REW's Academic Coordinator, Ms Tina Bryson, spent a week in Thailand this month, delivering Teacher Training seminars and visiting Ubon Ratchathani University.

A two-day workshop was delivered at REW Bangkok as a planned follow-up to a Professional Development course for teachers of English in regional Thai Universities. The program, held earlier in the year, was initiated and funded by the Australia-Thailand Institute (ATI) and supported by Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DEFAT), whilst RMIT English Worldwide coordinated, created and delivered the program, including the follow-up workshop. The original 4 week program, delivered in April, had to be moved to REW's Bangkok's Rangsit campus due to the political unrest in Bangkok which was taking place at the time. This time however, participants were much more relaxed and focused and were pleased to be able to also enjoy a visit to Bangkok.

The purpose of the initiative was to offer PD to universities in regional areas, especially those in the South East where travel restrictions usually prevent such opportunities. In addition to new sessions on Technology in English Education and also Teaching Implications of English as an International Language, participants presented reports on their Action Research which they had undertaken following the program in April. These included research on "Mind Mapping" and on "Using explicit grammar teaching in translation instruction". The participants greatly appreciated the chance to meet again, benefit from the new sessions and receive feedback from colleagues and the trainer on their action research projects.

Ubon Ratchathani University

A one day workshop was also delivered at Ubon Ratchathani University located in Isan, the north-east region of Thailand. This was delivered on-site as a gesture to the teachers who had missed out on the preceding 4 week program due to summer-school teaching commitments. Fifteen teachers took time out from their teaching break to attend the workshop which was very well-received and appreciated. The staff from the Faculty of Liberal Arts were extremely welcoming and hospitable and expressed their wish for workshops of this nature to continue in the future.

Ms Tina Bryson with teachers who joined the Teacher Training follow up seminar.