At International House Milan | San Donato, we support English teachers with high-quality professional development through our Annual ELT Conference and our Saturday Workshop for Teachers programme. All our training is delivered by experienced teacher trainers and ELT specialists, and is open to teachers from Italian state and private schools.
All participants receive an AISLI-accredited certificate of attendance, recognised by the Italian Ministry of Education (Decree 177/2000 – Directive 90/2003).
Participation is free of charge. Registration is required.
Our Saturday Workshop for Teachers series offers free practical seminars designed for English teachers working in primary, lower secondary and upper secondary schools. Each workshop focuses on a specific area of ELT and provides immediately applicable ideas for the classroom.
Date: 29 November 2025
Time: 10:00–13:00
Location: IH Examination Centre, Via Mecenate 90, Milan
Cost: Free, registration required
Certificate: AISLI-recognised certificate of attendance
In today’s world, we interact more with screens than with people. With this as our new reality, how can teachers offer students meaningful and effective speaking practice in the classroom? Interactivity is one of the essential building blocks of spoken communication, yet it is often not explicitly taught.
This hands-on workshop begins with an in-depth look at the fundamentals of the speaking skill, exploring both learner and teacher challenges in different contexts. Through the analysis of short case studies, participants reflect on strategies to help students overcome their fear of speaking, reduce anxiety and build confidence.
The main aim of the workshop is to equip teachers with practical tools to create optimal classroom conditions, select meaningful tasks, encourage collaboration and strengthen real interaction among their learners.
Speaking fundamentals
An overview of the main features of spoken language and what makes spoken communication effective or ineffective.
Creating the right environment
Case studies and practical strategies to support students, address fear of speaking and promote a safe, encouraging atmosphere.
Choosing the right tasks
Awareness-raising activities on selecting and adapting materials to create more meaningful and interactive tasks aligned with learning goals.
Project-Based Learning
A review of task-based and project-based approaches that promote interactivity and help learners build confidence.
Teaching active listening
Activities designed to highlight the importance of listening as an integral part of speaking and interaction.
Interaction and peer teaching
How to use peer teaching, rubrics and feedback effectively in speaking-focused activities.
Task implementation
Participants explore a series of tasks and discuss how they can be implemented in their own classrooms.
Sonya has been working in the EFL sector for over a decade in both teaching and academic management roles. She completed her CELTA and DELTA (Modules 1 and 2) at International House Milan and worked as Director of Studies for five years. She specialises in teaching teenagers and adults and is known for motivating and supporting teachers with practical advice and clear, constructive feedback. Outside the classroom, she enjoys pilates and outdoor sports.
With more than ten years of experience in the EFL sector, Mary is dedicated to helping students of all ages build confidence in their speaking. Her background in journalism has fostered her interest in storytelling and in supporting learners in expressing their own stories. At IH Milan, she focuses on creating and adapting engaging materials that motivate students. Mary completed her CELTA in Verona and her DELTA Modules 1 and 2 with International House Milan. In her free time, she enjoys reading, writing, cooking and spending time with her family.
International House Milan | San Donato organises an Annual English Language Teaching Conference every October. The event welcomes teachers from state and private schools, universities and language institutes.
The 2025 edition, “Navigating Change: Reimagining Possibilities in Education”, took place on Friday 10 October at the FAST Congress Centre in central Milan.
Our ELT conference is an important opportunity to stay informed about new developments in the English language teaching sector, attend sessions by international speakers and connect with colleagues from across Italy.
Participants receive an AISLI-accredited certificate of attendance, valid for the professional development of school teaching staff in Italy. International House Milan is a member of AISLI (Italian Association of Language Schools), an accredited body recognised by the Ministry of Education.
Our English teachers conference Milan is famous for featuring recognised experts in the field of English language teaching. Here are the confirmed speakers:
What do a lightbulb, a black box, a map and Scarlett Johansson have in common? Come to this session to find out!
AI is revolutionising assessment, offering incredible opportunities. It is also opening up pitfalls we need to avoid. As part of Cambridge University Press and Assessment, I am seeing first-hand how the use of AI can support teachers and learners – bit it depends on its skilful and ethical use. This means that all stakeholders in language education need to engage with considerations around human-centred AI, integrity, transparency and assessment standards. Hope you can join me for an informed and balanced overview of the AI in language assessment and education.
What is the purpose of education? How can we create a better future through a compassion-based approach?
