Anna Searle, Director of English Language at the British Council commented that the ELTons are “the only international awards in English language teaching that recognise and celebrate innovation in this field”.

Nominees include well known publishers, individuals and an “independent collective of creative individuals in ELT”, The Round. The ELTons ceremony will take place on 22 May in London.

Meanwhile, four business English trainers in the UK have been nominated for the first ever accolade recognising professionals in their sector. Business English UK, a special interest group within the national association English UK, will announce the winner at a conference this month.

Sarah Wang, manager of Business English UK, said: “We wanted to create an award which would highlight an area of English language teaching which isn’t as well known as it could be, and to celebrate the fantastic work being done for businesses from all over the world by our trainers and centres.”

The Excellence in Business English Training award is open to those who teach English to business professionals – a fast-growing area of the ELT world.

Four individuals were nominated, including Julie Humble from the Lydbury English Centre in Shropshire, Alan Cargyl at International House in London, and Claudia Edwards and Ed Pegg from the London School of English.

“The quality of the applications has been absolutely outstanding, and we hope the momentum will mean an even bigger pool of entries next year,” said Wang.

BEUK works to market business English and other professional English courses to governments and professional bodies in over 22 countries.

An award panel of five BEUK committee members and EUK Deputy Chief Executive Huan Japes will decide the winner to be named at the BEUK conference on April 27 in London.