Diplomatic English programme

Final report

August 2014

This report outlines the delivery of the Diplomatic English course for the Ethiopian Ministry of
Foreign Affairs.

The report is divided into the following sections:

 An overview of the activity that took place.

 A review of the progress made by the participants, including attendance records.
 A review of the Quality Assurance Observations.
 A review of the feedback from the participants, including feedback from the focus
groups and feedback surveys.
 Recommendations for the future delivery of this programme.

For further information, please email Liam.holly@britishcouncil.org

An overview of the activity that took place

All course participants received a total of 100 training hours. The final timetable is attached in
appendix 1.

Designing the programme to include area specialists rather than group tutors was very effective as
participants received training from a number of different trainers. As participants wanted to work on
different types of English, this was also useful as they were exposed to a variety of accents.

A review of the progress made by the participants, including attendance records

Common European Framework ‘can do’ descriptors were included with all course materials to
encourage participants to record their own progress throughout the programme. These were collated
and sent previously as ‘Course Outline’. As well as this, continual assessment was carried out by the
subject tutors against CEFR descriptors, a final review was carried out on Friday 29th August where
participants were given assessment tasks around presentations, debating, public speaking. Results of
the continual assessment and review are included in appendix 2.

Based on the assessment results, participants in groups 2 & 3 made the most progress over the
course, with fewer participants in group 1 showing a difference in level after placement testing. The
nature of the can-do assessments was designed to test participants’ abilities in the skills areas taught
during the course and should not be viewed as equivalent to the placement test.

Attendance was good in groups 1 & 2, group 1 attendance was fair, although punctuality started to
slip toward the end of the course. Full attendance records are attached in appendix 2.

A review of the Quality Assurance Observations

The British Council Training Centre Manager carried out observations of all trainers in week one and
three of the programme. This was to ensure standardisation of delivery as well as to ensure
participants were correctly placed in the respective groups. Training methods observed included:

 use of energisers at the start of sessions

 a combination of individual and group work
 use of simulations
 correction of participants’ pronunciation
 some remedial grammar work with the lower level group to facilitate their contribution of
questions
 taking of feedback from students

All participants were engaged in the respective sessions and were encouraged to contribute their
ideas to the group. Trainers appropriately varied their styles to include facilitation as well as language
teaching. There was a good variety of activities in all sessions to appeal to all learner styles.

In addition, trainers have been encouraged to take part in peer observations. One of the trainers had
the opportunity to do this in week one and was able to give feedback to the colleague. Notes on the
observation were that there was a variety of activities in the lessons and student feedback was good.

Drop-in observations were carried out throughout the programme by the course coordinator and the
same training methods observed. The Course Coordinator also observed participants delivering

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presentations and taking part in debating simulations. It was very that participants were using the
strategies taught by the trainers and peer and tutor feedback were positive in both cases.

It was identified that there was one tutor in particular whose method of teaching did not meet the full
standards of the British Council. The tutor was recruited for the programme due to the demand by the
MoFA for tutors with high qualifications (Master Degree and above), unfortunately the delivery of the
lessons did not meet with the British Council teaching standards.

A review of the feedback from the participants, including feedback from the focus groups and
feedback surveys

The Course Coordinator completed a series of informal discussions with the participants during week
one and four of the programme, as well as discussing the course progress with the Director General
of the Foreign Service Training Institute. Feedback was also sought from trainers.

Participants signalled their approval of course design & delivery and commented on the
professionalism of the trainers. They were happy with the interactive nature of the sessions and found
the material to be well-adapted to their needs.

The Director General of the Institute also informed British Council Ethiopia that participants had been
assigned to groups, with a group leader, to collect feedback on a daily basis. The feedback collected
had been overwhelmingly positive.

The size of one of the classrooms at the Civil Service College is not conducive to interactive training
delivery. The trainers made the best of the space and requested a change of room but no other rooms
were made available. In final course feedback, some of the participants as well as students
commented on the venue being substandard.