What is the purpose of education? What should educational systems be teaching? Most of us would agree that we should be teaching students to be able to thrive in communities, societies and as inhabitants of this world. However, does this always happen in practice? In this session, we will look at what the future could look like if we took a more compassion-based approach to teaching and learning, and what the benefits might be for both teachers and learners.
How to reignite passion for reading and support students' emotional wellbeing through practical and inclusive strategies.
In an age of constant distraction, how can educators rekindle and cultivate a passion for reading and support students' emotional wellbeing through literacy? This session explores a range of hands-on, inclusive activities designed to engage learners in reading both inside and outside the classroom. We will discover practical, adaptable strategies and collaborative reading projects using graded readers that make reading meaningful and collaborative and also connecting with Citizenship, and cultural themes. We will also highlight how fostering reading habits can contribute to students' self-awareness, empathy, and overall wellbeing. Whether you're teaching young learners or teenagers, this session will leave you equipped with creative ideas to inspire a lifelong love of reading.
Developing soft skills and 21st-century competences to prepare students for an uncertain future.
In this talk, we will think about the skills and competencies that students need to develop to face an uncertain future. As AI evolves, and our access to information expands exponentially, it has become increasingly difficult to predict the hard skills that our students will need when they leave school and head into the world. So how can we foster their soft skills to prepare them for an uncertain future? Using a wide range of examples, we will consider how to develop our own material and identify and adapt existing material to strengthen these soft skills while also teaching the fundamentals of the language, helping our students develop into independent, resourceful and empathetic adults, ready for whatever the future may hold.
A methodological recovery operation for activities that don't work: practical solutions for common classroom problems.
Why do the tasks we run, especially with teenagers, but also with young adults, or even more mature ones, sometimes disappoint, leaving us locked into familiar, frustrating cycles, like some ELT Groundhog Day? This is a nuts n' bolts salvage operation, down at the methodological wrecking yard, for whatever might go wrong in terms of learning, teaching procedures and task design. We shall cover grammar structures, speaking practice in pairs, correcting exercises, remembering vocabulary, dictations and group speaking. Purely about refining techniques - no apps or AI mentioned.
Artificial intelligence is no longer a distant future concept—it's already reshaping how we teach and learn languages today.
As generative AI tools become increasingly embedded in education and daily life, learners need to understand how, why, and when to use these technologies effectively. We’ll will explore ways to foster AI literacy among primary and secondary language learners and examine practical strategies for integrating GenAI into language learning to support meaningful, ethical, and self-directed learning. We will look at helping students critically engage with AI-generated content, enhancing their ability to take ownership of their language learning journeys.
Our conference is famous for hosting some of the biggest names in the EFL world. Open the tabs below to see who the 2024 conference speakers were and what they were talking about.
Approaching sustainability in the ELT classroom
Activities to equip learners with sustainability skills
In this session we will explore what sustainability is and reasons to include it in the language classroom. We will look at sustainability skills and introduce the Sustainability Framework for ELT which has been developed to support educators in integrating sustainability into classroom practice. We will look at ideas and activities for the classroom including the Sustainability Activity Cards for more inspiration and practical ideas.
Sarah Ellis is currently working as Senior Manager, Assessment Services, for Cambridge University Press and Assessment. She is based in Bologna, Italy. Sarah is interested in Assessment, Learning & Professional Development and has an extensive background in teaching, teacher training, assessment and exam management. She has trained teachers on CELTA and DELTA courses and is currently is involved in the Cambridge professional development and teacher support programme which provides information, materials and support for teachers and academic directors. She is particularly interested in supporting teachers in developing digital skills and assessment literacy.
New ideas and activities for promoting youth engagement through collaborative projects
The G7 Education Ministers’ Declaration Trieste 27-29 June 2024 endorses ‘the fundamental role of education in helping to enable the achievement of all other Sustainable Development Goals and in driving inclusive economic and sustainable growth, equity, human dignity, well-being and peace’.
In this session we will illustrate practical examples of collaborative projects in English using a variety of tools and resources and the role of the educator in supporting student outcomes and and encouraging students to engage with English beyond the classroom . We will also look at new approaches to teaching and , learning using new technology and Artificial Intelligence in tools including MondlybyPearson. All of these new frontiers empowering youth engagement in transformative times.
