

She has designed the holistic teaching approach with its four interlinking strands, selected the teaching material, organised the book donations and orders for the Lending Library, defined teaching scenarios, and chosen the appropriate methodology and techniques.
Her ongoing tasks include constituting new teams of trained teachers/graduates/students, conveying to them the methodology and techniques adapted to Lao conditions, and to generally make sure that tasks are carried out professionally.
Setting the standards with regard to the English language as both the medium and aim of TEFL is another sine-qua-non.
She is also the editor (and ghost-co-writer) of this blog.
In Laos, she is responsible for consultations, supervision, workshops, and model-teaching on the micro-level, and for cooperation with Lao state officials to expand our programme on the macro-level.
At her university, she has originated two new “profile windows” – “Teaching English in Laos” and “Teaching How to Teach English in Laos” – in the new teaching degree (2015), which will ensure that the programme is fully recognised and supported in an academic context and that new volunteers will receive academic credit (15 to 30 CP) for their work in Laos.
She is currently planning a research cooperation with Deakin University (Melbourne, Australia) on teaching languages in Asia and is mentoring a first doctoral dissertation in this field.

 

 

 

 

 

Areas of special interest in research and teaching:

  • Didactics and methodology of early language learning
  • Language teaching methodology (oral and written English, grammar, pronunciation)
  • “Learning English Through the Arts” (LTTA)
  • E-Learning
  • Literary studies and literary teaching methodology
  • Children’s literature, Young Adult Fiction
  • Modern British poetry

Current projects:

 

 

12359854_10208290275640319_7861809766759213524_nJohannes Zeck
In 2011 he visited Laos for the first time as a traveller; during his studies in political science he came back to Laos in 2014 as a volunteer of the foundation. Currently he is the project coordinator of Angels for Children and responsible for organizing the programme, logistics, PR, field work and appointments in Laos. For this, he liaises closely with the Foundation staff in Sikeud and our official partners.
He is also the main webmaster of this blog. Besides, he is also responsible for the Recruitment and Training Programme of BHS Corrugated at the Lao-German Technical College in Vientiane.

 

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Bernhard Fuerst

The vocational teacher in metal production technology and First Chairman of the Bavarian Industrial Master Association got in contact with Angels for Children and the Lao-German Technical College on an educational journey to Laos with his Association in 2014. Impressed by the work carried out by both, he visited them again in 2015 and then decided to support the foundation and the vocational school himself. He has therefore committed to working as a voluntary vocational training advisor for the Recruitment and Training Programme of BHS Corrugated at the Lao-German Technical College and started work in February 2016. As from September 2016, the University of Education Karlsruhe will send two trained volunteers to the LGTC to help set up new “Technical English” classes for the training programme, both for teachers and students.

Text by J. Zeck & I. Martin
Photos by H. Müller, I. Martin, J. Zeck

As of August 2016

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