61 participants completed the final feedback questionnaires. The results are represented in the graph
below.
40 36
34
35 31
29
30
25 21 21
20
15
10
5
5 3 3
1 0 1 0 0 0
0
Strongly agree Agree Neither Disagree Strongly
disagree

Training met expectations Training was high quality New skills aquired

92% agreed that the training met their expectations, 90% agreed that the training was high quality and
that their English had improved, while 97% agreed that they had acquired new skills.

99% said they would recommend British Council.

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Detailed comments include:

 The training was high quality but when compared to my expectation, constrained by the time
allotted
 More on pronunciation
 It should not be full day
 Provide more audio visual materials
 Current affairs was not relevant
 Keep it up!
 Have more time to read the booklets
 Give more time for practice
 Some training rooms were not up to the standard
 Use more videos
 It was the best!
 Select trainers who know about international politics
 Debate and presentation should be increased
 Trainers should not be assessed on their Academic qualifications, but on their experience
subject expertise.
 Training methodology was good
 Very interactive way of teaching
 Materials used were excellent
 Teachers were v.good
 The teachers have absolutely unbelievable talent.
 Trainers were highly professional

Recommendations for the future delivery of this programme

Length and design of the programme

Many participants, as with the previous course asked for the course duration to be extended, and we
agree that more practice of the different skills would be beneficial.( Cultural Awareness, Debating,
Negotiating and pronunciation)

One suggestion is that the course include breaks for participants to practise what they have learned
‘on the job’ with feedback and further training to improve their skills. This would mean delivering the
course in blocks separated by self-study / practical application stages. This would give participants
more time to absorb what they have learned – see feedback above.

A further benefit of designing the course this way, is that material could be better tailored to individual
needs as the practical application stages would highlight where gaps still remain.

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Training venue

Overall, the venue was convenient for participants but not all the rooms were large enough to
accommodate the groups. We recommend, that all classrooms are free of desks, broken chairs and
rubbish so that the trainers and participants are able to arrange the furniture according to the module
being delivered. The inconvenience of constant technical problems with electricity causing dark rooms
in the afternoons and inability to use audio visual equipment, meant that the course was not delivered
to the full high quality as would have been desired.

There were some complaints about the noise that the training was creating at times when other
important meetings were being held in the buildings and it would be better for rooms to be used in an
area where a communicative methodology of training will not disturb others in the building. It would
also be beneficial to provide a secure area for trainers to store their materials and equipment.

Materials

Materials were provided in the form of booklets, which contained a number of modules. This caused a
few problems when students either did not check their class timetables or forgot their booklets at
home.

Current Affairs materials were produced separately in order to allow for updated materials to be used.

Power point presentations were used by trainers where appropriate, as well as some video and audio
resources were used.

Trainers & qualifications

All trainers except one are educated to Master Degree level and one of the trainers has a PhD
qualification from Addis Ababa University and the majority of the trainers have knowledge of
international politics to some extent. The trainer not educated to Masters Level, delivered the
pronunciation element of the training, she is a native speaker and is a DELTA level TEFL tutor with
many years of experience teaching English as a Foreign Language, making her an expert in her field.
We would recommend for future programmes including experts in other fields to deliver some of the
specialised modules. According to the feedback from students, there were some questions in their
minds as to whether tutors should be chosen to deliver the training according to Academic prowess or
would experience and expertise in the field be more relevant? This is a thought that we at the British
Council would mirror, as mentioned in previous feedback.

Also, higher level practical English language teaching qualifications should be recognised so that
experienced teachers without Masters can be included in the programme delivery. For example,
Delta, accredited by Cambridge University, is an equivalent Masters level course in practical teaching
methodology.

Coordination

A clear outline of coordination responsibility for each partner was identified to streamline programme
organisation. This meant that the course ran more smoothly, despite problems highlighted above, and
there was a good rapport between the Director General of the Foreign Training Institute and the
British Council course coordinator allowing for the smooth running of proceedings.

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Participants were informed of the details of the course beforehand at an organised opening
ceremony, where the course coordinator gave a presentation to the participants including all
programme details, timetables, aims and objectives and expectations as well as contact details of the
key .