Donatella Fitzgerald – is a teacher, teacher trainer and trained to teach Mindfulness in Schools Project (from pre school to teens) and has completed Module 1 on the Teacher Training Pathway with the Mindfulness Network in collaboration with Bangor University . Her specialist interest are Extensive Reading Projects, CLIL, Citizenship, Mindfulness, Plurilingualism, Artificial Intelligence in Education. In her current role as ELL Consultant at Pearson she works with teachers and students every day to find solutions to help them achieve their teaching and learning goals. In 2024 she was awarded an MBE (Member of the British Empire) in the King’s Birthday Honours List for Services to English Education and Youth Engagement.
Developing soft skills in the ELT classroom
Nowadays, we have become so much more than mere language teachers. We have been entrusted with the privilege of preparing our students to become the future citizens of tomorrow. This implies teaching them life skills like self-knowledge, organisational, effective time management and teamwork skills. In this session, we will be taking a look at how we can tweak the coursebook to take learning English to the next level by teaching life and soft skills and engaging students to become the active citizens of tomorrow. Come along for a few good practical ideas to take into your classroom.
Vanessa Reis has been a passionate EFL teacher for the past 28 years and counting. She has taught English language learners from the ages of 3 to 60+. She currently teaches at Escola Superior de Educação in Porto, Portugal, where she teaches English language, literature and various subjects related to the methodology & didactics of teaching English. Vanessa divides her time between writing coursebooks, giving teacher training sessions around the world, teaching English and completing her Doctorate degree in the field of coursebook design, which is one of her many interests.
So…what will you do with what you have learnt? A framework for deep and actionable teacher learning in the age of cognitive overload
Conference talks, webinars and blog posts typically focus on what teachers should try out in our teaching, and are packed with lots of exciting ideas and resources. Yet in many cases, only a few -if any- of the brilliant suggestions they propose actually become part of our own pedagogical repertoire. Is it any wonder that such is the result of these professional development activities which unwittingly overstimulate and cognitively overload overworked and tired teachers, leaving us to work out for ourselves the complexities of adapting and the challenges of implementing what has been presented to us?
This talk introduces an evidence-informed, tried and tested practical framework that supports teachers’ journey from becoming aware of new strategies, approaches or resources to judiciously putting these into practice with our classes and having a positive impact on our learners’ learning.
Silvana has worked in the field of English Language Teaching for 37 years as teacher, teacher educator, academic manager, inspector, and consultant. She has trained EFL, MFL, ESOL, EAL, CLIL and subject teachers, teacher educators and school leaders in the state and private sectors both in the UK and abroad, and has designed, taught and supervised courses and projects commissioned by Ministries of Education and national and international teaching associations. Silvana was visiting lecturer on English as an Additional Language at the Faculty of Education, Cambridge University, Director of the Bell Delta Online, Academic Director at Bell Teacher Campus and Bell Teacher Academy, and is a speaker in international conferences. She has written online materials, blogposts and articles for teachers and school leaders, has co-written two Cambridge papers in ELT with Scott Thornbury and Gabriel Diaz Maggioli, and is the author of the forthcoming book on Promoting Teacher Learning for Cambridge University Press and Assessment.
Release the pressure: Taking the tension out of our teenage classes
Anything and everything you do in a teens’ class will either add to or take away from the existing tension in the room. In this session I shall talk about how some of our default teaching techniques might add an unnecessary element of strain and I shall draw on ideas I have fielded over the last two decades to offer small tweaks and alternatives. There will be examples, anecdotes and photos from my own classes. Suitable for new and experience teachers alike.
Chris Roland is a trainer and methodology writer based in Seville. He has taught in the private language academy sector, mainstream schools and held posts with the British Council in Damascus and Barcelona. He is known on the international ELT conference circuit for his lively but practical talks on classroom techniques. He tutors on both Trinity Diploma and Cambridge DELTA courses. He has published a number of books through Pavilion including: Understanding Teenagers in the ELT Classroom (2018) and Structuring Fun for Young Learners (2020) with two more complementary titles to help teachers transition to online teaching. Chris’ current interests are: the dialogue between teachers and students, ways to reduce tension in the classroom and the lesson as an event in itself.
Navigating AI: Enhancing English Language Teaching
As teachers, we stand at the intersection of tradition and innovation. In this dynamic landscape, artificial intelligence (AI) emerges as a powerful ally in the English language classroom. Join us as we explore how AI can transform teaching practices, personalize learning experiences, and empower both teachers and students in the continuously evolving education landscape.
