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2 March 2012
Being a teacher means to distribute useful or urgent information both among learners and their parents. What is more, you need to provide a simple access to learning tools and interesting material as a boost of students’ interest often means a boost of their knowledge.
- Does a teacher really need a site?
- Can it be free and “hand-made”?
- How can a site help you with your teaching practice?
- What tools can a teacher use?
This session considered these issues among others.
Presenter: Anastasia Tuzova
 Anastasia Tuzova is a Senior Teacher for the National University of Science and Technology MISiS. Having graduated the linguistic department of the Russian State Social University with honour, she has a particular interest in teaching student both to use and to enjoy the language. Due to her linguistic education and teaching practice at an engineering university, Anastasia deals with different aspects of the English language
Being involved in the process of modernisation of Teaching English in MISiS, Anastasia pays a lot of attention to the modern learning technologies. She is a usual and active visitor of different seminars and conferences in the field.
Anastasia is an author of several articles, dealing with comparative linguistics, discourse analysis, prosody and intonation study.
Joint event with Macmillan publishers
15 March 2012
Download presentation: Teacher Development (4 Mb)
 According to Adrian Underhill, teacher development is the process of becoming the best teacher one is able to be, a process that can be started but never finished. In order to understand the concept of Continuous Professional Development (CPD), we looked at the differences between Teacher Training and Teacher Development to work out the possible ways in which we can face the problem of developing self-confidence and our teaching abilities. The session delt with strategies and approaches that can lead to more effective professional development.
Presenter: Liam James Tyler, Macmillan Teacher Trainer, the DOS of International Professional Training
1 March 2012
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"Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL)" means studying English simultaneously with the content of other subjects like biology, math, etc. An interest to this approach appears in 90’s when English course books came to Russian educational market. Some of them had the motto: ‘Discover the word through English’. Transition from CLIL to the IB or A-level exams preparation is sufficient for the application process in the UK Universities. It is very natural to combine different subjects and Cambridge ESOL exams preparation. During the seminar we demonstrated some demo lessons of English which are dealing with different subjects and are motivating different students having different plans for the future.
The second half of the workshop was a survey of the core and additional course books in various school subjects - from Literature and History to ICT and Economics - published by Cambridge University Press in 2011-2012. These exam preparation course books are intended for students of the 9th and 11th forms studying within the framework of various British and international programs like IB Diploma or CIE.
  Presenters: Liudmila Gorodetskaya, Tatiana Elistratova
Liudmila Gorodetskaya, PhD in Philology, Doctor of Culturology, professor in the department of the Foreign Languages and Regional Studies of Moscow State University. Teacher trainer of the Cambridge University Press publishing in Russia.In 90-th she used to be an editor of ‘ESP Russia’, published by the British Council. Since 2004 Liudmila is responsible for the international conference ‘Course book, student, teacher’, which takes place in MSU. Regularly attends the joint events with British council and CUP.
Tatiana Elistratova, Education and Academic Books Consultant, Cambridge University Press Representative Office in Moscow, PhD in history.
20 February 2012
The purpose of the workshop was to present proposals for a new framework for the teaching of English for Academic Purposes in Russian institutions of higher education, in the context of university reform, quality assurance and internationalisation.
The workshop covered the following areas:
- The new context for EAP in Russian institutions of higher education
- Why English is needed in the new Russian universities
- What sort of English is needed
- How do we determine the EAP requirements of students and academic staff?
- How do we teach EAP?
- Where is Russia now? Where do we need to go? How do we get there?
- The need for an international EAP Framework for Russian EAP
- What does an EAP Framework look like?
- How does an EAP Framework combine Russian approaches and international standards?
 Presenter: Richard West
Originally taught in Zambia and Iran, and then returned to the UK and worked for 20 years as a teacher trainer at Manchester University, specialising in language assessment and ESP. He worked on several British Council projects in East and Central Europe the 1990s, as well as leading the Cambridge ESOL project that led to the Certificate in Advanced English (CAE). He has been freelance since 2005, working mostly on evaluation and reform projects in Russia and elsewhere, as well as a British Council project to develop the vocabulary component of the Common European Framework.
