Have Your Say: how to get students speaking

Preparing students for speaking exams can be challenging. Students are often reluctant to speak in the classroom because they feel embarrassed, they feel exposed and they don’t want to be seen to fail in front of their peers. However, when we combine motivating authentic materials with solid preparation, a well-structured framework and a supportive, positive environment, we can help our students develop into confident communicators. In this talk, I will share some practical ways to inspire your students to speak out and explore how we can provide constructive feedback and error correction in a way that is both helpful and encouraging.

Katherine Stannett is based in West Sussex, England and is an author with over twenty years of experience in editing, writing, and developing materials to teach English. She specialises in writing for children and teenagers at all levels and is particularly interested in the development of 21st century skills. She is an author of the following National Geographic Learning publications: New Closeup, Look, and Impact.

The Development of Responsible Global Citizens through English Language Teaching

It would be hard to deny that English language teachers in the 21st century have an incredible advantage: they can rely on a massive variety of different materials, sources, documents and constantly updated information sheets to help students become more and more aware of their role as “Global Citizens” in a rapidly evolving world. What kind of sources and activities can English teachers use daily to promote the development of global citizenship in the English language class? These are the main questions that will inform our talk. We will share some practical and effective tools that English language teachers can use in the classroom to transform Global Citizenship into an engaging, motivating, inspiring, life-changing experience.

Mauro Spicci has worked in the field of active research on English theatre in the Elizabethan era, on the relations between literature and science and on allegorical literature. He has taught and acted as coordinator in several secondary schools both in Italy and abroad. Mauro is one of the founding members of IASEMS (Italian Association of Shakespearean and Early Modern Studies). He is currently teaching coordinator at the Bilingual European School in Milan and is involved in teacher training.

Timothy Alan Shaw teaches English at the Liceo Linguistico Marcello Candia in Seregno (MB). He has collaborated with Collins as a linguistic consultant in the preparation of the English-Italian bilingual dictionary, has held didactic and linguistic refresher courses for school managers in Milan and for several years was a translator of opera librettos for Italian record companies.

Developing Global Skills for Teens

In this session, Anna Hasper examines the concept of Global Citizenship Education (GCE), what it entails and the importance of focusing on GCE in the English language classroom. The webinar will provide an insight into how Gateway to the World has embedded a focus on GCE in the course book and will also look at practical ways of bringing GCE into any ELT classroom for teens.

Anna is a primary-trained ELT teacher from New Zealand, currently based in Dubai. She has worked as a teacher of young learners and adults and is a teacher trainer on Cambridge accredited courses. She’s a self-confessed addict to learning and is passionate about enabling teachers to enhance effective learning for all learners. Anna regularly presents internationally and writes for English Teaching Professional and Modern English Teacher. Her special interests are teacher development, educational psychology and enhancing effective learning.

Grammar Games in the Classroom

A well-chosen game not only provides a plausible incentive to use the target language, but can make grammar practice more engaging, meaningful, effective and fun. Games can also be a great way for reluctant students or those with SpLDs to get involved. This interactive and practical session will first look at the pedagogic reasons for and merits of using games and similar activities in the classroom and then we will take part in a number of games and activities that practise grammar and provide plenty of opportunity for oral production of specific grammar points. You will leave the session with some games and activities that you can straight away in the classroom.

Jon is a teacher, trainer and author, based in Oxford. UK He divides his time between teaching English at the University of Oxford, writing ELT materials and giving teacher-training talks and workshops both in the UK and overseas Jon has a range of experience and interests, but with a particular interest in Grammar and English for Academic Purposes. He also has an interest in dyslexia and learning English Jon has written and contributed to a number of ELT publications including grammar reference and practice books, course books, teachers books and other resource material. His most recent publications include Oxford EAP B1 (2015), Grammar and Vocabulary for the Real World (2015), Oxford Learners Pocket Verbs and Tenses (2013) and The Complete English Grammar (2010), all published by Oxford University Press At the heart of Jon is teaching, training and writing is the challenge of trying to make activities and exercises as meaningful, engaging motivating and as enjoyable as possible. In his free time. Jon plays the drums.

Brain vs body: Encouraging movement in language teaching

With screen time at an all-time high, it has never been more important to encourage learners to move. Surprisingly, there are benefits not just for health but for learning outcomes and language development, too. In this session we will see how there is an important relationship between movement, language and learning, and consider how we can introduce movement into language classes in a principled, manageable way.

