A STAFF DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME FOR BRITISH COUNCIL ELT PROJECT COUNTERPARTS

In British Council-managed ELT projects in Chinese universities,Chinese project counterparts areselected from among the English-language teaching staff of the University.They work alongside aBritish Council-recruited lecturer(BCL)in developing whatever it is the project has been set up tocreate:a syllabus,teaching materials,a course,etc.During the lifetime of the project eachcounterpart is sent for a year’s postgraduate training(typically an MA in applied Linguistics)at aBritish university,the rationale being that the combination of training on the job and in the UK willequip them to take over the running of the project and ensure its long-term sustainability.This paperlooks at the staff development of the counterparts prior to their UK training.