BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE CURRICULAR REFORM PROJECT OF

ENGLISH, CRADLE, DEVELOPED WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF THE

CONVENTION OF
ECUADORIAN-BRITISH BILATERAL TECHNICAL COOPERATION

The English Curricular Reform Project (CRADLE) began in July 1992, after the
signing of the Ecuadorian-British bilateral technical cooperation agreement, by the
Ecuadorian authorities: Lic. Raúl Vallejo Corral, Minister of Education and Culture
and Mr. Diego Cordovéz, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Ambassador Frank
Wheeler, representing the British government.

This agreement has as its background the Complementary Technical Cooperation

Agreement between the Governments of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the
Republic of Ecuador, signed on March 2, 1989 by Ambassador Michael William
Atkinson for the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern
Ireland and the Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Government of Ecuador, whose
main objective is to “achieve a substantial and lasting improvement in the teaching
of the English language at the secondary level in the fiscal sector.”

The following objectives of the Project were defined:

GENERAL OBJECTIVES

• Innovate and strengthen the teaching-learning process of the English

language in order to develop in students the competence
necessary communicative skills through the linguistic skills of listening,
reading, speaking and writing. This process is subject to a system of
performance indicators (standards) and promotes the use of values.
• Provide the appropriate infrastructure for the development of the new
English curriculum.

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES

• Produce the reformed English curriculum and program for the eighth, ninth
and tenth years of Basic Education (Basic Cycle) and the first, second and
third years of Baccalaureate (Diversified Cycle).
• Review them according to the results of the experimentation.
• Produce teaching materials for the teaching-learning of English (series of 6
texts for the student and teaching guides for the teacher). After the
corresponding validation, review the series of texts Our World Through
English, produced in the first Phase of the Project for the eighth, ninth and
tenth years of Basic Education (Basic Cycle) and first, second and third of
Baccalaureate (Diversified Cycle). ) and publish them.

• Unify the evaluation systems for learning English in the eighth, ninth and
tenth years of Basic Education (Basic Cycle) and the first, second and
third years of Baccalaureate (Diversified Cycle), particularly the
application of the National English Exam. After the experimentation stage,
 consolidate the new mechanisms.
• Produce and execute training modules for English teachers and
consolidate existing ones.
• Interact with universities that train and train English teachers.
• Form a provincial network of coordinators for the implementation of the
English curricular reform in the country in a decentralized manner. After
training inside and outside the country, multiply that knowledge among
English teachers. In addition, they will fulfill the tasks of administrators of
the pedagogical centers through self-management and as pedagogical
advisors to the English teachers.
• Maintain in the Ministry of Education and Culture, National Curriculum
Directorate, Foreign Languages Division, the national curriculum
development team for English and other foreign languages composed of
three English language specialists, with support staff for secretarial
services; and in each province appoint, train and maintain at least one
specialist as Provincial Foreign Language Coordinator, responsible to the
Foreign Language Division for the development of the English curriculum
in the province, including teacher training and development, evaluation
and monitoring the curriculum change process.
• Coordinate the reform of the English curriculum with other curricular
reform and change projects of the Ministry of Education.

EXPERIMENTATION AND EXECUTION

Planning in strategic work areas allowed the production of technical instruments

to put into practice the experimentation of the proposal, which was carried out
from the 1993-94 school year in the mountain and eastern regions and 1994-95
in the coast and Galapagos. The study plans and programs were prepared, the
texts for the student and the teaching guides for the teacher, the materials for
exams, and the piloting of them began. Several working meetings were
organized with the universities that train English teachers in order to achieve the
necessary coordination with the Project.

At the same time, the technical instruments were prepared to evaluate the
teaching materials and the project itself. Work was carried out on several
ministerial agreements that would provide the necessary legal basis for the
English curricular reform, as part of the general educational curricular reform.

ASSESSMENT

The need to evaluate the impact of the English curricular reform in Ecuador
motivated the British government to integrate a mixed commission made up of
professionals from the Ministry of Education, the Catholic University together
with the Principal Advisor on Education of the Government's Overseas
Department. British. This exercise is carried out from February 23 to March 7,
1998, before completing Phase I of the Project.

Among the inputs that fed this process we can mention: meetings with
authorities of the Ministry of Education and Culture, class observation,
attendance of the evaluators at the Sixth Annual Meeting of national and
 provincial coordinators and facilitators of the CRADLE Project, meetings with
authorities of the universities that train English teachers, meetings with the
national coordinators of the Project.

The scale used was the following:

Achievement scale

The following scale should be used to evaluate achievements in relation to the

stated objectives:

1= completely achieved

2= highly accomplished

3= partially achieved

4= achieved to a certain limit

5= cannot be achieved

x= too early to judge achievement

Among the achievements obtained in the first phase of the project, the following
were evident:

a) a new plan and study programs with five hours of English class per week for all
years of secondary education prepared and implemented in 95% of state and
fiscal-missionary schools and 60% of private schools in all twenty-one provinces
of the country;

b) The teaching of English is included as an optional subject in the first to seventh

years of Basic Education;

c) six low-cost English texts with their respective teaching guides and audio
material, technically designed, written, edited, illustrated, digitally colored,
published and distributed on time throughout the country, by the Ecuadorian
DIEX team, with technical support British, used by approximately 500,000
students and their 5,000 teachers.