16 February 2012
The more we realize the learning styles of our students and our own teaching style the deeper we understand the level of our effectiveness in our work with them. There is now doubt that it’s desirable to teach using different sensor systems and have the students with equally developed audial, visual and kinaesthetic abilities. However sometimes we use our preferable style when some children (so called ‘risk children’) are mostly visuals (V), audials (A) or kinaesthetics (K). Knowing about learning and teaching style we can accurately notice which students in class are having difficulties and make corrections.
On the seminar there were offered the convenient tool to clarify the way you/your students turn the information they derive into the operations and thus to get the realistic image of yours/your students individual dispositions in order to:
Change/adapt the way of material presentation;
Teach and learn in a most effective way.
Presenter: Nataliya Pateeva
Pateeva Nataliya, PhD in education, works as an adjunct professor of the Open Educational Technologies sub-department in the Moscow Open Education Institute (MIOO). English language teacher, General State Exam expert (speaking examiner), ‘Moscow Grant’ laureate, was awarded with letters of commendation by the Moscow City Department of Education. Successfully participated on the seminar, «Regional British Council trainers network workshop”. British Council methodologist and consultant.
10 February 2012
Video has been used as a way of engaging students in the classroom for many years. Now, in the digital age, it is used even more frequently. The benefits of exploiting this medium are widely recognised, but teachers are often unsure of how to go about it. This teacher focused session focused on how video can be exploited for use in the business English class room. With the updated Business Result just around the corner, we were looking at how the new video materials could be used to their full potential.
Presenter: Charlotte Rance
 Charlotte Rance began her teaching career in China, teaching English to young learners. When she returned to the UK, she continued her professional development, specialising in teaching EAP and English for exams. Since completing her Post Graduate Diploma in TESOL at the University of Brighton, Charlotte has been living and working in Istanbul, Turkey, teaching a range of ages and abilities, most recently at University level. During this period, Charlotte also conducted workshops in a variety of international ELT conferences, including conferences at Izmir University of Economics and ISTEK schools. Currently based in Brighton, UK, she is studying for her MA in Applied Linguistics and ELT through the University of Nottingham, whilst working as the Assistant Academic Director of a language school.
9 February 2012
 Interactive online exercises and activities are a great way to engage your students and provide additional autonomous practice. Sometimes we can find just what we need on the Internet, but often we might want to design the tasks ourselves. In this workshop we looked at diferent types of activities we could create using free 'Hot Potatoes' software, practiced how to design our own exercises and to publish them online.
Presenter: Liudmila Zakharova
Liudmila is an EFL teacher, participant of British Council Trainer Training Summer School and Cambridge CELTA course. She pays a lot of attention to continuous professional development, taking part in various teacher training courses, workshops and ELT conferences and actively implementing new techniques and approaches into her teaching practice. At the moment, Liudmila is working with young learners and teenagers. Her main professional interests are new learning technologies and developing learner autonomy.
2 February 2012
 In a busy, complicated world teachers are often looking for clear straightforward solutions – in short – teaching made simple. In this practical workshop we will investigate classroom fundamentals and doing simple things well. Using examples from Straightforward Second Edition we looked at how the coursebook could provide practical ways to improve your teaching and professional development.
Presenter: Nick Sheard, Macmillan post-secondary publishing development director
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26 January 2012
 Every time we plan the lesson we have to think how to enhance interest to language learning. How to encourage every student to be an active learner, stimulate students’ learning styles? During the workshop we discussed different ways of motivation and decided which classroom activities can better cover each way. Teachers shared their own ideas how they could develop it and to determine the activities, which, in their opinion, are more effective and may be appropriate for their students.
