U.S. Embassy in Malaysia

 

The U.S. Embassy in Kuala Lumpur hosted the first regional Access teacher training in Penang from December 3 through 7, 2019. Organized by an Access provider, Sultan Ismail Petra International Islamic College (KIAS), the workshop brought together 13 teachers from Burma, Malaysia and Thailand.

The interactive four-day workshop was the follow-on phase of the three and a half months of online professional development led by English Language Specialists Heather Van Fleet and Jeff Puccini.

Throughout this workshop, participants were able to reflect on experiences using the DIGPA (Describe, Interpret Generalize, Plan Action) framework, and learned about microteaching as well as communicative language learning. English Language Fellows Lynn Nakazawa and Kathie Hagy also each led some of the sessions and participated in the training. On the last day of the workshop, the group had the opportunity to visit American Tech Corner at Penang Science Cluster and learned about various STEAM based projects that they offer. Most participants commented that they learned new best practices from each other on different types of Access activities. The workshop concluded with certificate ceremony by the Regional English Language Officer from Bangkok, Alice Murray.