British Council rewards ‘Learn English’ SMS service winners

Five lucky mobile phone users improved their English and won digital prizes earlier this week.  The British Council Colombo Library was the setting for the presentation of the prizes by British Council Deputy Director David Maynard to the five winners. 
K. Shamila Rajaratne (Dialog winner), H.K.D.W.N. Navinda Bandara Diwaratne (Hutch winner) and Melissa Achini (Etisalat winner) all won a Samsung Galaxy Tab 4. S. Gobinath (Mobitel winner) and A. Ganeshwari (Airtel winner) both from Kandy won a Galaxy Core prime phone. Those who could not make the ceremony are invited to come to the British Council within a period of four weeks to pick up their prize.

Coming from round the country, each winner had participated in the SMS service provided by a partnership between the British Council and Z messenger, an aggregator. Coordinated by Zmessenger, ‘Learn English’ through SMS is delivered by the five mobile phone providers, Dialog, Hutch, Mobitel, Etisalat and Airtel. 
‘Learn English with the British Council’ is a simplified and interactive medium through which users can test and practise their English language skills through their mobile phone. The service allows users to practise their grammar and vocabulary and provides essential language learning tips for all levels of learners, from elementary, to intermediate and advanced. Participants receive tips about learning English and they answer multiple choice questions daily. The more successful they are the more they rise through the levels. These winners were the highest scorers in the quizzes.  

“This was a promotion run for British Council English SMS service and across all operators. Five lucky winners representing Dialog, Mobitel, Etisalat, Hutch and Airtel were selected from the customers who registered during the promotion period. English with British Council service provides English learning tips through SMS and it has become very popular among the youth in the country mainly for the reason that it enables English learning in a convenient manner at a reasonable price,” said Zmessenger Product Manager Upekha Abeyratne.
Commenting on the Learn English SMS course, one winner said, “I got to know about this service from my teacher. I enjoy using it and learn a lot in my day-to-day work. I have also promoted this service to my friends.” 

The Deputy Director British Council spoke of the reasons why the British council is providing content in this way: “We aim to reach the whole country with our Learn English programmes. We have branches in Colombo, Jaffna and Kandy and partnership schools in Matara and Galle. However, by providing affordable content by mobile, our reach is nationwide; therefore everyone in the country can benefit from our courses.”