Matthew Ellman works as Professional Learning and Development Manager at Cambridge University Press, designing and delivering training for teachers, institutions and Ministries of Education around the world. He has worked as a teacher, trainer and training manager in the UK, Spain and Malaysia, and has delivered workshops and talks to teachers in a further 25 countries. Matthew is a committee member of the IATEFL Teacher Training and Education SIG and his research into teacher education practices won the British Council’s ELT Masters Dissertation Award at the 2018 ELTons. Find him on Twitter at @MatthewEllman.

The Myth of the Native Speaker

What defines a ‘native speaker’? Is it language competence? Is it a passport? Is it skin colour? Is it nationality? Is it the number of years spent in formative education in a particular country? If you or your school are hiring a language expert, are these really the right questions to be asking? Hiring decisions are often made subjectively with, at times, unintentional prejudice and discrimination behind the decision-making process. None of us can avoid unconscious bias, but being aware of it and questioning our motives is a helpful. In this session we will do some critical thinking, spoken language analysis, and focus on the needs of the end user; our learners. We will take a fresh look at the objectives set under lifelong learning skills and their relevance to multi-lingualism, trans-languaging and the new CEFR descriptor ‘mediation’.

Julie Wallis is the current president of AISLi (www.aisli.it). She is a school director and also works as a teacher trainer for NILE-elt. She has worked at Pilgrims, Bell and TransformELT. She is an Eaquals Trustee and IH London Trustee. She is also an inspector for both Eaquals and AISLi.

Building learner confidence, communicative competence and linguistic ability in the Primary classroom via effective teacher feedback 

Feedback can take many forms and it can have a huge impact on multiple levels – learners’ level of engagement, their interest, their motivation and of course confidence in their own linguistic knowledge and ability, to name but a few. A positive and effective language learning environment (as we are talking about learning and teaching English) should cater for all of these needs and more. So, what part does teacher feedback play in all of this?

Stephanie Holme has worked in the EFL/ESOL sector all of her professional life. She is both a teacher and a teacher trainer. Her experience encompasses a wide range of levels, ages and teaching/learning contexts. As a language teacher and trainer, she is deeply interested in helping learners to develop to the best of their ability in a safe and inclusive learning environment. Stephanie trained as a French and Physical Education teacher at secondary level in the UK and taught these subjects there before moving into ELT.

Bringing Intercultural Awareness into the Classroom

Intercultural awareness is a vital skill that everybody needs in our increasingly connected world. How can teachers integrate this skill into English language teaching and learning? In this workshop, we shall explore five classroom activities which aim to raise teenagers’ intercultural awareness and equip them with the tools necessary for their future aspirations.

Daniel Tse went into ELT in 2019 and started teaching at IH Milan and San Donato in the same year. He works with Young Learners, teens and adults across the full range of CEFR language levels. As a language teacher, he lays great emphasis on developing learners’ autonomy and communicative competence. Prior to ELT, Daniel trained as a classical musician and delivered outreach workshops for a number of major performing arts organisations in the UK.

Telling stories, Building Bridges

Stories teach values and respect, stories help recognise and appreciate differences and similarities, stories build bridges. As language teachers we have an opportunity to open doors on other cultures and invite our students to peer through them. In this workshop we are going to see how.

Simona is an English teacher and storyteller. She has always been passionate about both teaching and stories, and in storytelling she found a craft that can combine the two to make language learning more interesting and engaging for her students. She loves experimenting with storytelling activities to bring more creativity into her lessons.

Markers against guns: fostering negotiation skills in your teen classroom in the times of “Newspeak”

Course books for teens mainly include speaking activities limited to “arranging to meet”, “choosing the best holiday destination”, or “top 3 songs to bring a lonely island”. While we can’t question their usefulness, would we assume that these are sufficient enough to prepare our students for rather challenging real-life situations? In this session we will see how to implement negotiating in our classrooms in a less superficial way.

Veronika has been in TEFL since 2014. She has worked in Manchester, Moscow, Genoa, and she’s been living in Milan for 6 years. She has experience teaching all age groups, CLIL, Cambridge and IELTS classes. She enjoys having fun with VYL and teaching high school students. Veronika is also passionate about rock music and occasionally organises her English-speaking rock events on a voluntary basis, both face-to-face and online.