Elisa Ronchi is a passionate language professional with an international background. She holds a degree in foreign languages and has several years of experience as an English teacher and communication specialist. Currently, Elisa serves as a Digital User Success Consultant for Oxford University Press, where she educates teachers on the effective use of OUP’s digital products and services. Her expertise extends to AI in English Language Teaching (ELT), and she collaborates with teachers to help them leverage technology in the ever-evolving educational landscape.
CLIL without tears – a practical approach to using authentic material in the classroom
At first sight, the prospect of using authentic materials with teenage students can appear intimidating and it’s easy to feel overwhelmed at the prospect of spending hours researching and preparing lessons from scratch. The aim of this talk is to dispel this fear. Using material from a series of lessons conducted with a class of high school students, a simple, but effective model will be demonstrated to encourage teachers to apply CLIL techniques in their classroom to both their students’ benefit and their own.
Laura has taught at schools in London, Bassano del Grappa and Bologna and was Director and Centre Exams Manager at the Oxford School in Padova from 2012 until 2018. Since 2018 she has been working as a teacher and Cambridge and IELTS examiner at IH Milan. In recent years, her teaching has focused on Cambridge IGCSE English as a Second Language and IGCSE Global Perspectives with teenagers in a scientific high school.
Reflections on educational technology in language classrooms
The world of ELT stands at yet another crossroads where teaching and learning are being transformed by new technologies. How can teachers harness the power of educational technology (EdTech) in planning and teaching? In search of answers, I shall reflect on my personal experiences of using digital games, artificial intelligence (AI), and virtual reality (VR) in the classroom. We shall explore three broad principles behind incorporating technology and consider the implications of this for language learners.
Daniel Tse works as a teacher and examiner in Italy. He has taught English as a Foreign Language (EFL) at IH Milan since 2019. He works with Young Learners, teenagers, and adults across the full range of CEFR levels. As a teacher, he lays great emphasis on developing learners’ communicative competence through personalised communication in the classroom. He mainly teaches Cambridge/IELTS Exam Preparation and Business English, as well as an increasing number of English ‘top-up’ courses in local schools and universities.
In addition to teaching, Daniel contributes articles to the IH Journal and runs teacher development workshops for Macmillan/Mondadori Education in Italy. He has also spoken at ELT conferences in Milan and Barcelona, the IATEFL Conference in the UK, and British Council TeachingEnglish webinar series.
We warmly thank the sponsors who support our annual conference:
The workshop was very helpful and gave me a lot of ideas for new ways to practice these features with my students.
Thank you again for the training session on Friday. I really enjoyed it and am going to try out some of the activities tomorrow!
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A publication by International House World Organization whose original intention was to provide a forum for debate, a platform for creating new ideas and re-floating old ones, debunking myths and generally generate a sense of adventure for people teaching TEFL or teaching English as a second language.
The IH Journal is designed to be readable but serious, though always with room to be lighthearted as well. IH World Organization is always on the lookout for new materials, ideas, papers, photos and articles. If you are a language teaching expert, teacher trainer or teacher from within the IH network or beyond and would like to contribute to the IH Journal, they would be delighted to hear from you. Read the IH Journal now!
The refresher courses for teachers are organised each year with focus on different themes.
In general, the sessions aim to improve knowledge of the English language certifications, a theme which is naturally highly valued by teachers of this language. The occasion is also ideal for developing practical ideas and strategies along with the teachers to develop the students’ abilities in every skill (listening, reading, writing and speaking), and to illustrate in detail the assessment criteria of the exams and understand how to guide students to achieve the best possible score in each area of the test.
The course generally consists of two 90 minute sessions, with a 30 minute break to socialise and share ideas with colleagues. The workshops are held in English so participants should have a level of English of B1 or above.
But there is more than just the Workshop Week: International House Milan organises seminars and workshops during the year. These training sessions are aimed mainly at English language teachers and take place both in Milan and throughout Lombardy.
Instead, if the teacher’s needs are more specific, ourad hoc training courses are the ideal solution: just contact International House Milan and ask for advice on more effective ways of keeping up-to-date.
Indeed, International House Milan has a team of expert trainers specialised in teacher training who hold courses and give presentations at conferences, including international ones. We will ensure that training is enjoyable, interactive and fully focussed on the participants’ specific needs.
All you have to do is send the form to the Teacher Training Department of International House Milan: a consultant will get back to you to help you plan a training path.
