Q&A with our Spoken English Immersion Program Leads, Annette and Geoff

We’re excited to announce the launch of a brand-new Spoken English Immersion Program in 2026, designed to specifically help St Jude’s students improve their spoken English skills. We sat down with Geoff and Annette, the two Australians leading the project, to hear more about its mission and what participants can expect.

• Can you share a bit about your background and what inspired you to want to lead this program?

Geoff is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Queensland and Annette is an Industry Fellow at the University of Technology Sydney. We are lifelong educators. Geoff was an upper primary school teacher and Annette a high school teacher before we gained our PhDs 15 years ago and moved to academia, working as researchers and teacher educators. We’ve worked and researched in multiple countries, presented at many international conferences and written books, book chapters and journal articles for both teachers and researchers. Since leaving full time academia, we’ve presented teacher professional learning workshops and conducted research on the development and implementation of education programs.

We are keen travellers and have visited various countries on the African continent twelve times. We visited St Jude’s twice in 2012 as part of a research project, during which we ran professional learning workshops for the teachers at St Jude’s and other schools in and around Arusha. We always wanted to return and support the school, so when we saw that Gemma was seeking someone to lead the Spoken English Immersion Program at St Jude’s, we were inspired to apply for the position as a team. Having developed masters-level programs and research programs at multiple universities, we have the necessary expertise and experience to lead the program and its development, implementation, and evaluation, not only in 2026, but in future years too.

• Tell us a bit about the Spoken English Immersion Program and the goal of the program?

The volunteer team will arrive at St Jude’s on the 17 June 2026, and after two days of collaborative planning on June 18 and 19 will commence teaching the students for two full weeks from June 22 to July 4. The most important goal of the program is to support the St Jude’s students to strengthen their spoken English language skills and to have fun at the same time. An important part of this process involves providing the students with many opportunities to listen and respond to native English speakers.

We are planning to have the outline of the program developed well in advance of the start date to ensure that the volunteer team have a clear understanding of what is required and to give them the opportunity to develop any supporting resources or materials that will allow them to deliver an exciting program to their students.

We believe that success of the program will be reflected in the students’ willingness to speak more confidently without fear of making mistakes, and of course if they are enjoying themselves while learning. We hope that the program will become an annual event and look forward to building on its success to strengthen future programs.

• What can people expect when participating in the Spoken English Immersion Program?

We will work with around 300 students and 30-40 volunteers. The volunteer team will be invited to contribute their ideas about games, activities, themes and topics that they feel will encourage and support the students to participate and enjoy themselves in each class. This will ensure a collaboratively planned program.

The program will run for two full weeks (Monday to Saturday each week) and each day, each volunteer will work with five classes of 10 students (meaning that they will work closely with 50 students in total), enabling development of rapport and a supportive classroom environment with the goal of enhancing students’ willingness to use their English language skills in a diverse range of enjoyable contexts and activities. The program is structured so that volunteers will have colleagues who share the same students and others who are teaching the same lessons as them. This allows volunteers to be able to support each other, plan together, and collaborate on the needs of the students in their shared classes.

Beyond the classroom activities, volunteers will participate in a cultural program developed by the St Jude’s visitor team. Activities may include lessons in Kiswahili, drumming, Zumba, and cooking as well as home visits and outings to craft markets or local restaurants. We hope that the program and the broader cultural experiences will create a collegial and enjoyable working environment for the volunteer team.

• What are you most looking forward to about running this program in 2026?

We are most excited about meeting and working with the students as well as collaborating with and working alongside the volunteers. It is a privilege for us to be able to contribute to what we believe will be a strong and valuable program that helps students and teachers at St Jude’s. We are also very excited about the opportunity to learn more about Tanzanian culture.

• What are the prerequisites required to volunteer in this program?

First and foremost, all volunteers need to have the capacity to use and interpret lesson plans and sequences so that they can deliver meaningful learning experiences to the students. They must also have strong oral communication skills. As this is the first year of the program, we didn’t use strictly defined criteria, and we definitely couldn’t foresee the high level of response from applicants keen to join the program as volunteers. Obviously, some background as an educator would be an asset, as is the capacity to adapt and respond quickly to the needs and interests of the students. All volunteers need to have a sense of humour, resilience and self-reliance, as well as the ability to work in a team, which are central to working in such an intensive program with colleagues. As the program involves people from numerous countries, willingness and capacity to communicate promptly and using various online platforms are essential. We will of course be evaluating the program and in future years, the criteria may well be refined as we learn more about the program, its delivery, and most importantly, the students themselves.

• Applications are now closed for 2026. Can people register their interest for 2027?

We have a database for recording the details of anyone who may be interested in applying for the 2027 program. Applicants should first consider the criteria mentioned above and can email us (annetteandgeoff@gmail.com) with their names and email addresses (no CVs or cover letters yet). Once the 2027 program is announced, we will contact people on the database with a link to information about the application process.