ESU President's Award

The annual ESU President’s Award recognises and encourages the widespread and successful use of technology to enhance English teaching and learning worldwide.  It is presented for innovation and good design in the use of technology for the teaching, learning and advancement of English as a first, second or foreign language.

2009 ESU President’s Award

The ESU is proud to announce that it’s 2008-9 competition winners will be presented their certificates at Buckingham Palace on 12 November. 

Winner: Active English by Livemocha and Pearson Longman

History of the Award

The ESU President’s Award was inaugurated in 2003 at the request of the President of the ESU, HRH Duke of Edinburgh KG KT and is given annually. The judging panel includes experts from the fields of design, technology and English language teaching. The ESU President’s Award builds on the success of the widely respected Duke of Edinburgh English Language Book Award which recognises the book published in the previous year that has contributed most to the understanding of the English language.

Winner of the 2008 Award

Crick Software collect their award.

The “interactive, empowering and educationally useful” Writeonline, an online word processor produced by Crick Software Ltd, has won the English-Speaking Union President’s Award 2008. The judging panel described Writeonline as, “empowering the learner to develop and progress their skills in English.” It creates a learning environment for the beginner writer and enables teachers to adapt authentic materials to be of use to learners of varying levels.

The panel were please to reward an entry which makes full use of interactive technology and allows learners to generate original content. The design is visually clear and this resource is very easy to use and adapt.

The ESU President’s Award 2006 was inaugurated in 2003 at the request of the President of the ESU, HRH Duke of Edinburgh KG KT and is given annually for innovation in the use of new technologies to enhance English teaching and learning worldwide. The judging panel is chaired by Professor Margaret Buck OBE, former Head of Central St Martins College of Art and Design and includes experts from the fields of language, design and technology.

The ESU President’s Award builds on the success of the widely respected Duke of Edinburgh English Language Book Award which was founded in 1971 to recognise the best book published each year in the field of English language teaching.

HRH The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh KG KT presented the award to the winners of the ESU President’s Award at Buckingham Palace on 12 November 2008.

Prizes

The authors and publishers of the winning entry take part in a presentation ceremony at Buckingham Palace. The results are widely reported in the press, professional newspapers and journals; in ESU newsletters and on the ESU website. The winner and runners up may use the ESU logo, and acknowledgement that they have won the ESU President’s Award.

ESU President’s Award 2007

Paul Scott, Neil Edgeller and Pete Staves of BBC Learning English collect the ESU President’s Award 2007 from HRH The Duke of Edinburgh

The judging panel were pleased by the variety and scope of last year’s entries. The 2007 competition included websites, teaching resources and games. The target audiences of the entries ranged from beginner EFL students to teachers and those studying Linguistics. Entries included material suitable for independent study, for classroom use and also for recreational use.

The winner of the ESU President’s Award for 2007 was the clever and engaging BBC Learning English website The Teacher. The panel was pleased to reward an entry that could completely stand alone and did not rely on accompanying materials. Furthermore, the judges felt that the website broke new ground in the use of downloadable technology as a teaching resource.

Eligibility and entry requirements for 2009 Award

• The judging panel assesses the entries using the criteria of design, usability, language and teaching content, potential and innovation.
• The award is open to any organisation or individual across the spectrum of interested parties, not just from the English Language teaching world.
• Entries must have been published (online or otherwise) between 1 July 2008 and 30 June 2009.
• The deadline for entries is 12 noon, Monday 20 July 2009.
• The entry form will be published in Spring 2009.