The summer seminar/workshop, held on the premises of EC Malta on Saturday 7th July, yielded a record attendance of more than 130 members.
FIRST SESSION 9.30 - 11.00
Alan Marsh:Language Practice for the Heart, Mind and Spirit English Language Teaching materials often provide language practice exercises that are tedious and uninspiring. In this session Alan shares some of the practice activities he has used in order to engage learners both cognitively and emotionally with grammatical and lexical areas they are trying to master. The results have sometimes been surprising, and occasionally even inspirational.
Caroline Campbell: Get your students to speak! Do you sometimes run out of ideas for your conversation classes? Do you need to find other ways to encourage your students to speak? This workshop will provide you with some hands-on communicative activities that will give students the possibility to retrieve the language they have learnt and use it effectively. You will talk less while your students will talk more!
Larissa Jonk: Jazzing up Reading Texts What is the purpose of the reading text in the EFL classroom? Why have reading texts at all? Do your students get lost in all the reading text or lose focus? Does following course book reading texts mean that students are very sedentary in the classroom? This session briefly explores the reasons why we get students to read in the classroom and looks at ways of redesigning reading texts so that they are more interactive and engaging.
SECOND SESSION - 11.30 - 13.00
Alan Marsh:Is reading aloud...allowed? Teachers do it, trainers ban it, some students love it, some hate it...what should we do about reading aloud? In this session, we'll be examining the case for and against reading aloud and trying out some useful practical ideas, many of which are designed to help learners improve their listening skills, acquire better pronunciation and become better 'presenters' in English.
Angie Conti: Is writing the forgotten skill? Do you consider writing to be time consuming and solitary? Do you restrict writing tasks to be done as homework? How often does writing feature during your lessons? This workshop aims to show that developing good writing skills is conducive to the development of other language skills and that writing activities need not be boring, time-consuming or solitary. Using a process approach to writing we will try out some activities where students can be engaged, creative, share their knowledge and ideas and get practice in the techniques they need to organize their writing and hopefully change the perception that writing in class is a waste of time.
Larissa Jonk:Teaching Young Learners (8-11 year olds) Is teaching Young Learners different to teaching Teenagers and Adults? Do we need to adopt a different approach when preparing lesson material for Young Learners? What teaching techniques do we need to adopt or adapt? Larissa will offer some tips to keep in mind when preparing lesson material for Young Learners. The session will include practical ideas that you will be able to use in class.