Cactus TEFL at the British Council Innovation Awards (the ELTONs) March 2008

”The British Council Innovation Awards for English language teaching (ELT) products and services, or 'Eltons', are the Oscars of the ELT world. They are offered to outstanding new language learning resources which use innovative ideas to help learners of English to achieve their goals, or to innovative research which has clear practical benefits for English language teaching.

The awards are both a celebration of excellence in UK ELT and an incentive to the industry to keep on developing new products.” ( British Council webpage 2008 )

Each year the British Council hosts the ELTONs awards ceremony in London. This year the ceremony was attended by Jenny Johnson, Head of Cactus TEFL, and Rich Ambler, Managing Director of Cactus Worldwide. The reason was that the Cactus TEFL ELA (English Language Awareness) online course was nominated for the 2008 award.

This was a validation for us of all the work we do in the ELT (English Language Teaching) field, in particular all the informed advice we hand out to would be TEFL teachers who are keen to join the world of ELT. The ceremony was held at the loft-like Delfina studios in Bermondsey Street near London Bridge. Pre-dinner drinks were liberally imbibed, and the great and the good of ELT ‘society’ circulated chattering away to old friends about the upcoming prizegiving. The nominated products were framed and hung around the room, making it feel something like an art gallery opening.

After an hour or so we were ushered into the dining room, where namecards indicated where we had been placed to have dinner around ten round tables holding about ten people each. The introduction pre-dinner speech was given by high up BC bods, including the CEO on a clever pre-recorded video link from Mumbai, India. Everyone then enjoyed a really delicious dinner.

After dinner came the moment we had been waiting for. David Crystal, one of the world’s most eminent experts on linguistics, made a very amusing speech before running through all 12 entries in the UK award section, including Cactus TEFL’s, of course. It made us very proud to see the Cactus name up the list alongside such well-established ELT institutions. Several personal friends of the Cactus two were extremely supportive, wishing and hoping that ELA may be amongst the winners. Then came the announcements of the 3 winning entrants. Cactus was not included – this time! But it didn’t matter, this did not diminish our sense of pride at being nominated to one of the most prestigious awards of the UK ELT world. 

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