Several grants and awards have been obtained so far to support the development of UzTESPING.
Hornby Alumni Award
Komila Tangirova was awarded Hornby alumni award in 2018 to run a project “Supporting a newly-established ESP teacher community during the current ESP reform in Uzbekistan”. By the end of the project (June 2019) the participants were to:
- become members of UzTESPING in Uzbekistan
- join the national network involving ESP teachers across the country
- become familiar with the activities of IATEFL and ESP SIG in particular
- have gained skills in developing ESP teaching materials for their own ESP context focusing on learner needs
- exchanged their practices and achievements in using self-developed teaching resources
Hornby Trust Teacher Association Project Scheme
The success of UzTESPING in its first year of functioning and a high level of interest from ESP teachers, authorities of higher educational institutions and government bodies such as the Ministry of Higher and Secondary Specialised Education in Uzbekistan inspired Komila Tangirova to apply for another grant by Hornby Trust in 2019 to fund the project “Strengthening the integration and network of ESP teachers in Uzbekistan”. This project set the following objectives which were all accomplished by May 2021:
- to expand ESP teacher community by increasing the number of members
- to develop the regular functioning board of UzTESPING with the inclusion of representatives from across the country
- to help ESP teachers to integrate into IATEFL community and benefit from it
- to explore various ESP contexts
- to identify needs and challenges in ESP contexts across the country
- to initiate discussions among ESP teachers on finding solutions to their challenges by learning from local and international practices
- to create an online platform for experience and idea sharing
US Embassy Project Grant
While UzTESPING did achieve country-wide popularity and an active committee, there were still quite a few institutions and many ESP teachers around the country unaware of its existence. It was important to make sure that UzTESPING continuous to develop providing equal opportunities in all the regions of Uzbekistan. This time the Chief coordinator applied for a funding to support the project “Are All in? -Towards a sustainable ESP teacher community” that would make it possible to run workshops in places and get to know ESP contexts around the country more closely. All the activities within the project were also immensely supported by the Agency for Promoting Foreign Language Learning at the Cabinet of Ministers in Uzbekistan.
- to continue introductory presentations of UzTESPING to ESP teachers by visiting HEIs around Uzbekistan and explore their needs
- to run regular professional development activities for the current members of UzTESPING
- to organize the first in-person annual UzTESPING conference
- to set up UzTESPING branches and assign regional coordinators who will run them as well as support the current regional representatives
- to assign an institutional representative for each HEI to optimize communication with the UzTESPING members
- to create and run UzTESPING Facebook and website pages for disseminating news and information
- to reach the status of “Actively functioning Uzbekistan ESP teacher networking group”