Presenter: Natalia Komissarova
Natalia – vice president of Chelyabinsk English Teachers’ Association, teacher and teacher trainer. She participateded in the British Council Trainer Training Summer School in 2011. Natalia did her PhD in Pedagogy. She is an alumna of International Visitor Leadership Program 2009 and has a certificate of the University of Arizona, USA for English training and assessment. He has extensive experience in teaching English in high school with students of different age groups. Her professional interests are developing critical reading and thinking skills, testing and assessment.
19 January 2012
 During this seminar we talked about usage books for home reading, particularly ‘Three men in a boat’ (by Jerome K. Jerome), and the possibility of getting information from various knowledge areas – such as: English and biology, English and chemistry, English and history, geography, travelling – through reading materials.
Presenter: Tatyana Kuznetsova
Tatyana Kuznetsova, teacher of English and teacher trainer, Honoured Teacher of Russia, member of the editorial board of the professional magazine "English at school". She is a coordinator of MELTA assosiation (CALL section) and Head methdologist of Khimki, Moscow Region. Tatyana has experience in course books writing for Russian National Exam
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17 January 2011
 What is mobile learning, or 'm-learning'? There is lots of discussion about this, but what most teachers want is practical examples. This seminar, aimed at teachers with little or no experience in the subject, showed ten practical ways you can exploit mobile technology in order to support language learning. We looked at uses for both the teacher in class, and for the learner outside of lessons.
Presenter: Rob Lewis
Rob Lewis - British Council ELT consultant, Teaching English website manager.
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22 December 2011
 Educational trips are a source of cultural awareness with students. The emphasis have been given at educational packs which would help the students to learn more about culture, compare and evaluate their own culture. The use of packs leads to other activities like projects, mini-books and own leaflets
Presenter: Tatyana Kuznetsova
Tatyana Kuznetsova, teacher of English and teacher trainer, Honoured Teacher of Russia, member of the editorial board of the professional magazine "English at school". She is a coordinator of MELTA assosiation (CALL section) and Head methdologist of Khimki, Moscow Region. Tatyana has experience in course books writing for Russian National Exam.
15 December 2011
 In our teaching practice there are some basic questions that don’t ever lose their importance: how can we present new vocabulary in a way that would be natural and memorable? How can we engage and involve our students more? What about catering to different learning styles?
In this workshop we explored and practise:
- Effective strategies and sequences for presenting new words
- Using questioning and elicitation techniques to involve learners proactively.
Presenter: Liudmila Zakharova
Liudmila is an EFL teacher, participant of British Council Trainer Training Summer School and Cambridge CELTA course. She pays a lot of attention to continuous professional development, taking part in various teacher training courses, workshops and ELT conferences and actively implementing new techniques and approaches into her teaching practice. At the moment, Liudmila is working with young learners and teenagers. Her main professional interests are new learning technologies and developing learner autonomy.
8 December 2011
This session considered tips and strategies for extracurricular language teaching. Programmes and materials combined with fun, communicative activities ensure that extracurricular language teaching is both varied and engaging; and has a positive impact on learner’s general motivation.
Presenter: Angela Tatosyan, ELT Consultant, Cambridge University Press- Moscow
 1 December 2011
Teachers are finding nowadays that they are increasingly being asked to teach academic and study skills to students going on to further study.
The session dealt with the examples of real-life challenges faced by EAP teachers, along with suggestions on how to tackle these situations. Whether you are new to academic English or more experienced you found some practical ideas to put to immediate use in your classroom.
Presenter: Alla Soluyanova
24 November 2011
 The Russian State Exam has become one of the burning issues which disturbs everyone’s mind. There can be various opinions about it but that’s not the subject of this session. Every year my students successfully pass the State Exam, thus adding to my concept of how to get ready for it and not fall out of the race and how to avoid foolish mistakes which lead to the most disappointing results at the exam.
There are many problems and fears that both teachers and students face when getting ready for the State Exam. This session is a personal State Exam overview, based on practical experience. This overview considers not only the teacher’s opinion and recommendations, but also my students’ ideas of what their main problems are and how to overcome them.
