Projects
In the last fifty years, we have made a notable contribution to the development of indigenous curriculums and teaching materials for national and state agencies like NCERT, CBSE, IGNOU and National Open School, and we have reached out to different areas. The following are some of our ongoing national projects.
The District Centre Scheme
This is yet another scheme that aims to train secondary school teachers of English, this time at the district, rather than the state, level -- through training centres set up for the purpose in chosen districts across the country. Two parallel objectives of the scheme are to ensure that (i) all the teachers of a host district are trained, and, more importantly, (ii) even teachers from rural and backward areas have access to programmes designed to improve their language proficiency and professional competence. The training centres are therefore strategically set up in districts that include disadvantaged areas. District Centres are financed for the first five years of their existence by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, and thereafter by the respective state governments.
The District Centre project and the materials used on the training programmes run by the Centres have been designed by the university. The English and Foreign Languages University also provides all the academic support the Centres need and monitors their work through its District Centre Advisory Committee, whose members visit the Centres regularly.
Aims and Objectives of the District Centre Scheme
- To provide saturation level training to all teachers of English in the State/UT, especially those in rural and backward regions and areas, through short orientation courses supported by long-term course in the distance mode.
- To offer need-based training to teachers on a sustained basis.
- To identify and develop leadership potential among high school teachers of English and develop a cadre of specialists in material production, teacher training, and testing and evaluation.
- To provide opportunities to teachers to grow and develop professionally by promoting collaborative learning and teacher development programmes.
- To develop each District Centre into an ELT Resource Centre for the benefit of teachers of English in the district and for the benefit of the community as a whole.
Programmes at the District Centre
Ten-day Orientation Programmes
All teachers of English in the district are trained initially on a Ten-day Orientation programme, specially designed and produced by the EFLU. The training orients the teachers to:
- modern approaches, methods and techniques of teaching English in order to enable them to optimally use the prescribed materials effectively, and
- develop their proficiency in English through a self-learning package gifted to them on the course.
Correspondences-cum-Contact Course
Teachers who are willing to continue their learning and grow professionally after the ten-day training enroll themselves on the Correspondence-cum-Contact Course. The course aims to
- improve teachers' proficiency in English, and
- improve their professional competence.
The Course is conducted in three phases:
- Initial contact programme 05 days
- Mid-term contact programme 10 days
- Final contact programme 10 days
An examination is conducted during the final contact programme. Successful teachers are awarded the Certificate in the Teaching of English-Secondary Level by the EFLU, Hyderabad.
Need-Based Courses
Resource Persons at the Centres visit schools, observe the trained teachers' performance and identify further areas of training. Then they design short training programmes to cater to the needs of the learners either at a school convenient to the participants or at the District Centre itself.
District Centre as a Resource Centre
The District Centre functions as a Resource Centre catering to the needs of the schools in the district. Among other resources, the Centre has a library containing books on English and English Language Teaching, a collection of audio and video materials on ELT, a computer with Internet facility, and a collection of data about the performance of learners and teachers. The Centre offers consultancy to Boards of School Education and Boards of Examination.
Activities at EFL University
One of the important activities of the Scheme is the Chief Tutor's Conference held annually at EFL University to facilitate interaction among the chief tutors and coordinators. This year's Conference, held from 22-24 July, provided an excellent platform for discussing the current and future activities of the Scheme. Every year the university also organizes a three-month Resource Person's course for the chief tutors and tutors of New District Centres, to enrich their proficiency and improve their professional competence.
Future Plans
Forty two District Centres spread over 14 states are currently functional. Further plans of the Scheme include:
- Setting up new District Centres
- Networking all the District Centres in the country
- Organizing seminars, conferences and training programmes
STATE WISE DISTRIBUTION OF DISTRICT CENTRES
| Andhra Pradesh | 7 | ||
| Assam | 4 | 1 | |
| Arunachal Pradesh | 2 | ||
| Chattisgarh | 2 | *1 | |
| Kerala | 1 | *2 | |
| Madhya Pradesh | 2 | ||
| Maharashtra | 6 | ||
| Mizoram | 3 | 1 | |
| Orissa | 4 | 1 | *3 |
| Pondicherry | *1 | ||
| Sikkim | 1 | ||
| Tripura | 2 | ||
| Nagaland | 2 | ||
| Gujarat | 3 | ||
| Rajasthan | 1 |
* State-funded District Centres
For further details you can contact:
Dr Meera Srinivas [All India Coordinator] / Ms Revathi Srinivas [Dy. Coordinator]
Phone : 040-27090752/27090753
Fax : 040-27090752 DCS
Email : This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
The English Language Teaching Institutes (ELTI) Support Scheme
This scheme, directly funded by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, offers financial assistance and academic guidance to the ELTIs set up by different states with a view to providing quality training to their secondary level teachers of English. At present there are 15 such ELTIs in the country, and together they have trained around 44,000 teachers. In addition to their training programmes, the ELTIs also work on projects leading to the production of English language teaching materials, and, occasionally, on research projects.
The ELTI Support Scheme is operated by EFL University through a committee formed for the purpose. Members of this committee, drawn from the university’s faculty, visit the various ELTIs during the year to monitor their functioning, as well as to provide academic support to their training programmes.
Multilingual Dictionaries Project
Building on its experience with and expertise in lexicography, linguistic semantics and language teaching, The EFL University has undertaken a broad-based programme for the production of multilingual dictionaries for English and the major Indian languages. The dictionaries are designed to be of use to learners at the secondary level, with a range of about 50,000 words.
National Survey on Teaching English at the Primary Level
The ELTI Support Scheme of the EFL University team has undertaken a national survey of the teaching of English at the primary school level. The Ministry of HRD has approved the project. Data collected from students, teachers, parents and administrators in the form of questionnaires from all parts of the country is being processed. This data will be part of the Pilot Study of the Project.
National Curriculum Framework (NCF)
A senior member of the EFL faculty was Chair of the Focus Group on English, one of the 21 Focus Groups set up by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) to contribute to the curriculum renewal effort that took shape as the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) 2005. This indidual was subsequently the Chief Advisor for the main course books and supplementary readers for English at the secondary level published by NCERT. Another senior faculty member of EFL University served as Chief Advisor for the main course books and supplementary readers of the NCERT for English at the primary level. Other EFL faculty served as members of the teams for the production of main course books and supplementary readers at various levels.
In addition to its national projects, the university has also been carrying out a few ‘local’ projects.
Course Material for the Visually Impaired
The university has taken up a project to digitalize some course material (Literature) of the School of Distance Education. The work involves digitalization of modules, transcription into Braille script and production of data in Braille by using Dexbury Braille Pranscription software. This project is very significant as it is a pioneering attempt by any university at the tertiary level to extend its outreach in distance education especially to the visually impaired in accessible format. The hardware and the software for the purpose have already been acquired and the work is under way.
EFL University English Language Materials Bank
This project envisages a huge reservoir of materials, which can be used to prepare textbooks, supplementary readers, and practice materials for various academic bodies in India and other English-using countries. Two English textbooks have already been prepared for the Board of Intermediate Education, Government of Andhra Pradesh.