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Appendix 1 – timetable

Group 1

Mon 28 Jul Tue 29 Jul Wed 30 Jul Thu 31 Jul Fri 1 Aug

09.00 - 10.30 Course introduction Opening

10.30 - 11.00 BREAK

Week one

11.00 - 12.30 Course introduction Ceremony

12.30 - 13.30 Lunch

13.30 - 15.30 Course introduction

Mon 4 Aug Tue 5 Aug Wed 6 Aug Thu 7 Aug Fri 8Aug

09.00 - 10.30 Negotiating Negotiating Negotiating Presentations Presentations

10.30 - 11.00 BREAK

Week two

11.00 - 12.30 Negotiating Negotiating Negotiating Presentations Presentations

12.30 - 13.30

13.30 - 15.30 Negotiating Negotiating Negotiating Presentations Presentations

Mon 11 Aug Tue 12 Aug Wed 13 Aug Thu 14 Aug Fri 15 Aug

09.00 - 10.30 Professional Writing Pronunciation Networking Report Writing Report Writing
Week three

10.30 - 11.00 BREAK

11.00 - 12.30 Professional Writing Pronunciation Networking Report Writing Report Writing

12.30 - 13.30 LUNCH

13.30 - 15.30 Professional Writing Pronunciation Networking Report Writing Report Writing

Mon 18 Aug Tue 19 Aug Wed 20 Aug Thu 21 Aug Fri 22 Aug

09.00 - 10.30 Clear Correspondance Clear Correspondance Current Affairs Debating Current Affairs

10.30 - 11.00 BREAK

Week four

11.00 - 12.30 Clear Correspondance Clear Correspondance Current Affairs Debating Current Affairs

12.30 - 13.30 LUNCH

13.30 - 15.30 Clear Correspondance Clear Correspondance Current Affairs Cultural Awareness Current Affairs

Mon 25 Aug Tue 26 Aug Wed 27 Aug Thu 28 Aug Fri 29 Aug

09.00 - 10.30 Public Speaking Coping with Conflict Meetings Meetings Review

10.30 - 11.00 BREAK

Week five

11.00 - 12.30 Public Speaking Coping with Conflict Meetings Meetings Review

12.30 - 13.30 LUNCH

13.30 - 15.30 Public Speaking Coping with Conflict Meetings Meetings Closing Ceremony

Key to
Alemu Michelle Edward Fitsum Yonas
trainers

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 Group 2

Mon 28 Jul Tue 29 Jul Wed 30 Jul Thu 31 Jul Fri 1 Aug

09.00 - 10.30 Course introduction Opening

10.30 - 11.00
Week one

11.00 - 12.30 Course introduction Ceremony

12.30 - 13.30 LUNCH

13.30 - 15.30 Course introduction

Mon 4 Aug Tue 5 Aug Wed 6 Aug Thu 7 Aug Fri 8Aug

09.00 - 10.30 Report Writing Report Writing Public Speaking Pronunciation Networking

10.30 - 11.00 BREAK

Week two

11.00 - 12.30 Report Writing Report Writing Public Speaking Pronunciation Networking

12.30 - 13.30 LUNCH

13.30 - 15.30 Report Writing Report Writing Public Speaking Pronunciation Networking

Mon 11 Aug Tue 12 Aug Wed 13 Aug Thu 14 Aug Fri 15 Aug

09.00 - 10.30 Presentations Presentations Negotiating Negotiating Negotiating

Week three

10.30 - 11.00 BREAK

11.00 - 12.30 Presentations Presentations Negotiating Negotiating Negotiating

12.30 - 13.30 LUNCH

13.30 - 15.30 Presentations Presentations Negotiating Negotiating Negotiating

Mon 18 Aug Tue 19 Aug Wed 20 Aug Thu 21 Aug Fri 22 Aug

09.00 - 10.30 Professional Writing Debating Clear Correspondance Clear Correspondance Coping with Conflict

10.30 - 11.00 BREAK

Week four

11.00 - 12.30 Professional Writing Debating Clear Correspondance Clear Correspondance Coping with Conflict

