Muhammad Fitri bin Ahmad (Addy)
Master Candidate (18/19)
Postgraduate Taught TESOL, The University of Warwick, UK
Tell us a bit about your ongoing journey in the UK and what you’re looking forward to.
I cannot thank the British Council enough for making my dream come true. I had been looking for scholarship opportunities to the UK for many years, and on one fine day, it was through the British Council website that I learnt about the Hornby Scholarship for English teachers.
Winning Hornby changed every aspect of my life as it gave me access to people, resources, and events relevant to my field. Since the UK is a melting pot of different cultures, I have had the opportunity to expand my network with aspiring teachers from all corners of the world. I look forward for the opportunity to attend the IATEFL conference in April and I hope to hold stimulating conversations with world experts in the education field from different parts of the world. I am also very eager to meet fellow academicians and to attend professional educational events held by leading figures.
How has the British Council made it possible for you to hit the ground running?
The British Council has done a great job to ensure that the scholars under them do not feel alienated in a foreign land. The enormous support and prompt guidance are much appreciated. Settling in was quite challenging at first, but it was made easy by the information and suggestions given in the pre-departure kit, and also in the monthly newsletter for the scholars.
What kind of teaching resources do you use, and have they made a difference?
My work to date has been much reflected by the British Council publications and projects in the area of second language acquisition. Formerly, when I was working as a teacher, I had referred to various projects by the British Council in my field of young children and low level ESL learners. These projects have informed me about various teaching strategies that I could apply to improve my lessons. Nevertheless, there are an abundance of teaching resources for various levels of learners made available by the British Council’s websites. I have had the chance to use and adapt many of them, which had been greatly enjoyed by my indigenous-background students.