Teaching English to adults
Our workshop series for General English language teachers of adults comprises 8 two-hour sessions held on Friday mornings from 10.00 to 12.00.
Participants may enrol for all eight sessions, or for individual sessions. However, it should be noted that the sessions are designed as a cohesive series forming a course in Teacher Development for teachers of adults.
Teachers attending the whole course of eight sessions will receive a certificate at the end of the course. Certificates will not be issued for single sessions.
Noticing, hypothesising and practising
ELT 1 Friday 3 November 2006 10.00-12.00
Have you noticed how when you become aware of a piece of language for the first time it keeps cropping up again and again? The first thing, of course, is to notice it: if you don't know it's there you'll never learn it; equally you'll never learn it unless you try it out in different contexts and practise using it in the right contexts, once you know they are the right contexts.
In this workshop we will be concentrating on helping students notice language, raise awareness of its parameters and practise using it.
Taking opportunities: expanding latent fields of vocabulary
ELT 2 Friday 1 December 2006 10.00-12.00
Classroom walls are full of things, you must have noticed. Presumably these things are intended to enhance learning in some way. Who makes use of them though?
In this workshop we will be looking at the walls, particularly the one at the front with the white board on it, to enrich our students' command of vocabulary.
Speaking about speaking
ELT 3 Friday 12 January 2007 10.00-12.00
Getting students to speak in class doesn't automatically mean their speaking will improve: many discussions that 'work', in fact don't. In order to improve their speaking skills students need to know how to say what they want to say. All speech acts involve predictable language points; it's just a question of noticing them.
In this workshop we will be noticing exactly what we say and, consequently, exactly what our students need to say.
Developing awareness of text
ELT 4 Friday 2 February 2007 10.00-12.00
There is a colon and a semi-colon in the text which describes the 'speaking about speaking' workshop. There are also numerous examples of pronoun referencing, adverbs and other devices used to make text cohesive and coherent. Knowing how to use devices such as these can result, even at low levels, in far more fluid speech and writing.
In this workshop we will be looking at ways in which we can help our students put it all together.
Communicative competence
ELT 5 Friday 2 March 2007 10.00-12.00
Practitioners for decades now have claimed to teach language for communicative purposes. So how come books and tests are full of 'grammar' with little concern for other aspects of communication? A sentence such as: "A computer was broken by me yesterday" is grammatically correct, but wrong for other reasons.
In this workshop we will be exploring these other reasons, their role in communication and how to help our students understand and use them.
Phonology as a communicative factor
ELT 6 Friday 23 March 2007 10.00-12.00
Think about the meanings of the word 'no' in the following:
A: Have you heard about Dave?
B: No.
A: He had an accident.
B: No.
A: Yes, they're going to amputate his leg.
B: No.
Phonological aspects of communication tend to be subliminally received: we make allowances for faulty grammar and curious vocabulary, but can feel insulted or worse if the intonation sounds wrong. Many students are so concerned with getting the grammar and words right they forget about such things as phonology.
In this workshop we will be exploring ways of helping them remember.
Stop press: some books I've read
ELT 7 Friday 20 April 2007 10.00-12.00
Maxims, axioms, adages and other sage sayings abound in ELT literature. In this workshop we will be putting on trial some gifts from our luminaries from Confucius and Socrates to the present day and appraising their validity in the 21st century classroom. After all, Von Humboldt, in 1898, said "you cannot teach a language, only create the conditions under which it might be learned".
Maybe so, but what are the conditions and how do we create them? And what other opinions are there on the subject?
Technologies I've used, or "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".
ELT 8 Friday 11 May 2007 10.00-12.00
We used to make fire by rubbing sticks together, some people still do. On the other hand central heating is quite popular these days. It's not always the case that we need a problem before we invent something that is its solution. Some inventions are common sense or simple fun.
In this workshop we'll be looking at some that might enhance the motivation (and hopefully the learning) of students and teachers who don't necessarily have a problem, but who like to play with toys. (Bring your memory sticks.)
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