And the winners of the ELTons 2022 Awards are...
The British Council ELTon Award for Innovation in Learner Resources
Helbling Shakespeare Series
Deborah J Ellis, Maria Cleary
Helbling Languages (Austria)
The Helbling Shakespeare Series is an exciting series that puts the Bard’s words centre stage. Bring Shakespeare’s most famous plays to your class with this innovative series. Each play is presented through eight key scenes in Shakespeare’s original language with a special focus on performance.
Ideal for classwork and individual reading.
Features include:
- Original annotated text with parallel modern text
- Understand and analyse sections with a focus on language and meaning
- Vocabulary expansion pages with online worksheets
- Cultural spreads with background information and project work
- ‘From reading to performing’ sections that explore all aspects of drama
- Exam preparation
- Fully dramatised audios of all scenes
- Videos of class performances and video lessons with step-by-step instructions on how to prepare the class for performing
- Cyber homework, worksheets, extra audios, templates and easy-to-read scripts on e-zone (Helbling’s LMS platform).
Find out more about Helbling Shakespeare Series
What the judges said: “Shakespeare in a new light.”
The British Council ELTon Award for Innovation in Teacher Resources
Ideas in Action: Activities for Mediation
Ethan Mansur, Riccardo Chiappini, Jason Anderson, Kate Baade
DELTA Publishing (Germany)
Activities for Mediation provides language teachers with a solid grounding in the theory of mediation, as defined in the latest update to the CEFR, as well as a wide variety of mediation tasks with clear aims and staging. This book aims to show not only why mediation is an important element in any 21st-century language classroom, but how to actually integrate it in your teaching immediately.
Find out more about Ideas in Action: Activities for Mediation
What the judges said: “The first book to properly address the CEFR emphasis on mediation.”
The British Council ELTon Award for Local Innovation
Picture This!
Sarah Sheldon, Ingrid Guyon
Learning Unlimited with Fotosynthesis (United Kingdom)
Picture This! brings participatory photography into the ESOL classroom to support and enhance language learning, particularly for those with barriers to accessing formal ESOL provision.
Picture This! activities and methodology are participatory, flexible and adaptable for face-to-face and online language learning with different ages and levels worldwide.
Funded through the Greater London Authority’s ESOL Plus Arts programme 2020/21, the Picture This! team created and piloted two online courses during lockdown culminating in an online exhibition, a book of participants’ work and a free downloadable toolkit for ESOL practitioners with top tips and activity ideas.
Find out how Picture This! approaches:
- support and facilitates rich discussions,
- improve creativity, confidence and skills in spoken and written English,
- unlock hidden narratives and perspectives,
- work with every level of language and literacy teaching
- build community and understanding within the classroom – and from the language classroom to wider communities too.
Find out more about Picture This!
What the judges said: “Innovative, fun, imaginative and engaging.”
The British Council ELTon Award for Excellence in Course Innovation
Brain Juice
Andrew Starling, Alisa Delgado, Andrew Dainty, Daniela Tovar, Alan Morlán, Lyzzy Jardon, Rubi Ramirez, Susana Moreno
University of Dayton Publishing (Mexico)
Brain Juice is a 6-level primary course that supports students in their understanding of the world and the role they play in it as they become competent users of English. Through Brain Juice, children have the opportunity to be the change they want to see in the world; this is achieved by focuses on equality, diversity and inclusion, and on the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the UNICEF Global Framework on Transferable Skills, both of which help children to develop the twenty-first-century skills they will need to thrive on the global scene. In this way, English becomes a bridge between local and global scenarios and helps children see their place in the world.
Find out more about Brain Juice
What the judges said: “Amazing platform design and material organization with guiding questions and fun.”
The British Council ELTon Award for Digital Innovation
EF Hyper Class
William Dekker, Tim Ackroyd, Lee Schuneman, Greg Carew, Yuanlai Xu, David Carrol, Nick Lin
EF Education First (UK)
Hyper Class is the online classroom of the future.
It transports our adult English learners through immersive virtual environments and collaborative live experiences to simulate real-life communication and build confidence with the use of language. All they need is an internet-ready device and they can join online, private classes with a teacher through our mobile app or web portal.
We empower our teachers with their own virtual production studio, to help focus and guide learners’ attention, react to and target learning needs and create seamless dynamic learning experiences. Through a combination of role plays, language exploration, and discussion-based activities, teachers can engage learners in memorable, joyful, interactive learning.
Find out more about EF Hyper Class
What the judges said: “An innovative and engaging idea which integrates hypermedia tools.”
Other awards
The British Council ELTons Outstanding Achievement Award
Professor Penny Ur OBE
Penny Ur was educated at the universities of Oxford (MA), Cambridge (PGCE) and Reading (MATEFL). She emigrated to Israel in 1967, where she still lives today. She is married with four children and twelve grandchildren. Penny Ur has thirty years' experience as an English teacher in primary, secondary and tertiary education. Now retired, she has taught courses at BA and MA level at Oranim Academic College of Education and Haifa University, and has lectured at language teachers’ conferences worldwide. She is interested in all aspects of language-teaching methodology, but in particular in issues of vocabulary and grammar in language teaching, language-learning activity design, English as an international language and the place of research as a source of professional knowledge. She was for ten years the editor of the Cambridge Handbooks for Language Teachers series. Her books include Grammar practice activities (2nd Edition) (2009), Vocabulary activities (2012), A course in English language teaching (2012), Discussions and more (2014), Penny Ur’s 100 tips (2016), Penny Ur’s 77 tips for vocabulary teaching, all published by Cambridge University Press.
In 2013 she was awarded the OBE (Officer of the British Empire) by Her Majesty the Queen for services to English language teaching.
The ELTons Judges’ Commendation for Environmental Sustainability and Climate Action
- Brain Juice (University of Dayton Publishing)
- Lift (National Geographic Learning, Cengage Learning EMEA Ltd with Empatico)
- Speak Out for Sustainability (Pearson English with BBC Studios)
The ELTons Judges’ Commendation for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
- Classroom Practices:English as a Lingua Franca (StandFor/FTD Educação)
- Dau Dau (Keningau Vocational College with Macmillan Education and International House World Organisation)
- May Moo and Me (StandFor/FTD Educação)
Watch a recording of interviews with finalists, the awards ceremony and the winners' interviews