The first part of the session was focused on the wide-spread fears and psychological barriers which prevent our students from feeling confident and passing this exam with flying colours. As for the second part, it dealt with the State Exam content and the aspects most essential for success.
Presenter: Irina Kostukovich
Irina is a teacher trainer, participant of British Council Trainer Training Summer School, graduated from Linguistic University of Nizhnii Novgorod. She taught in Vitebsk State University and worked as a teacher trainer for the British Council Belarus. At present Irina is in charge of Linguistic Department at a private Education Center “Prometey” in Protvino (Moscow region). Irina has a vast experience of working with different age-groups, she has written a number of articles and course books.
21 November 2011
Questions about teaching grammar do not go away. Should we forget grammar and only teach vocabulary? Or should we teach grammar, but only the grammar learners need when they can’t express the meanings they have in mind? Or should we plan our grammar teaching in advance? Should we teach rules, or should we let the learners figure the rules out?
The evidence for different points of view were accessed on these questions. We also looked at the demands that are made on teachers and learners in classrooms where grammar is learnt. There were suggested some ways for teachers to think about the questions and to look for answers that are adapted to their contexts.
Presenter: Catherine Walter
 Catherine Walter began her career in Paris, teaching English and educating English language teachers. She then started writing teaching materials with Michael Swan: the latest Swan-Walter collaboration is The Oxford English Grammar Course. In the 1990s, as President of global IATEFL, Catherine forged links with English language teachers in Russia, and for several years she was on the British Council's Advisory Board for Russia. Catherine now lectures at the University of Oxford, and her latest enterprise there is a distance Diploma in Teaching English Language in University Settings. Her main research interests are in reading comprehension, teacher education and the teaching and learning of grammar.
10 November 2011
Learner autonomy can be defined as the ability of a learner to take charge of their own learning, not only by learning specific strategies or study skills but also by developing an entirely new attitude to learning. What is a true independent learner of English like? Why deal with learner autonomy in class? How can I help my learners to develop these skills? The session dealt with strategies and approaches that can lead to more effective learning.
Presenter: Gennady Zaytsev
3 November 2011
 By the end of the seminar participants were able to clarify the notions of evaluation, assessment and testing and their place in the teaching-learning cycle; explain the purpose of different types of assessment explain what different task types can assess and learn more about the self-assessment and learner autonomy.
Presenter: Larisa Strukova
Larisa has been working in ELT since 1992 first as a teacher, a coursebook writer for Russian schools and then as a teacher trainer. Over the last 4 years she has worked as a trainer running a range of courses for Russian teachers to enable their professional development.
27 October 2011
 I’ve always been fascinated by the quirky side of English grammar: not just how things work, but why they work in the way they do. In this presentation, I hope to show how a little enthusiasm and interest can go a long way in the teaching and learning of grammar.
Presenter: Jeremy Day
Jeremy is Series Editor of “Cambridge English for …”, which has ESP titles on Nursing, Engineering, Job-hunting, the Media, Marketing, HR and Science. His seven Teacher’s Books include International Legal English, Flightpath (Aviation English) and Dynamic Presentations. He is co-author of the advanced level of Active Grammar, a new CLIL-based grammar series.
20 October 2011
It is a well-known fact that drama activities and songs are vital for every primary classroom. However, they can be highly effective and motivating when used with secondary and adult students as well.
 In this workshop we looked at:
- ways of using songs and music with students of different ages and levels
- integrating drama into our teaching practice
- how drama techniques can help teachers improve their classroom management skills.
Presenter: Liudmila Zakharova
Liudmila is an EFL teacher, participant of British Council Trainer Training Summer School and Cambridge CELTA course. She pays a lot of attention to continuous professional development, taking part in various teacher training courses, workshops and ELT conferences and actively implementing new techniques and approaches into her teaching practice. At the moment, Liudmila is working with young learners and teenagers. Her main professional interests are new learning technologies and developing learner autonomy.
