Plenary: Engage and Activate: Drama with Young Learners

Young learners sometimes struggle to understand why they are learning certain subjects at school and specifically, it’s no surprise that they can find it hard to see the relevance of learning a foreign language and studying other cultures. Drama is certainly no stranger to Primary teachers but are you using it to its full potential and allowing the outside world into your classroom? This plenary talk will attempt to explore more deeply the role that drama can play in demonstrating to children the real-world benefits of English through drama to not just develop their linguistic skills, but also their imaginations, power of expression, and their social and cultural awareness through a range of multi-sensory, engaging and fun activities.

• Workshop: English Through Drama With Young Learners: Let’s Pretend!

Drama is largely about suspending disbelief and allowing our imaginations to run riot! It’s about putting ourselves in someone else’s shoes, pretending and playing … and there’s no better place than the Primary classroom to do this. In this workshop, we will experience for ourselves a range of engaging, multi-sensory and fun drama exercises designed to physically and emotionally engage our young learners as whole people. You will go away with immediately usable ideas to develop our learners’ communicative skills as well as their creativity and empathy for others.                                            

Hania Kryswenska : CLIL

Plenary: CLIL: Introducing CLIL through fine arts

Content and Language Integrated Learning is usually associated with teaching physics in English, which is partially true. However, we English teachers implement CLIL in language classes any time we introduce content derived from other subjects. It can take different forms; one of my favourites is using fine arts. It is so because it is beautiful, inspiring and surprising. It is amazing what content we can introduce through fine arts, as a lead in, one activity or a whole lesson, a series of lessons or a project. The lecture will provide a lot of content illustrated with the most amazing artwork.

• Workshop: Making the Most of CLIL

CLIL is a buzz word at conferences, training sessions and in educational reform in many countries. It seems to be the EFL flavour of the future. There are many teachers who are in favour of CLIL, others fear it or criticize. First we need to clarify what CLIL really stands for and how much CLIL we are already implementing, consciously or unconsciously. Then we need to examine what the practical implications of implementing more CLIL are. We will explore the benefits of CLIL; what works in CLIL and what works less and why. We will also look at different age groups and levels, and what forms CLIL can take depending on these variables. We will look at planning CLIL lessons and developing suitable materials. The sessions will be highly practical with elements of formal input and reflection.

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Daniel Martin: technology IWB

Plenary: Repetition, Repetition , Repetition

Research shows that about 80 % of what we learn is forgotten within 24 hours. If we are to take this evidence at face value, we must agree that language acquisition won’t be truly effective unless ample opportunities are created for students to revisit language. As a result we need to worry not only about providing content in terms on quantity (how much syllabus we are to “cover” or how much we are to “teach” on a given day) or quality (stimulating activities accompanied by good delivery). A key element for progress and productive knowledge of language lies in to what extent teachers can recycle grammar structures, vocabulary and chunks of language. In this practical talk we will have a look at a variety of mechanical exercises that provide repetition and recycling of grammar structures and lexis in creative, contextualised and meaningful ways to ensure retention and to ultimately activate productive knowledge.

• Workhop: Effective Teaching with Interactive Whiteboards – Boosting student engagement and interaction -

In this workshop we will be exploring the great impact that interactive whiteboards (or a screen and a projector) together with an internet connection can bring to our daily teaching practice. The focus will be on simple techniques and user friendly activities that incorporate use and exploitation of text, images, sound and video. We will also have a close look at some useful Web 2.0 tools that can extend and expand textbook content and materials. How can we combine and integrate all these elements to boost student engagement and interaction in the English classroom? How can we use IWBs in a sane, humanistic and effective way? Both experts and newcomers to this technology are welcome.

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Fitch O’Connell – Literature

Plenary: Once upon a …………- Narratives for Language Learning-

Constrained by the timetable and curriculum, teachers often use graded and authentic texts without exploring the link to the students' own innate sense of narrative. In this session we will explore some alternatives which combine the expressive skills of students with the texts being studied by examining the work of two innovative projects.

• Workshop: From Creative Reading to Creative Writing

This workshop will explore a range of short texts and poetry from contemporary writers in English and demonstrate how techniques for exploring creative reading skills , in contrast to the more common passive reading skills, with teenage students. The enhanced engagement in reading narratives and poems can then be transformed into engaging and effective techniques for developing creative writing skills.

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Tessa Woodward – Methodology /Teacher Development

Plenary: Thinking in the EFL Class

How can we language teachers promote our own and our students’ thought flow and use it positively in the class? What does ‘teach for thinking’ really mean? This talk will explore the background to the current renewal of interest in working with students on creative and critical thinking.”

• Workshop: Thinking in the ELF Class: activities for blending language learning and thinking

There has been a resurgence of interest lately, in many countries and in many subjects, in the idea of teaching for critical and creative thinking. Many and varied curriculum types, approaches, methods and lesson shapes have been devised to train teachers and to help us to deliver in this area. This experiential workshop takes a practical and undogmatic approach to this new interest. I will aim to give participants a taste of my new book ‘Thinking in the EFL Classroom’. I will invite you to try out practical ideas from the book. These ideas are designed to unblock communication and further the creative, empathic, reflective and critical thinking of both the language teacher and language students. The ideas are most useful at secondary and tertiary level. They help us to set an atmosphere conducive to thinking. They require minimal preparation, do not require the use of new technologies (although these can be used if you wish) and certainly will not mean that you have to change your personal style or curriculum in order to try them out.

The ideas presented are fun, are filled with varied content and tend to wake the teacher up as well as the students!

Time will be allowed for discussion of each idea presented along with its advantages and disadvantages and the adaptations necessary for different settings.

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Julie Wallis/Susan Swift : Clil Primary Education

Plenary: Let me Clil you a story

A look at how children’s literature can be used in the elementary classroom to explore themes related to curricular subjects such as science, geography, mathematics, history, art and music. Interactive, fun activities allow the teacher to develop the “4 Cs” of CLIL - Content, Communication, Cognition and Culture (Community / Citizenship) - and to “scaffold” content-oriented tasks, ensuring that they are achievable by young learners with limited language competence. 

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