PLENARY SPEAKERS.
MEET ANDY CURTIS
Andy Curtis is the 50th President of the TESOL International Association. He received his M.A. in Applied Linguistics and English Language Teaching, and his Ph.D. in International Education, from the University of York in England. He was the Executive Director of the School of English at Queen’s University in Canada, and a professor at the School for International Training in Vermont. He is currently working with Anaheim University, and he is is based in Ontario, Canada, from where he works as a consultant for language teaching and learning organizations worldwide.
PLENARY TALK:
ENGAGMENT IN AN AGE OF DISTRACTION
According to one online dictionary, in Indian English, ‘engage’ means “to teach someone, especially a class of children, or to keep someone busy” (Cambridge). Some of the many other meanings of ‘engage’ include: “to interest someone in something and keep them thinking about it”; “to make one part of a machine fit into and move together with another part”; and “to attack or begin to fight”. In this Opening Plenary talk, we will look at the ways in which all of these meanings are relevant to the work we do in our language classrooms everyday.
MEET PENNY UR
Penny Ur has 35 years’ experience as an English teacher in elementary, middle and high schools in Israel. Now retired, she has taught B.A. and M.A. courses at Oranim Academic College of Education and Haifa University. She has lectured and published extensively on topics connected to the theory and practice of effective language teaching. She was for ten years the Series Editor of the Cambridge Handbooks for Language Teachers series. Her books include Grammar practice activities (2nd Edition) (2009), Vocabulary activities (2012), A course in English language teaching (2012), Discussions and more (2014), Penny Ur’s 100 tips (2016), all published by Cambridge University Press.
Read an interview with Penny Ur
PLENARY TALK:
ENHANCING LANGUAGE LEARNING: THE PRIMARY GOAL
Our main goal as teachers is to get our students to learn English, to get them to achieve levels of proficiency in the language that will enable them to function in the language in a variety of communicative situations. Unfortunately, too often teachers are urged to prioritize aims such as: ‘teach communicatively’ or ‘use digital technology’ or ‘use group work’. These can be useful means to help language learning, but they are means, not ends. If they are seen as ends in themselves they may actually harm learning. Let’s put the enhancement of language learning back where it belongs, as our primary goal.
MEET HUGH DELLAR
Hugh Dellar is a teacher and teacher trainer with over twenty years’ experience in the field. He is also the co-founder of Lexical Lab and co-author of two five-level General English series, Innovations and Outcomes (now in its second edition), both published by National Geographic Learning. His first methodology book,Teaching Lexically, is due out via Delta Publishing in the first half of 2016 and he is helping to set up a school in central London – London Language Lab.
PLENARY TALK:
MAKING THE LEAP FROM GRAMMAR TO LEXIS
Grammar is reassuring. As teachers, we have all invested time and effort in working out how to
explain it. Yet it only takes students so far. This talk explores the fears around making the leap into
the unknown and beginning to teach more lexically – and suggests eight ways of making the transition easier.
MEET MARJORIE ROSENBERG
Marjorie Rosenberg teaches at the University of Graz, in companies, trains teachers and writes materials. Marjorie has written extensively in the field of business English for (Cambridge University Press, Cengage, Macmillan), is the author of ‘Spotlight on learning styles’ (Delta Publishing) and has co-authored textbooks for the Austrian school market. Her next book is on designing activities for different learner types (Wayzgoose Press). Marjorie is currently the IATEFL president.
Read an interview with Marjorie Rosenberg
PLENARY TALK:
MAKING LESSONS MEMORABLE
There are a variety of ways in which you can make your lessons memorable in order to help your learners take valuable information with them when they leave your classroom. In this plenary we will look at a number of ideas and practical examples which you can use to liven up your lessons, make them fun, relevant, engaging, and creative so that both you and your learners feel you have gotten the most out of the face-to-face time you can spend together.