The 4th Training Workshop for English Teachers in Western Region was held in Sichuan Province from Jan. 22 to Feb. 2. Ms. Li Xiaolin, Vice President of Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries and China-US People's Friendship Association, Ms. Deng Ning, General Manager of Citibank Beijing Branch, Ms. Wang Li, Vice President of Citibank China, and Ms. Qin Lin, President of Sichuan Provincial People's Friendship Association attended the opening ceremony of the workshop. Twenty-five middle school English teachers from Sichuan Province and Chongqing Municipality attended the workshop.

    Sponsored by the Citigroup, this workshop has been held in Guizhou Province, Yunnan Province, Guangxi Autonomous Region and Sichuan Province since 2001. About 120 middle school English teachers attended the workshop, learning how to teacher English in an interactive manner, and raise students' enthusiasm in English. Several teachers from the Foreign Language College of Beijing Normal University take the responsibility of training.  

    This workshop was warmly welcomed by the local educational departments and English teachers. Those trained teachers successfully applied what they learned in the workshop in teaching practice and achieved ideal results. Ms. Luo Min, an English teacher at Zhenfeng High School in Guizhou Province, experimented the English teaching methods in her two classes after she attended the workshop in 2001. The new way of teaching roused the students' interests in learning English greatly. In last year's national exam for college education, the average score of the English test got by her students exceeded the average score of the whole province, which was rarely seen in her school even in her county.

    The Citigroup also gave high acclaim to the workshop. Considering the fact that some teachers came from schools with very poor conditions of English teaching and learning, the Citigroup started in 2004 to sponsor the program of establish English libraries in these school. Six libraries has been built up and put into use in Guizhou Province.

The Opening Ceremony of the Training Workshop