First Annual Worldfund-Rassias
Foundation Program at
Dartmouth College
20 Mexican Professors and Teachers Participate
On June 22, 2007, Worldfund and The Rassias Foundation launched their second intensive training course aimed at improving the skills of English-language instructors in Mexico. The two-week seminar took place at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire and operated under the academic direction of The Rassias Foundation at Dartmouth.
The Rassias Foundation and the Rassias Method® were developed by Professor John Rassias at Dartmouth College in the 1960’s. The Rassias Method® is an innovative and highly effective system for teaching the conversational use of second languages. The instruction method is based on the premise that students speak a language to learn it rather than learn a language to speak it. Master teachers combine mechanical techniques, dynamic emotional involvement and cultural education with intensive participant involvement. The Rassias Method® has been used to train more than 165,000 Peace Corps Volunteers in languages, as well as countless numbers of students and teachers throughout the world.
The goal of the Worldfund-Rassias Foundation 2007 Summer Program was to improve the instruction techniques utilized in the training of Mexico’s future teachers. 20 teachers and faculty members from the Universidad Pedagógica Nacional were selected to participate in the intensive course, involved more than 12 hours of classes and activities each day. Classes were held in the Dartmouth Center for the Advancement of Learning's state-of-the-art Teaching Center.
During the mornings, Professor Rassias led a four-hour session on the Rassias Method®. Afternoons included drill sessions with The Rassias Foundation instructors and presentations by guest lecturers from Dartmouth and other universities, teacher training programs, and public and private schools. Topics covered included addressing discipline issues in the classroom, curriculum units and design, writing classes and peer involvement, approaches on learning disabilities, web-based research, and school administrators' perspectivies on hiring. In addition, participants attended some of The Rassias Foundation’s Accelerated Language Programs (ALPs) sessions, which were held for business executives and language teachers, among others, in numerous languages.
The participants of the program stayed on Dartmouth’s campus and also enjoyed day trips in New Hampshire and Vermont and an overnight stay at the Harvard Club in Boston.
Funding for the Worldfund-Rassias Foundation 2007 Summer Program was generously provided by Nextel de México and Fundación Televisa. Worldfund and The Rassias Foundation hope to replicate the program annually to transmit cutting-edge instruction techniques to professors and teachers, and thereby improve the quality of English-language instruction for thousands of Mexican students.
NEWS COVERAGE, ARTICLES AND PRESS RELEASES:
UPN en Hanover, NH USA Summer 2007
Gaceta, Universidad Pedagógica Nacional, Septiembre 2007, Número 25
Nextel apoya la capacitación de 20 profesores mexicanos, con el objetivo de mejorar la educación del país
Nextel de México, July 9, 2007
DCAL Partners with Rassias Foundation and Worldfund to Help Mexican English Teachers
Dartmouth Center for the Advancement of Learning, July 6, 2007
Spreading English Throughout The World
WCAX-TV News, July 6, 2007
Mexican teachers learn Rassias Method
The Dartmouth, June 26, 2007
Dartmouth-based partnership aims to help English teaching in Latin America
Dartmouth College Office of Public Affairs, June 21, 2007
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