Language all around us: English walking tours in Colombia

20 December 2020 I The Queensland Institute

The Medellin Project: Supporting English language development and employability

As English language teachers, how often do we use our most valuable resource - the world all around us?

In 2016, QI Director, Philippa Coleman spent a month in the city of Medellin, Colombia working with a group of incredible young people who were very keen to practise English and meet people from other countries and cultures, but they did not have any opportunities to travel or study abroad.

Philippa worked with the young people to help them connect with the international tourism sector and share the rich culture and history of their town in English. And so, the Medellin Project was born.

Together, the Medellin Project team designed and practised a walking tour of their local neighbourhood where they lived, identifying places and stories of interest to tourists.

Philippa used task-based and experiential learning principles, employing a Dogme approach, to support English language development. All the tasks utilised minimal resources but encouraged learners to interact with each other and their neighbourhood and bring their discoveries back to our classroom to share.

At the end of the program, the team invited international visitors to Medellin to come and join the walking tour. In doing so, these young people from Medellin met new people from different cultures. They practised their English by showing them around their neighbourhood, and told stories about its history, the people and their traditions. They honed their cross-cultural skills by asking the tourists about their lives and their countries, all of which is exactly what Philippa had intended.

We are pleased to report that the tours have continued to this day, and expanded, with the ongoing support of Primed Community in Medellin.

At QI, we encourage the teachers we work with to make the most of the world around us - beyond the classroom. After all, it’s full of language, rich in culture, and it’s free!

*Source:* Alcaldía de Medellín [1:35mins]

Colombian colleagues in Queensland

17 May 2022 I The Queensland Institute

QI welcomes our friends from Medellin to Queensland

QI Directors, Philippa Coleman and Fiona Wiebusch, were pleased to welcome Mr Orlando and Mrs Dolores Hernandez from Medellin in Colombia, to Queensland in May, 2022.

Dolores and Orlando were key connections and supporters of the original Medellin Project in 2016 in Colombia. They helped Philippa to establish connections with the local community which resulted in the provision of a classroom space in Medellin to host the English-language classes that supported the walking tours.

The QI team were delighted to welcome Orlando and Dolores to Queensland on their recent holiday to Australia. Philippa and Fiona took our Colombian guests on a day trip to North Stradbroke Island (Minjerribah). This time, Philippa hosted the walking tour in English - and Spanish!

The QI team and our guests had a wonderful day together and were lucky enough to spot lots of Australian wildlife, including koalas, wallabies, rainbow lorikeets and giant sea turtles.

We discussed the possibility of visiting Medellin again in the future and continuing to support language education projects in Colombia.