Teacher Development

ROD BOLITHO

Rod Bolitho is Academic Director at Norwich Institute for Language Education where he is also Leader of the MA programme in Professional Development for Language Education.  He has been involved in teacher training for over 35 years and in Trainer Training and international consultancy work since the 1980s.  During this time he has contributed to British Council projects in many countries and was for several years lead consultant to the New Millennium English Secondary Textbook project in the Russian Federation. Currently he is working with Russian university teachers on a textbook in English for Academics, and is also busy with projects in Romania (materials development in the vocational sector), Uzbekistan (a ‘root and branch’ reform of the undergraduate curriculum for the training of English teachers) as well as a curriculum renewal initiative at the National Centre for Foreign Languages in Luxemburg.  Recent books include (with Tony Wright), ‘Trainer Development ‘ (available from http://www.lulu.com/content/554846) and (with Amol Padwad) ‘Continuing Professional Development: Lessons from India’ (New Delhi: British Council)

 The Dimensions of Continuing Professional Development

In many contexts, Continuing Professional Development (CPD) for teachers is still regarded as more or less synonymous with In-Service Training (INSET).  The concept of ‘development’ is also consistently misinterpreted, especially by educational authorities. In this talk Rod will offer a much more comprehensive view of what constitutes CPD, and will outline the benefits such a perspective can offer to individual teachers, institutions and professional networks.  He will establish connections between CPD and reform, the management and implementation of change, with thinking skills and reflective practice. Rod Bolitho will also engage the audience in some reflective tasks and will suggest some ways of making CPD work in practical terms, including advice for individuals, educational managers and policy makers.

ESP and EAP in Universities

JEREMY DAY

Jeremy Day is Series Editor of Cambridge English for …, a series of short ESP courses. He has written over ten teacher’s books for ESP and business skills, including International Legal English, Flightpath (Aviation English) and Dynamic Presentations (Cambridge). He co-authored Active Grammar 3 (Cambridge) and New Success Upper Intermediate (Pearson). He is Editorial Director at English360 (www.english360.com), a blended learning platform specialising in Business English and ESP.

 Two approaches to ESP course design

As a writer, editor and teacher of ESP courses, Jeremy has identified two very different approaches to ESP course design, which he labels English through … and English for …. In this talk, he will show how this distinction affects every aspect of ESP course design, from needs analysis to final assessment.

Young Learners

JANET ENEVER

Janet Enever is Professor of Language Teaching and Learning at Umeo University, Sweden specialising in the fields of early foreign language learning, language globalisation and language policy. She holds a doctoral degree from Bristol University, UK in Primary Foreign Languages Policy and has worked at Universities in London, Krakov and Budapest and advised on language policy, early language learning and teacher education for ministries in a number of Asian, Latin American and European countries. Recent publications include: the edited books ‘ELLiE. Early Language Learning in Europe’ (2011) and ‘Young Learner English Language Policy and Implementation: International Perspectives’(2009).

Title: 21st century children learning English

Increasingly, in the 21st century, young children have opportunities to access English outside school in ways which can contribute to their progress in becoming confident users of English in their daily lives even whilst still engaged in the schooling process. This presentation will consider the extent to which out-of-school learning is happening across a range of contexts worldwide and discuss evidence of the school learning experience under these varied conditions. The presentation will invite teachers to consider how to strengthen links between school and non-school language learning, maximising the potential for children to become autonomous language learners at a young age.

English and Literature

CHRIS ROSE

Chris Rose is a writer and teacher with nearly twenty years experience in the field of ELT.  He has worked with the British Council in Italy, where he worked on arts and educational programmes, and has also worked in Lebanon, Morocco, Turkey and Russia.
He has written readers for Macmillan and Areal Editores (Portugal) and stories for the British Council Learn English website, as well as a number of acclaimed short stories of his own.
He is currently an associate trainer with the Norwich Institute of Language Education, where he works on professional development programmes with teachers from all over the world.

The Storyteller in the Digital Age

Storytelling is one of the oldest human activities.  Everyone tells stories: be it the plot of a film you have seen or a book you have read, an eventful journey, a memory of your childhood or merely something that happened to you on the bus coming to work.  We all tell tales, tall or short, to our friends, our children or our pupils. As long ago as 1936, the German critic Walter Benjamin said the art of storytelling was in decline, but Chris likes to think he was wrong: storytelling is merely changing. Now there are other ways to tell stories. What are they? He does not know yet, but it us up to us – as teachers, as educators – to find out. All that is essential is a story, a voice – and some listeners.

Learning technologies

RUSSELL STANNARD

Russell Stannard is a Principal teaching fellow at the University of Warwick. He trains teachers/educators to incorporate the use of ICT into their teaching with particular emphasis on language education. He runs the website www.teachertrainingvideos.com which  won the Times Higher “Outstanding Initiative in ICT” and the British Council ELTons  “Innovation Award”. The website has become very well-known around the world and received over 300,000 visitors in 2013.  It provides free step by step videos to help teachers incorporate technology into their teaching. He writes a regular column in the English Teaching Professional and gives talks all over the world.

Simple ICT Tools that can revolutionise our classes

Technology does not have to be complicated. In this talk Russell will present 3 simple tools that take literary minutes to learn but can revolutionise many things about our teaching and learning. The tools Russell will present are amongst the most popular on his website. They cover areas such as helping students to speak more, improving feedback and improving collaboration amongst students. This is a highly practical presentation and you will leave the talk knowing some great technologies and some useful ways of using them in your classes.