d) five members of the national coordination team trained in master's courses and
thirty-two of the provincial team in postgraduate courses in the United Kingdom
of Great Britain;

e) 50 of the provincial team members trained in language improvement and

methodology courses for multipliers and teacher trainers in the British Council
under the auspices of the Ministry of Education in Ecuador;

f) unified Project operation systems developed by the national and provincial

 coordination network in the form of the "CRADLE Project Procedures Manual",
published for use by Project coordinators;

g) training modules for teachers produced at DIEX: Orientation courses on the new
English curriculum; English Language Improvement Modules; English language
teaching methodology modules; reading modules, evaluation modules and a
Workshop on the National English Exam. These modules have been
implemented in all provinces of the country;

h) National English exam for the tenth years of Basic Education and the third year
of Baccalaureate developed and piloted in a significant number of schools in the
country;

i) 5,000 English teachers from all provinces trained by the provincial and national
team through training modules.

j) 25 central and 2 mini-pedagogical centers in operation in the country with a

specialized library and adequate equipment, the product of British donations and
self-management;

k) creation of the National Division of Foreign Languages in the Ministry of

Education and Culture with three technical teachers specialized in national
curriculum development responsible for the entire English curriculum reform
process, including study programs, production of teaching materials, training of
English teachers, evaluation of the curriculum and links with universities that
train English teachers; establishment of a provincial network of coordinators,
responsible for curriculum development including teacher training, administration
of pedagogical centers and evaluation of the curricular reform, in coordination
with the national team and the Project Director;

l) training of the team of provincial coordinators by this team at annual residential

General Meetings;

m) contacts established with universities in order to help in the training of teachers

and establish procedures for improving the academic quality of human
resources; carrying out two consultancies for the establishment of two new
degree programs; participation of the provincial team in the bachelor's program
at five universities;

n) legal bases established for the change process through resolutions and
ministerial agreements mentioned above.

o) cooperation of the private sector for the publication and distribution of teaching
materials, publications of informative magazines, advertising brochures at no
cost to the Ministry of Education.

The rating given to this evaluation exercise was 2, meaning highly achieved
objectives.

EXPANSION
 The positive result of the evaluation exercise determined that both the British
and Ecuadorian governments consider it necessary to consolidate the English
curricular reform by supporting the work of the Project. The consolidation of all
work areas of the Project and an expanded training program are suggested.

After the external evaluation of the Project, the British government, through the
British Council in the country and when it was closed, through the British Council
of Colombia, and the British Embassy in the country, have continued to support
the development of the project. through the following contributions:

1. Postgraduate Course at Hillderstone College (England) for four provincial

coordinators of the Project from the provinces of Guayas (2), Pastaza (1), and
Pichincha (1).

2. Contract and payment to British writers for the production of specialized texts
for students, teaching guides for teachers and audio material in the areas of
Computing, Tourism and Secretariat to serve schools that have these
specialties.

3. Training for at least 500 English teachers in the province of Pichincha.

4. Training of national and provincial coordinators in specialized courses

(Summer Course and Evaluation) in the city of Bogotá.

5. Financial and technical support for the publication of the pedagogical

magazine , etc. which is distributed free of charge to English teachers of all
levels and sectors in the country.

6. Work meetings and invitation to all coordinators attending the Teaching

Knowledge Test (TKT) course, authorities from the Ministry of Education,
consultants and professionals involved with the CRADLE Project to the
celebration of the 15 years of the Project at the British Embassy House
(November 2007).

7. Training sessions aimed at teachers in the province of Pichincha on the topic

Cutting issues in ELT , led by a British expert expressly brought to the country by
the British Embassy (March 2008).

IMMEDIATE FUTURE PROJECTION

• From the reports of the provincial coordinators of the CRADLE Project and
from the own experience of the national coordinators when they visit the
provinces and have contact with the English teachers who attend the training
courses, the need to reinforce the appropriate use of the language is evident. ,
therefore the following measures have been taken, starting in April of this year:

• All provincial coordinators of the CRADLE Project must invite English teachers
in their province to take the KET or PET exam that corresponds to levels A2
and B1 of the Common European Framework (the Regulation does not
authorize us to force teachers to take to this evaluation, which is why at the
 beginning it is being done voluntarily).
• Once the coordinator knows the level of his group of teachers, he trains them
with the specific exam preparation materials so that after the preparation, the
teachers can take the corresponding exam that verifies their level. An
interesting experience has been achieved in the province of Pichincha. More
than 100 teachers took the exam and 40 of them have completed their
training and are ready to take the international PET exam.
• Ideally, all English teachers in the country should reach a B1 level by 2012,
and achieve a B2 level by the end of 2015. This training aimed at preparing
for an exam will allow English teachers to become more aware of their role,
which requires a correct command of the English language, which will result
in better learning of the English language by students.
• Working meetings have been held with two representatives of CAMBRIDGE
ESOL EXAMINATIONS, Ms. Gillie Christie from Key Language Services
who is in charge of the mountain region for the
administration of examinations and Mr John Warren of the British Language
Centre, Southern Cross , for the coastal region. The two representatives are
interested in getting CAMBRIDGE ESOL EXAMINATIONS, whose
headquarters are in the city of Cambridge, to discount the cost of the exams
and eventually the Ambassador could intercede for this, if it is decided that all
teachers, without exception, must undergo to an international exam to verify
your level.

On the other hand, it would be important to get at least one British teacher to do
an internship providing specialized exam preparation training in each province.
This professional would work jointly with each coordinator of the CRADLE
Project. British professionals would need a visa and a fee which, in the same
way, could be covered with support from the Embassy and the Ministry.