12.30 - 13.30 LUNCH

13.30 - 15.30 Professional Writing Cultural Awareness Clear Correspondance Clear Correspondance Coping with Conflict

Mon 25 Aug Tue 26 Aug Wed 27 Aug Thu 28 Aug Fri 29 Aug

09.00 - 10.30 Meetings Meetings Current Affairs Current Affairs Review

10.30 - 11.00 BREAK

Week five

11.00 - 12.30 Meetings Meetings Current Affairs Current Affairs Review

12.30 - 13.30 LUNCH

13.30 - 15.30 Meetings Meetings Current Affairs Current Affairs Closing Ceremony

Key to
Alemu Michelle Edward Fitsum Yonas
trainers

Page 8 of 12
 Group 3

Mon 28 Jul Tue 29 Jul Wed 30 Jul Thu 31 Jul Fri 1 Aug

09.00 - 10.30 Course introduction Course introduction Opening

10.30 - 11.00 BREAK

Week one

11.00 - 12.30 Networking Course introduction Ceremony

12.30 - 13.30 LUNCH

13.30 - 15.30 Networking Course introduction

Mon 4 Aug Tue 5 Aug Wed 6 Aug Thu 7 Aug Fri 8Aug

09.00 - 10.30 Presentations Presentations Pronunciation Negotiating Negotiating

10.30 - 11.00 BREAK

Week two

11.00 - 12.30 Presentations Presentations Pronunciation Negotiating Negotiating

12.30 - 13.30 LUNCH

13.30 - 15.30 Presentations Presentations Pronunciation Negotiating Negotiating

Mon 11 Aug Tue 12 Aug Wed 13 Aug Thu 14 Aug Fri 15 Aug

09.00 - 10.30 Negotiating Clear Correspondance Clear Correspondance Meetings Meetings

Week three

10.30 - 11.00 BREAK

11.00 - 12.30 Negotiating Clear Correspondance Clear Correspondance Meetings Meetings

12.30 - 13.30 LUNCH

13.30 - 15.30 Negotiating Clear Correspondance Clear Correspondance Meetings Meetings

Mon 18 Aug Tue 19 Aug Wed 20 Aug Thu 21 Aug Fri 22 Aug

09.00 - 10.30 Report Writing Report Writing Debating Networking Professional Writing

10.30 - 11.00 BREAK

Week four

11.00 - 12.30 Report Writing Report Writing Debating Networking Professional Writing

12.30 - 13.30 LuchLunch

13.30 - 15.30 Report Writing Report Writing Cultural Awareness Networking Professional Writing

Mon 25 Aug Tue 26 Aug Wed 27 Aug Thu 28 Aug Fri 29 Aug

09.00 - 10.30 Current Affairs Current Affairs Public Speaking Coping with Conflict Review

10.30 - 11.00 BREAK

Week five

11.00 - 12.30 Current Affairs Current Affairs Public Speaking Coping with Conflict Review

12.30 - 13.30 LUNCH

13.30 - 15.30 Current Affairs Current Affairs Public Speaking Coping with Conflict Closing Ceremony

Key to
Alemu Michelle Edward Fitsum Yonas
trainers

Page 9 of 12
Appendix 2 – Attendance and assessment results

Group 1 Attendance Absences CEF level CEF level on

(hours) at assessment
placement day
testing

Abdulkhadir 95 Sick: 27/08 am B2.5 C1

Mohammed Late 19/08 pm
Abraham Tesfaw 95 Sick:08/08 am/pm C C1
Late 20/08 pm
Adisalem Desta 100 B2.5 C1

Bethelhem Ayalew 98 Sick: 12/08 pm B2.5 C1

Bitaniya Tilaye 100 B2.5 C1

Daniel Samuel 96.5 22/08 present for first session only C C1

Helina Dinku 94 Sick:08/08 am Absent: 18/08 am B2.5

B2
Hibamo Ayelew 100 C C1

Lila Desta 98 Sick: 18/08 pm C C1

Madot Kassahun 95 Sick:07/08 am/pm C B2.5

Mahlet Tesfaye 97 First Day 04/08 Arrived pm

Late: 05/08 am 12/08 am/pm 19/08 C1
C
am
Muberek Nuru 100 Late: 05/08 am 12/08 am C C1

