Some 650 English teachers from this country and around the world end a three-day conference today at the Costa Rican-North American Cultural Center.

The teachers attended workshops on educational tools such as video, software and Feng Shui, as well as speeches by lifelong instructors from England, Panama and Guatemala and a storyteller from the African country of Benin. Teachers paid $50 to attend the conference, whose $35,000 cost was largely shouldered by publishing houses, the U.S. Embassy and the Cultural Center.

As more high-tech companies settle here and English becomes a requisite for jobseekers, teachers are under pressure to hone their craft. President Oscar Arias is expected to announce a long-awaited plan to improve English instruction in early March.        

Three regional language advisers who work for the Ministry of Public Education did not want to wait. Drawing from their own wallets, Yasmín Mayorga, Esmeralda Montero and Carmen Jiménez produced CDs and written exercises for instructors in the provinces of Guanacaste, Puntarenas and Alajuela. The project won them a $500 award from the U.S. Embassy, presented yesterday at the conference.

“Our work has been very hard, with the purpose of making teachers' work easier,” Mayorga said.