This year's end-of-season event was held on Saturday, 30 November 2019 at Ace English Malta. It was well attended by about 130 members. Unfortunately, Kevin Spiteri was unable to give his session as he was unwell. Fortunately, Matt Done stepped in at very short notice and gave a session on controlled practice activities. The workshops were as follows:
First Session - 9.30 - 11.00
Alan Marsh: Six of the Best (repeat session) Here are six ideas for focusing on and practising language points in the classroom. What do they have in common? They involve an element of creativity, they’re all templates that can be used with other language points, they’re all linked to the practice of other skills, and learners find them highly effective and engaging – and so do teachers!
Corinne Vella: Teaching 1-1 students? How and why it’s not scary! (repeat session) Has your DOS approached you about 1-1 students? Do you find the prospect scary? Intimidating? Unwelcome for some reason you cannot pinpoint? During this session, I will share with you an amalgam of tips, helpful insights into understanding your students and their needs, and suggestions as to how you can cater for your unique student’s needs. This sessions is targeted at teachers who are just starting to teach 1-1 students.
Marilou Mifsud: Let’s Motivate our Students to Participate more in Class This workshop will look at using effective activities in a language classroom, encouraging students to interact with each other in English and motivating them to participate in the lessons and benefit as much as possible. There will be an engaging discussion on how this can motivate us as teachers.
Pam and Tiffany Borg: Teaching and Student Well-being through Mindfulness in the Classroom Anyone who says that teaching is not stressful has never taught! Letting stress and the minutia of teaching creep into your life is a recipe for burnout. Research evidence suggests ‘mindfulness’ as an effective tool to support teacher wellbeing. We will look at how mindfulness can benefit teachers and students, as well as apps and tools to help manage stress.
Peter Hotton: Teaching Tenses Without Rules This workshop is being offered to provide training in the use of 'Language is not Mathematics', a unique new approach to teaching English tenses. The session will include an overall description of the approach followed by hands-on practice of using LINM to teach tenses through the speaker’s aspect of time.
Second session - 11.30 - 13.15
Alan Marsh: Hot Stuff! This session offers several creative, engaging techniques for teaching ‘hot stuff’ – verbs and other non-literal phrases: multi-word verbs, delexicalised verbs, phrasal verbs, idioms. Each technique will be demonstrated practically and serves as a template for teaching any such ‘hot stuff’.
Joe Aquilina: IPA Friend or Foe? What if…. we can send our students back with a 100 percent cure for their pronunciation issues? The daunting IPA chart holds the key to a quick fix. It can help us diagnose and also provide the right medicine. What techniques do you use? I will be happy to share what works for me! Expect out-of-the box solutions.
Matt Done: Exploiting controlled practice activities (this replaced the previously advertised session by Kevin Spiteri ) Gap fill tasks are part and parcel of coursebooks and lessons. While we might be keen to finish these tasks and quickly move on to the 'livelier' parts of the lesson, some little tricks and techniques might allow us to squeeze more learning opportunities out of them and give our learners some extra learning opportunities. This practical session will demonstrate some simple but effective interventions that teachers can start using immediately to breathe new life into gap fill tasks.
Niki Stokes: How to Teach Presentation Skills A commonly chosen business English skill, and often the most feared by learners, is how to present. This skill isn't always easy to teach, as many students have been presenting for years and think they 'know it all', while others really struggle with presenting in English. In this interactive workshop, I'll provide some useful tips and ready-to-use, engaging activities.
Sigo Gatt: Cut & Paste, Trim & Merge your Classroom Materials In this interactive workshop, we will discover free online tools which can enhance and/or tailor existing classroom resource or be creative with introducing authentic text, exciting and motivating visuals, listening material and audio-visual material. We will also discuss how this can enrich our students’ learning experience, making it more motivating.