U.S. Embassy News

Leading U.S. expert in English Language Teaching visits Turkmenistan

May 25, 2007

Dr. Donna Brinton with local teachers of Dashoguz city

In an effort to support the policy of enhancing education in Turkmenistan, the U.S. Embassy hosted a leading specialist in English Language Teaching who had the opportunity to share her expertise with local teachers and education experts. 

English language specialist Dr. Donna Brinton conducted a series of long-term seminars and individual presentations in three cities during her May 11-23 visit to Turkmenistan.   Dr. Brinton’s sessions in Ashgabat included talks on the process of accrediting institutes of higher education and curriculum standards alignment for members of the Supreme Council for Science and Technology and representatives of the Ministry of Education and National Institute for Education.  Dr. Brinton held a week of evening seminars and a day-long conference on interactive teaching methodology for local teachers, as well as daily presentations for both professors and students at Turkmen State University, the Azadi World Languages Institute and Turkmen-Turkish University.  Dr. Brinton also shared her experience working in the University of California university system with a session on implementation of new technologies in English language teaching. During her visits to Dashoguz, Mary and Lebap Dr. Brinton provided training sessions to teachers of English from local secondary schools, the Mary Power Engineering Institute, and for audiences at the American Corners in each of those cities.

Dr. Donna Brinton with teachers from Mary and Bayramly

Dr Brinton’s visit is one part of a broader effort by the United States to cooperate with the government of Turkmenistan and its Ministry of Education in support of education and educational opportunities in Turkmenistan.

Donna M. Brinton recently retired as Lecturer in Applied Linguistics and as the Associate Director of UCLA’s Center for World Languages in order to pursue opportunities in international teacher development. She has taught a variety of graduate level classes and has also trained and supervised teaching assistants. She is the co-author and co-editor of several professional texts including Content-Based Second Language Instruction (University of Michigan), The Content-Based Classroom (Longman), Teaching Pronunciation (Cambridge), New Ways in Content-Based Instruction (TESOL), and New Ways in ESP (TESOL). Ms. Brinton has done short-term international teacher training in China, Thailand, Vietnam, Korea, Taiwan, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Israel, Morocco, Tunisia, South Africa, Mozambique, Madagascar, Mauritius, Senegal, Mali, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Syria, Lebanon, and Curaçao.