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What's Happening
Elizabeth Gray-King
Dear God...
“Hardly anyone can ever find God because God is right at the end of your mind after all the background thoughts are gone.”
Maisie Satchwell-Hust
 

CHRISTIAN TEFL

Teaching English Outreach


About Christian TEFL

As an accredited TEFL training course provider (charity reg. 1145857), Christian TEFL trains people to teach English and then points our graduates in the direction of where they can serve, either teaching English overseas, or increasingly here in the UK.

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The need for English language teaching in the UK

We are seeing a greater need for English teaching here as the number of non-English speakers within our communities increases. Evidence for this need was identified in March 2018 in the Green Paper introduced in parliament by Home Secretary Sajid Javid, with currently in excess of 750000 people in the UK who have little or no English ability.

However, the present level of free English language tuition is largely inadequate for the needs of many refugees and asylum seekers. A recent Refugee Action briefing, titled Safe but Alone, outlined details of the impact of recent government cuts on successful refugee integration is quoted as saying “Government funding in England fell from £203m in 2010 to £90m in 2016.” These cuts have reduced the availability of English language classes. Refugee Action campaigns for English language learning opportunities and states that 73% of people in the UK believe that helping refugees learn English is beneficial for Britain (read more here).

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This is the situation we believe we can step into. Our project aims to train Christian volunteers to teach English, so that they can act as agents for change within their local communities, encouraging social cohesion through assisting those who are marginalised by a lack of English language skills. Where appropriate, this open doors for Christian witness, where people can come to hear and know the good news of Jesus Christ.

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Our project

Supported in part by a generous donation from Westhill, our project is in two sections:
  1. Online course development
In collaboration with our partner TESOL organisation, Global English TESOL courses, (of which Christian TEFL is the charitable outreach arm), we are developing an Introduction to Teaching ESOL course to provide a bespoke training programme that is easily accessible for Christians adults of all ages. This would lead to a change in the way our courses run (supporting a change in our training practice) and be a more effective platform for training and learning. By redeveloping the courses we will be able to train Christian volunteers more effectively, so that they can teach English through their local churches in this country.
  1. Pilot English language teacher training project in churches 2019/20
We wish to run a pilot teacher training project, with the aim of training 15 new English language teachers in three/four UK locations, who can then serve to volunteer in churches where they see an outreach opportunity for English language teaching in their communities. As much funding has been withdrawn by local councils and the government over the past 10 years, we see this as an opportunity for the church to provide English language classes to those who are disenfranchised and disadvantaged within our communities by not being able to communicate effectively. We’d like to provide the opportunity for people to learn everyday functional language skills that will enable them to become more engaged in their local communities, which we hope will enhance social cohesion.
 
If the pilot is successful, and we are able to demonstrate that the project has worked to support people to overcome a disadvantage, we will look to expand this project nationally, particularly into the north and midlands where many asylum seekers have been (re)located post 2017-18. We hope this this aspect of the project will work to provide English language training for local Christians and help build stronger communities through their outreach.

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For more information:
 
To find out more about this project, and especially if your church would like to partner with us in the pilot project, please contact William Bradridge,
Director of Studies, Christian TEFL,
 wbradridge@christiantefl.org, or to find out more, please call 01392 346555.