The U. S. Embassy’s English Language Fellow Mr. Joseph Haba was featured as a guest speaker at the monthly meetings of BETA (Burkina English Teachers Association). The meeting was held at Lycée Privé Barack Obama in Ouagadougou on May 8, 2014. Mr. Haba, who has been teaching at the University of Koudougou this academic year, came to Ouagadougou with a team 10 students from the teacher training college (Ecole Normale Supérieure/ENS) and other departments. He and his students led a 3-hour training and demonstration on student peer mentoring and differentiated instruction methods. This event allowed the American Embassy to share the experience and expertise of the English Fellow Mr. Haba with English teachers in the capital city. Through his presentation, Mr. Haba demonstrated the effectiveness of his student peer mentoring project on the University of Koudougou campus to get students speaking and understanding English rapidly. He also shared the successful practice of differentiated instruction. Both of these methods were championed as viable approaches to overcoming significant weaknesses in the Burkina Faso educational system. The 17 BETA members in attendance, impressed by the results demonstrated, insisted that Mr. Haba repeat the training for more BETA members, including regional BETA chapters.