17 October 2011
 Navigating your way to academic success is difficult, especially when studying in a second language. Q: Skills for Success offers a unique approach based on questioning, explicit skills instruction, and critical-thinking activities.
This presentation examined how the use of questioning in the classroom can help to frame and guide students’ work throughout a topic unit. We looked at the importance of critical thinking, and showed how critical thinking tasks mesh with the unit questions for a creative and engaging course in academic English.
Presenter: Charlotte Rance
Charlotte is an EFL teacher and OUP teacher trainer with extensive work experience.
13 October 2011
 One of the questions that a teacher has to answer is whether to teach grammar or not. If the answer is ‘yes’, the next question is how. In the workshop we explored the most influential methods of the past (the Grammar Translation, Situational Language Teaching and Audiolingualism) regarding their techniques of presenting and practicing grammar. We also looked at more recent approaches like Communicative and Lexical and discussed techniques used by different coursebooks available on the market. All of these helped us to answer the question: what kind of knowledge does help the learner master a language and develop a skill of using it. An attempt to make cross-cultural comparison of teaching traditions in Russia and Britain was the seminar special feature.
Presenter: Svetlana Zhavoronkova
Svetlana is a teacher of English, textbook writer, teacher trainer in Language Link, has a post-graduate course certificate on Teacher trainer development (Exeter University, UK).
6 October 2011
Teaching pre-experience learners need not necessarily be very different to teaching in-work trainees. Pre-experience learners are, by definition, planning to become experienced! They need language to help them in a future business career. There are some clear differences between the two, however. We learnt how to define learning needs, what motivates learners of Business English and how to meet their expectations. We tested lots of practical activities at the session to choose favourite ones.
Presenter: Liam James Tyler
30 September 2012
Presenter: Ronald Carter
Professor of Nottingham University, world-known founder of Corpus Linguistics, author of many books among which the most comprehensive reference book of written and spoken grammar “Cambridge Grammar of English”, teaching materials “Exploring Grammar in Context”, “Exploring Spoken English” and the latest theoretical and practical grammar book “English Grammar Today”.
29 September 2011
 Traditionally, language teaching in schools has emphasised aural or text-based learning, but these are not necessarily the best or only ways for all students to learn. Awareness of multiple intelligences and the value of other ways of learning is leading teachers to attempt to broaden their approach, to cater for a wider range of learning needs and styles. This presentation looks at the importance of visual and tactile materials and related games, for teaching grammar, vocabulary, functional language and skills practice at any age and at any level.
Presenter: Andy Cowle
With an academic backgroound in foreign language learning and English linguistics, Andy has worked in ELT for over 25 years as a teacher, publisher and sales & marketing specialist for ELT publishers and booksellers worldwide. He's worked in over 30 countries introducing ideas and new materials to teachers, and motivating language practitioners to try new things, connect language learning with the real world, and make lessons effective, memorable and fun. He now has his own publishing and training company NORTH STAR ELT, and has been a popular presenter in Russia for over 10 years! He loves visiting Russia! He's English and lives in Glasgow in Scotland with his wife, three children, a dog - and his guitar. More info at www.northstarelt.co.uk
22 September 2011
 Extensive reading is a very important part of language learning. Whether we teach young learners or university students, most of us try to include it in our syllabus.
However, there is a problem of making the reading process engaging, motivating, approachable and fun for everyone. Is it possible to achieve this when the only resource we have is the text itself?
In this workshop we will look at the following things:
- how to turn extensive reading into reading for pleasure;
- preparing creative and engaging pre-, while- and post-reading activities;
- ways to adapt reading texts for mixed-ability classes and different learning styles;
- Reading Circles – making extensive reading meaningful, communicative and fun!
Presenter: Liudmila Zakharova
Liudmila is an EFL teacher, participant of British Council Trainer Training Summer School and Cambridge CELTA course. She pays a lot of attention to continuous professional development, taking part in various teacher training courses, workshops and ELT conferences and actively implementing new techniques and approaches into her teaching practice. At the moment, Liudmila is working with young learners and teenagers. Her main professional interests are new learning technologies and developing learner autonomy.