Nahom Asrat 100 Absent : 20/08 am/pm B2.5 C1

Seble 95 Absent: 15/08 am/pm

B2.5 B2.5
WoldeEmanuel

Tedla Bezabih 85 Absent: 26-27-28/08 B2.5 C1

Tinsae Fetene 92 First Day 04/08 Arrived pm B2.5 C1

Absent:28/08 am 14/08 pm
Yewibdar Siyoum 87 Absent:08/08 am/pm B2 B2.5

Yonathan GMedhin 92 Absent 11/08 am/pm 22/08 am C C1

Benyam Ephram 100 C1 C1

Aziza Geleta 100 C1 C1

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 Group 2 Attendance Absences CEF level at
(hours) CEF level on
placement
assessment day
testing

Abayneh Ayalew 100 B2 B2.5

Adane Abera 95 Absent:25/08 pm
B2 B2.5
Late: 27/08 pm
Assefa Chemere 100 B2 B2.5
Aster Kebede 100 B2 B2.5
Dalul Arefe 100 B2 C1
Dimiru Bekele 100 B2 C1
Firekal Bekelle 93 Absent: 21/08 am/pm
26-27/08 am/pm Late 29/08 B2
am B2
Mihret GMedhin 83.5 Absent: 07/08 pm,15/08 am
18/08 am,20/08 am, B2.5
26-27/08am/pm B2
Mulualem 98.5 Absent: 20/08 am
B2 C1
Getachew
Sara Wolelaw 95.5 Absent:,25/08 am, 13/08 am
B2 C1
28/08 am
Selamowit 92 Absent:26/08 am, 27/08
B2 B2.5
Shenkute am/pm
Solomon Ambaye 100 B2 B2.5
Tamiru Endale 100 Late: 27/08 pm,28/08 pm B2 B2.5
Tsedey Getachew 100 Late:27/08 am B2 B2.5
Tsegayesus 93.5 Sick: 11/08 am
B2 C1
Mekonnen Absent: 18/08 am/pm
Tsion Getachew 98 Absent:08/08 (Child sick) B2 B2
Yibetal Tegegne 100 B2 B2.5
Yohannes Ejigu 100 Sick: 07/08 am B2 C1
Yonas Habtamu 98.5 Absent: 25/08 am B2 C1
Dagim Alemayehu 100 B2.5 C1
Tadesse Daniel 100 B2 C1

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 Group 3 Attendance Absences CEF level at
(hours) CEF level on
placement
assessment day
testing

Alemayehu Desta 100 B1 B2

Ali Hassan 100 B1 B2.5
Bizuayehu Bizuneh 95 Absent: 18/08 am/pm
B1 B2
Late:25/08 am/pm
Chala Dejenu 100 B1 B2.5
Dawit Gidyelew 100 B2 B2
Dibora Seyoum B1 B2
Elham Nurhussen 0 Dropped out of course B1 0
Eman dawit 100 B1.5 B2
Fasika legesse 100 B1 B2
Gizachew Addis 100 B1.5 B2.5
Habiba Kassaye 98 Sick:08/08 pm B1.5 B2.5
Kenenissa Assefa 100 B1.5 B2.5
Mohammed Hassan 100 B1 B2.5
Negayo Mamo 83 Absent: (Death in family)
B2 B2.5
07/08 pm-12/08
Rahel Kiflu 96.5 Sick: 11/08 am,21/08pm B1 B2
Rahel Wubshet 98.5 Sick: 11/08 am B1.5 B2
Tesfahun T/Tsadik 98.5 Absent: 19/08 am B1.5 B2.5
Tsion Dawit 90 Sick: 05-06/08 B1.5 B2
Yetimwork Terekegn 100 Late: 26/08pm B2 B2.5
Yodit Dejene 90 Absent: (Wedding) 29/08 B1.5 B2.5
Temesgen Tesmale 100 B1 B2

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