In partnership with a group of British publishers, the Centro Colombo Americano and Universities in Bogotá, the British Council organised the 11th NATIONAL ELT CONFERENCE 'THE CRITICAL THINKER: MIND OVER MATTER'.

The Conference was held in Bogotá (Colombia), from 24 to 26 April 2008 at the Universidad de la Sabana.

The topic of the Conference was chosen in response to the suggestions made by last year's participants. The Conference seeks to be a forum for policy makers, researchers, teacher trainers, academic co-ordinators and practitioners in order to have a critical and constructive assessment of current research and practice on the teaching of English. In particular, the Conference addressed the following topics:

• Incorporation into the ELT curriculum
• Methodologies, techniques and strategies
• Competency standards and Assessment
• Language skills (Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing)
• Critical thinking across age levels
• Teacher development
• Problem and inquiry- based learning
• ELT for world understanding
• CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning)