Final report, 3 August 1977 to 31 August 1983 : English language training center project

participant trainees and other Government of Syria (GOS) officials. The ELTC was completed successfully and now exists as a legally established unit of the GOS State Planning Commission with its own governing regulations and a separate budget. For its first 1.5 years of existence, it only had a provisional and informal legal status. Master"s-level participant training was provided to 10 ELTC teachers, 9 of whom studied in the United States and 1 of whom studied in Beirut, Lebanon. One new teacher was appointed in the Spring of 1983 and attended a short summer course at an American university. Inservice teacher training proved difficult to implement, however, and was not successfully carried out. The ELTC student body reached a maximum size of 150 in 1979, having increased from an initial enrollment of 90 students. By the end of 7/83, 990 individual students had been registered at ELTC; 43% of these had completed Level A of the program. Currently, 120-130 students are enrolled per term, with fewer than 15 students in each class. Teaching materials and equipment, including a language laboratory with 15 stations and a listening center with 8 stations, were purchased in the U.S. as none were available locally. The school is now fully equipped. Curricula were revised to stress comprehension skills and new testing procedures were instituted to measure English language proficiency and reading and listening comprehension skills. The contractor (Georgetown University) is exploring means of providing ELTC with the continuing professional presence of a native English speaker, now that A.I.D. funding is ending.