College teachers from Yunnan and Guizhou provinces in rural China have been given the opportunity to benefit from a programme designed by the University of Warwick and Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU).

Three members of staff from Applied Linguistics at the University of Warwick, along with staff from the School of Foreign Languages at Shanghai Jiaotong University, will be delivering the course to help to advance the 68 participants’ English language skills and equip them with the knowledge and expertise to improve English language pedagogy and training in the schools at which their students go on to work.

This project was made possible by a generous donation from Mr. Liu Sing Cheong, a Chinese philanthropist from Hong Kong who is committed to supporting the development of rural China. A key aspect of his philanthropy is to provide underprivileged children with greater opportunities to access education and employment, and English language training is an important part of this mission.

Professor Helen Spencer-Oatey, Director of Applied Linguistics commented:

We are very grateful to Mr. Liu for his generous support and are delighted to be able to design a research and development project which will make a real difference to communities in rural China. By training the teachers and evaluating the impact, we are looking to make a sustainable intervention which will have a positive effect on future generations of students.

The Centre for Applied Linguistics has a strong history of collaboration with SJTU and we are delighted to work on this unique project together. We are hopeful that we will be able to continue this work beyond this year and be able to support even more trainee teachers across the country.

Warwick’s Centre for Applied Linguistics has a great deal of experience in relation to the worldwide teaching and learning of English for speakers of other languages. Our staff have worked on many projects designed to teach English in difficult circumstances and under Dr Neil Murray’s guidance we will be using our expertise to design and support this outreach project in China."