May 2011 Andrew Walkley

​On Saturday 7th May 2011 Andrew Walkley led two workshops entitled 'In the wrong level' and 'Better Listening Outcomes'.  The workshops were held at IELS in Sliema and were attended by around 70 members.

Andrew Walkley has 25 years’ experience as a teacher, trainer and materials writer. He is currently the co-director of Lexical Lab (lexicallab.com) an educational services provider specialising in course design and consultancy, material writing and teacher training. With Lexical Lab, he runs a variety of training courses for people in English Language education as part of a Summer school. He is the co-author of several coursebook series - Outcomes, Innovations and Perspectives (National Geographic Learning) and the methodology book Teaching Lexically (Delta Publishing).
 


Workshop 1
In the wrong level
This practical talk discusses reasons why teachers and students complain about students not being the right level. With reference to different descriptions and exams of level, I will question whether coursebooks genuinely meet the needs of these grades and how teachers may on occasions make matters worse. I will then look at aspects of teacher development and give some practical suggestions as to how teachers can provide for different levels in one class. 
 
Workshop 2
Better Listening Outcomes
 How can we help students improve listening skills? Is students' failure to listen the problem or is it an inability to hear? What texts do students need to hear? With some anecdotes and experiments I try to answer these questions.  I'll present some practical tasks applicable to any listening class, illustrated with my own material.
 

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