ISLAMABAD – The Higher Education Commission (HEC) in collaboration with British Council (BC) organised International Resource Person (IRP) course on research methods under English Language Teaching reforms (ELTR) Phase-II project.Dr Simon Borg, University of Leeds facilitated the course as international resource person. The course was commenced on May 21, 2012 with the vision to create positive ripples in the ELT research culture in the country. The closing/certificate distribution ceremony was held on Friday here at HEC Islamabad. Prof Dr Mukhtar Ahmad Executive Director HEC was the chief guest while Dr Nils Tommes Director Education Wider South Asia represented British Council. This was a third joint IRP training programme of ELTR-HEC and British Council. One course on research methodology and a series of training workshop on computer assisted language learning (CALL) was organised with support from British Council.The course was comprised of three weeklong training workshops after a gap of four months within each, a follow-up programme and between workshops online mentoring. The course was designed particularly keeping in view the modern trends in the area of research. Eighteen faculty members from various colleges/universities across Pakistan attended the course. Most of them were enrolled in MPhil and PhD pursuing their higher studies. The most striking feature of this workshop was that all the participants also worked on ELT based research projects under the supervision of Borg.The course content of the workshop included major research paradigms, nature and value of qualitative research, key themes/priorities in English language education research in Pakistan, strategies for collecting qualitative data: observation, interview, open-ended questionnaires, journal writing, narratives, visual methods, qualitative data analysis. This would contribute to an emerging research and teaching field in Pakistan universities and colleges which are moving from literature-based approaches to language teaching.The chief guest of this ceremony, Prof Dr Mukhtar Ahmad said that in this changing world it has become mandatory to focus on professional enhancement and research aspect in academics. He appreciated the efforts of ELTR and British Council to undertake useful initiatives for the professional growth of faculty members. He also emphasised the need of such significant ventures to revolutionise the whole educational scenario of the country.Dr Nils Tommes congratulated all the participants and informed that British Council would continue its collaboration with HEC to facilitate the people of Pakistan.Noor Amna Director General Learning Innovation HEC said that realizing the importance of research in Pakistan, HEC has undertaken a number of initiatives to promote it. She announced that ELTR would extend funding for research projects for the participants of this course.  Prof Dr Khwaja Azam Ali Managing Director Quality Assurance Agency highlighted the importance of research and mentioned the effort of HEC to promote research culture in Pakistan as per international standards.

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