Headway English language course material

Learning English is viewed as a “road to freedom” by refugees from Darfur, says Anne Goddard, CORD’s Education Programme Manager for Chad. It is critical to their chance of enrollment in university. However, the road currently available in the Bredjing, Treguine, and Gaga Camps is bumpy at best, paved with a small assortment of outdated books that are difficult for the refugees to use. Help us build them a highway by providing the well-established, familiar, and user-friendly Headway English Course that they so badly desire.

Why learn English? Attending university is the dream of many refugees — it is a way out of the camps and into jobs and prosperity. The current crisis in Darfur has created many obstacles, but it has not crushed this dream. Some students have even risked their lives by returning to Darfur to take primary school exams and seek secondary education. Now, there is the possibility that students from the camps who pass suitable secondary school exams might be able to attend Juba University in southern Sudan, but they must first improve their English, the language in which university studies are conducted.

The refugees who attended school in Sudan have a basic foundation of English, because it is taught as a second language there, a legacy of British colonialism. However, this basic level is nowhere near what is needed for university education. There are few students who read above a 5th—7th grade (U.S.) level. Even the teachers, refugees who happen to be better educated, need to improve their English language skills greatly. So important is this goal that students and teachers have self-organized English language clubs in Bredjing and Treguine Camps, and the children start learning English three years earlier than they would have in Sudan.

Six nights a week, 3:30-5:00 PM, two schools in Bredjing Camp are used for English language learning by about 400 students. They pool their meager resources — sometimes useful commodities like soap — to help pay the teachers. The textbooks they use are whatever they can find, often decades old (some from the 1950s!) and not chosen because they represent the best course of study, but because they are the only course of study available. They are determined to learn, as motivated as anyone could be, but they simply lack the right textbooks.

The right textbooks for them — the textbooks they want — are the well-established Headway series for learning British English, published by Oxford University Press. Why do they want Headway? 1) It ranges from the most basic level to an advanced level. 2) It is highly pictorial and written in an accessible style. 3) It has already been used successfully in Sudan. The Headway series not only contains textbooks for students, but also workbooks, accompanying audio CDs, and books for teachers. It is a comprehensive package that can meet their English language learning needs.

Our on-the-ground partner CORD, knowing the current range of English knowledge and class sizes, has requested a total of 70 student’s books, 15 teacher’s books, 70 workbooks, and 30 accompanying CDs in each of the Beginner, Elementary, Pre-Intermediate, Intermediate, and Upper Intermediate levels of the Headway series (the most Advanced level is not yet needed). That's 350 student's books and workbooks, 75 teacher's books, and 150 CDs. Each of these items will probably cost about $20, on average, although the exact cost will depend on the availability of discounted (but still current) books (for example, through Amazon.co.uk). Thanks to an incredible offer from Oxford University Press, we can purchase these items at cost, meaning new Headway books will cost us only about $4 each. That’s a small price to pay to put a refugee in the fast lane of the road to freedom! Oxford is even giving us the teacher's books for free!

Oxford's sponsorship greatly increases the impact of your donation, so we hope you will take advantage of this opportunity to give the refugees a chance to attend university. Earmark your donation for “Headway English language course material.”

Please also read about the solar CD players on the Chad Wish List, which will be used to play the Headway CDs in the absence of electricity and affordable batteries.