Hula: The US Government has provided USD 35,000 in support of the Programme to Strengthen English Language Teaching in Angola, benefiting 300 teachers. This initiative forms part of efforts to enhance educators' skills, with a view to regional development and the US-Africa partnership.
According to Angola Press News Agency, the participants are secondary school English teachers from the provinces of Benguela, Huambo, Cubango, Bi©, and Hula. Their training sessions began in March this year, forming part of the celebrations marking the 250th anniversary of US Independence, observed on 4 July. The training programme is organised by three former scholarship holders from US Embassy exchange programmes, with funding from the US Government through the Innovation Fund for Alumni Engagement.
The programme aims to strengthen the pedagogical, digital, and intercultural skills of English language teachers, promoting effective, learner-centred teaching practices. It seeks to train teacher-leaders capable of fostering global skills and to strengthen educational and economic partnerships between the United States of America and Africa.
Speaking at the opening of the latest training cycle in Hula, involving 35 local teachers, one of the project coordinators, Ant³nio Xavier, explained that over the course of five days, the trainees will refine their methods and approaches to language teaching, the use of artificial intelligence in teaching, intercultural communication skills, and assessment as a tool for learning. He emphasised the need for teachers to possess the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and dispositions required for teaching the English language, noting that the methodology applied in such teaching differs from that used in other subjects.
In his view, language teaching should focus on communicative methodologies that enable pupils to communicate in real-life situations, as well as in the classroom, rather than merely learning the language by rote - such as memorising grammatical rules or verbs - as is still evident in some schools. He emphasised that for Hula, a region with enormous economic, tourist, and strategic potential, English is a vital tool for driving development, strengthening international integration, and capitalising on the new opportunities the region offers.
Bencio Puna, head of the Science, Technology, and Innovation Department at the Provincial Education Office, emphasized that they do not want pupils to simply regurgitate knowledge; rather, knowledge must be constructed, and the teacher is the vehicle that should enable the pupil to construct that knowledge. He considered this to be an opportunity that must be seized so that the promotion of the English language and its learning can continue. He called for greater engagement from the trainees to achieve more significant results in disseminating the knowledge imparted during the ongoing training programme.
