Specialist Teacher in the primary schools, Tracelyn Hamilton, has been awarded a Master of Education Degree with distinction in the Teaching of English to Speakers of Other Languages by the University of Bristol.

Tracelyn Hamilton with certificate

She has been a teacher in Anguilla for some 20 years and from 1998 has been involved in the reading recovery programme in the primary schools. In September 2005 she was awarded a Government of Anguilla scholarship which enabled her to further her studies at Bristol University from where she graduated on February 21.

Hamilton said she was very grateful to the Government for financing her one year course which had enhanced her knowledge as a teacher of English as a Second Language. She emphasised that she was not a Spanish teacher, as some thought, but her work was focussed on the teaching of English to make students proficient in the language.

She noted that while it took up to two years for students to master conversational English, and sound like local children, it was a struggle for them to gain mastery of the language academically.

She pointed out that the current programme, in the primary schools, of teaching English as a Second Language was part of the effort to assist foreign students in becoming proficient in English.

It is estimated that Spanish children in Anguilla account for about 80% of the foreign students on the island needing to learn English as a second language. There are however a number of Spanish-speaking students who are already proficient in English.

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