5 September 2011
Every single teacher has to have some professional development every once in a while. At least once in five years as it is demanded by the government. The fact you are reading this page at the moment means you are looking for it right now.
During this workshop we are going to have a look at what is available online for teachers to
- Get certified professional training
- Communicate in professional groups and societies and benefit from it
- Take part in various professional contests and so on.
Apart from online, there are face-to-face events we need to mention. Here I hope the workshop will get interactive and you will share your knowledge of events your school/local area has, some contests you took part in, or anything else which might be helpful for professional development. The floor will be all yours. The more we share, the stronger we become.
Presenter: Vera Bobkova
 Originally from Biysk, Altaysky Kray, but is now teaching in Moscow working with ages 7-16. Besides, she conducts teacher-training workshops at British Council, Moscow. Apart from work, she is a current PhD student at the Department of Foreign Languages, Moscow State University. Her area of interest is using Web 2.0 in language teaching and distance teacher education.
Vera has teaching experience of teaching Russian as a foreign language abroad Grinnell College, IA, USA (2006-2007, Fulbright grant), Woodbridge High School, London, UK (2009-2010, British Council award).
Her non-academic interests are biking, Arabic language and culture and cooking.
8 September 2011
IATEFL stands for the International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language and its mission is to link, develop and support English Language Teaching professionals throughout the world.
Each year it holds an Annual International Conference with an extensive programme of talks and workshops, which attracts over thousands of delegates.
 During our seminar we will talk about how English teachers can benefit from the IATEFL published and online materials. You will get enough food for thought as well as very practical ideas, easy to appply to any educational context.
Presenter: Lucia Zhurukova
Lucia Zhurukova - EFL Teacher and Teacher Trainer. Since the very start of her career she has worked in different EFL educational contexts: state and private schools, teacher training centers. She is now a Deputy Director at the Center for Language Studies in Dmitrov, which is an official Cambridge ESOL examination centre. She's been a Russian National Exam expert for three years in a row. Lucia participated in several teacher and teacher trainer development courses organised by British Council. She is one of the face-to-face trainers as well as online moderators for BC courses for teachers: TKT Essentials and Primary Essentials. Last year she attended the 45th Annual International IATEFL Conference held in Brighton, UK.
25 August 2011
Positive and friendly working atmosphere in the classroom is ultimately important. At English lessons, when speech generally has limited application, our body language (mimics, gestures, smile, posture) plays a key role not only for building up rapport but have direct influence on efficiency of the learning process and acquiring knowledge. Often the result of our work depends on HOW we speak and move, WHAT position in the classroom we choose and WHERE we look during the class.
It’s not surprising that this aspect of teaching is paid much attention to in the international practice whereas in our everyday work we hardly give enough time to the analysis of these problems. Why is building-up rapport so vitally important? What methods can help us make our work more effective, develop confidence and get job satisfaction? Does our body language change when we speak a foreign language? How to work out an individual strategy of building up rapport? Within the session we will look into different methods of building up rapport, share ideas about the key problems and challenges connected with this aspect of our work and see what can be changed in our everyday teaching practice.
 Presenter: Irina Kostukovich
Irina is a teacher trainer, participant of British Council Trainer Training Summer School, graduated from Linguistic University of Nizhnii Novgorod. She taught in Vitebsk State University and worked as a teacher trainer for the British Council Belarus. At present Irina is in charge of Linguistic Department at a private Education Center “Prometey” in Protvino (Moscow region). Irina has a vast experience of working with different age-groups, she has written a number of articles and course books.
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Free and “hand-made” site for creative teaching.
Cambridge English: Extracurricular Language Teaching. Programme and Materials
Developing study skills and encouraging learner autonomy
English for specific purposes: aspects of teaching Business English
English Grammar Today