HONING ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND TEACHING SKILLS: NARRATIVES OF GO-TEACHER SCHOLARSHIP HOLDERS

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to analyze the accounts of four English teachers who received scholarships from the Go Teacher program and were trained in an English-speaking country. This article describes the participants' experiences during and after the program, as well as the impact it had on their teaching practice once they returned to the country. A qualitative approach using a biographical-narrative design was used to explore the participants' perceptions. It was identified that the program had a positive influence on English language acquisition, as participants reached the level required to teach in Ecuador. Similarly, the program contributed to methodological training by providing new strategies for teaching English. However, because the cohorts were composed of a high number of scholarship recipients at the same university, the use of English as a means of communication for interaction was limited. In addition, there was little follow-up with the scholarship recipients once they had returned to their institutions during the compensation period, which resulted in minimal availability of information regarding the impact of the program on the Ecuadorian educational system.