Winners announced for Pearson’s ELT Teacher Award 2017

Wednesday 25th January 2017: Pearson, the world’s leading education company, announce the winners of their first Global ELT Teacher Award.

The award launched on 5th October 2016 showcasing teachers across the globe who love what they do and motivate and inspire learners. It gained a large international reach with entries from 108 countries, totalling 1,395 entries overall.

Judging the entries and choosing a winner from each of the five global regions were author and academic, David Nunan; Chief Education Advisor at Pearson, Amar Kumar; and Founder of EL Gazette, Melanie Butler.

David Nunan said “It's been a privilege to act as a judge for this competition. The entries demonstrate the depth of innovative and creative talent that exist in language teachers around the world”.

Regional winners are:

Africa & Middle East - Imane Nejjar, Morocco

Asia & Oceania – Koki Shimazu, Japan

Europe – Agnieska Bilska, Poland

North America – Gabriel Cambiasso, United States

South America – Ornella Valentinuz, Argentina

The winners will receive an all-expenses-paid trip to the IATEFL or TESOL conference in 2017 to learn, share and talk with other ELT teachers and industry experts.

The competition also included a People’s Choice, where the judging was handed over to the public. A winner, the entrant with the most votes in each region, will receive 20 Kindles for their class, pre-loaded with Pearson content. Voting for this prize was open for four weeks and received a staggering 34,300 votes.

People’s Choice winners are:

Africa & Middle East - Yassir El Haj El Sheikh, Sudan

Asia and Oceania - Amreet Kaur, Malaysia

Europe - Sylvie Dolakova, Czech Republic

South America - Runner-up: Kellen Geremias, Brazil

North America - Runner-up: Rosa Higueros, Guatemala

Pedro Vasconcellos, VP Marketing, ELT & Schools: “We’re delighted with the results from the award, it has been a huge success, with winners from across the globe. It’s wonderful to showcase teachers who are dedicated to making an impact and striving to help their learners in new ways, and we appreciate how hard that can be. Having the ability to highlight some of the great work done is an honour and a privilege. We look forward to making this an annual initiative.”

The winning entries for the Pearson Global ELT Teacher Award and the People’s Choice are available to view at:

www.pearsonELT.com/teacheraward.

For further information please contact:

Richard Cleeve

Richard.Cleeve@Pearson.com

About Pearson

Pearson is the world’s learning company, with expertise in educational courseware and assessment, and a range of teaching and learning services powered by technology. Our mission is to help people make progress through access to better learning. We believe that learning opens up opportunities, creating fulfilling careers and better lives. For more, visit www.Pearson.com.

About David Nunan

David Nunan is the Professor Emeritus of University of Hong Kong, Anaheim University, California, and Professor in Education at the University of NSW has published over 100 vital texts on bettering education and the classroom. In 2003, he was awarded the TESOL Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2005, he was named one of the 50 most influential Australians internationally. In 2015 he was given the James E. Alatis Award for Service to TESOL.

About Amar Kumar

Amar Kumar holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a Bachelors in Computer Science from Purdue University. He is directing the Global Efficacy & Research team which is confirming the learner is the focus. Amar also leads some of Pearson’s investments in a low-cost school in India as part of the Pearson Affordable Learning Fund (PALF).

About Melanie Butler

Melanie Butler has taught in schools in Iran, Spain and Italy before specialising in language teaching for the BBC World Service. The EL Gazette informs English and International educational news and resources for teachers.