Meet Manana Rusieshvili-Cartledge, a President of the English Teachers Association of Georgia (ETAG), Professor and Head of English Philology at Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University.
When contemplating the British Council’s role in my professional development, the first thing that comes to my mind is a bleak and cold room in the 5th building of Tbilisi State University in which the English Teachers Association of Georgia (ETAG) was founded in 1995. From the first day of ETAG’s existence, the British Council has been one of our lifelong and reliable partners. Moreover, the British Council and ETAG paved the way for the introduction of new methods in ELT in Georgia and thus helping to develop and enhance Georgian teachers‘ skills in English.
Soon after, as a young teacher, I became part of the team of ETAG’s teacher trainers. First, I was trained by trainers invited by the British Council and, afterwards, together with the British trainers, participated in the design of teacher-training and trainer-training courses currently run in ETAG. My first visit to the United Kingdom, to one of the summer schools offered in Chester, was also supported by the British Council.
One of the projects I participated in was the introduction of the TKT (Teacher Knowledge Test) in Georgia. Being an ETAG trainer, I have trained many groups in this test. More recently, the group which I worked with within December 2020 together with Katie Kalandadze, was made up of the participants of the British Council’s Learning Hubs Programme. I enjoyed working with this wonderful team of teachers. They were motivated, eager to learn, experiment with new materials and they made interesting and insightful contributions to the discussion. Three of the participants were tested COVID was positive during the course but still took part in the workshops, which I found especially moving and motivating.
Another project implemented last year was the IATEFL Prelim project, which was also run together with the British Council. I am proud that ETAG is one of the 20 associations worldwide participating in the project. The PRELIM project, which started in January 2021 and lasted till March, allowed English teachers of Georgia from the region of Imereti to work with the tutors from Languages United in Bath, UK. I was pleased to see how this course boosted the confidence of the teachers in speaking and writing skills and how they enjoyed every minute of it.