The People Behind Interlink - Zina

Posted By: Zina Omarova, English Programs Manager

I am married and I have two children, a son and a daughter. My son is 28. He is married and works at the bank. My daughter is also married and has a 4 year-old son. She teaches English at the Kazakh-American University in Almaty. My husband teaches at the Kazak-Turkish University in Taraz. Before working for Interlink, I taught English to high school students for about 22 years. I was also the Vice Director of the English Department for many years.

I have been the Manager of English Programs at IRI since 2001. I did a lot of work with orphanage children programs and with medical programs. My main responsibilities are: promoting programs for English Language (EL) teachers; cooperating with Educational departments; organizing seminars and conferences.

This is the third year I am working with Heather Lewis on the teacher training program IMPACT (Innovative Methods and Practical Activities for Creative Teacher). This program is a teacher training program for village teachers of English. We are working in cooperation with the Ministry of Education, English teachers of Taraz, English training centers, and local educational institutions. The program has successfully been implemented in the Oblast for the past two years with over 150 teachers participating. The program objectives are to empower and equip teachers to apply up-to-date communicative techniques, to promote self-sufficiency and professional excellence.

At the request of the Taraz City Educational Department we started to train the city EL teachers using the IMPACT program. We organized a 3-day seminar on the 7 – 9 of February for about 35 teachers. The same teachers will participate in 3 more 3-day seminars in March, April and May. Those who successfully finish the course will get certificates of completion.

EL teachers like the seminars we organize for them and express their gratitude to the trainers and the organizers. They say that they really learn a lot of innovative methods and new practical activities.