The red carpet was rolled out in central London on Thursday night for the British Council’s 13th annual ELTons, which seek to recognise and celebrate innovation in English Language Teaching.
In collaboration with Cambridge English Language Assessment, the seven awards recognised winners in categories from innovation in teacher resources, and learner resources, to the best digital innovation.
“We opened up the categories a couple of years ago to reflect the globalisation of ELT, and I think it will continue to reflect that”
The Innovation in Learner Resources Award went to the Oxford Learner’s Dictionary of Academic English, which was described by the judges as “a very useful tool for EAP students and teachers, bringing valuable new resources together in one place.”
Other winners (listed at foot of story) included online learning resource, Little Bridge.
The ceremony was hosted by renowned broadcaster, Angela Rippon OBE, who effortlessly took to the job of hosting the event, drawing many laughs from the audience along the way.
Amy Rogers, UK ELT Marketing and Promotion Manager at the British Council, spoke of her delight at the event’s success.
“I think the breadth of nominees, really shows how many diverse teams are involved in each,” she told The PIE News. “All across the world as well.”
Despite OUP receiving two of the night’s awards, Rogers underlined that “it’s not always the big publishers” that win.
She added that as the sector grows, there will likely be more entries from outside of the UK for the awards.
“I think it will just keep growing and growing,” she said. “We opened up the categories a couple of years ago to reflect the globalisation of ELT, and I think it will continue to reflect that.”
Henry Widdowson collects his Lifetime Achievement Award. Photo: The PIE News
The final award of the night, for lifetime achievement, went to Henry Widdowson. Working in the field of applied linguistics and language teaching for a number of decades, he has written several books on the subjects and has worked as a professor since 1969 at institutions including the University of Edinburgh, the University of Essex, and most recently at the University of Vienna.
In his speech, he said he helped to prompt ELT practitioners to close the gap between theory and practice and understand the “theoretical nature of practice”.
The winners
The Macmillan Education Award for New Talent in Writing: EAP Shakespeare by Dr Chris Lima
The Award for Excellence in Course Innovation: Oxford Discover by L Koustaff, S Rivers, K Kampa, C Vilina, K Bourke – Oxford University Press
The Award for Innovation in Learner Resources: Oxford Learner’s Dictionary of Academic English by D Lea, V Bull, S Holloway, R Duncan – Oxford University Press with Paragon Software GmbH (app)
The Award for Innovation in Teacher Resources: Life Skills by C Higho, D Ball, ES Prince, R Nicholas, C Rose, J Marks and various others – Macmillan Education
The Award for Digital Innovation: Little Bridge by Paul Rogers and Nigel Forward – Little Bridge
The Award for Local Innovation: Talk English by Michaela Salmon and Nuala Trace – Manchester Adult Education Service, Manchester City Council with The Department for Communities and Local Government (UK)
The Lifetime Achievement Award: Henry Widdowson
