EIA won the prestigious ELTons award in central London on 22 May 2013, to a live audience of ELT – publishers, writers, academics, project managers, educationalists and an international on-line audience of many thousands. EIA beat stiff competition to win the final and most prestigious team award of the evening for local innovation.

Mahbub Leelen from BMB Mott MacDonald; Mike Solly and Clare Woodward from the Open University, UK represented the EIA team at the event. Mahbub Leelen, on receiving the award said “Millions of students and thousands of teachers are the main actors in the English in Action project. They are the real winners of this award”.

The ELTons (British Council Innovation Awards) are offered to outstanding new language learning products and services, that use innovative ideas to help learners achieve their goals, or to innovative research which has clear practical benefits for English language teaching. http://englishagenda.britishcouncil.org/eltons

DFID Bangladesh Country Representative Sarah Cooke said, “When done well, blending education with technology increases the impact of language teaching.  English in Action’s innovative design supports and motivates teachers and really brings the language to life.  They have got the context exactly right here.”

Johan Bentinck, Team Leader, EIA, said, “The award signifies the innovations the English in Action programme has brought to the classrooms across Bangladesh. The project is not only about use of new innovative technologies, but especially on achieving a sustainable learning impact changing how teaching and learning takes place in the classroom.”

Winning the award is a tremendous achievement of the entire EIA family, the thousands of teachers and millions of students across Bangladesh and we are very proud of this success!