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Georgia Today has acquired an exclusive license for the British Council’s Learn English Newspapers project
To encourage the learning of English, the British Council of Georgia in partnership with Georgia Today, will launch a long-term project in January of 2012 publishing a series of articles entitled LearnEnglish Newspapers.
The project, developed by the British Council’s English Language Teaching (ELT) experts in the UK, will target readers with a special interest in culture, those who need English in the workplace, professionals, children, parents, teachers of English, people interested in sports and many others.
According to Tamuna Kvachadze, ELT Projects Manager at British Council Georgia, LearnEnglish Newspapers is a series of high-quality articles and activities that will be used as inserts in national and regional newspapers and magazines, which will allow the British Council to establish partnerships with local media and reach a wider audience.
The goal, Kvachadze explained, is to help learners of English in Georgia who possess various and specific interests. “The British Council, which is an internationally recognized organisation, has developed high-quality resources for the benefit of the readers of the newspaper. The print format means that the articles can be read anywhere at any time,” she said.
The articles are expected to improve the reader’s command of the English language, as well as enrich the reader’s vocabulary and assist them in developing independent learning skills.
“Articles are topical and broad-ranging and cover a wide area of interests. The activities are fun to do and learner-oriented,” Kvachadze said, adding that “the project will benefit parents, as well as provide expert advice and guidance on helping their children develop better English language skills.”
In addition, the project will be useful for readers who need English in the workplace; it will provide language which can be put to immediate use. This applies to teachers as well, making it a good resource to be used in classes for teaching both general English and specialized English courses.
Currently, eight series of articles are ready to be published on a weekly basis as part of Georgia Today newspaper. Titles include UK Culture, General English, Professionals, Family, J@M , Premier Skills, Learn English Kids and English for the Games 2012.
Supporting high-quality methods for teaching the English language and learning is a major priority area of the British Council, as well as the Georgian government. For a developing country like Georgia, which is aspiring to establish close links with European countries and is adapting to European standards in economy, education and justice in almost all fields, English has become the first and most important foreign language used in communication with the rest of the world.
“Established economic partnerships and the brisk development of the tourism infrastructure in Georgia has [produced] an immensely growing demand for the teaching and learning of English,” Kvachadze added.
According to Kvachadze, the British Council of Georgia has enjoyed a long lasting partnership with Georgia Today. which has proved to be “high quality and successful all the time.”
“We are glad that we have the opportunity to work in partnership with Georgia Today once again for a couple of years to support the implementation of the Georgian government’s nationwide initiative,” Kvachadze noted in the interview.
Nino Gelashvili 