Teaching English to adults
2007-2008 series
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.
Designing tests of communicative competence
Next session...
ELT 8 Friday 9 May 2008 10.00-12.00
It's the end of the year and you have another test to write. Where do you start? A preposition gap-fill or a grammar transformation exercise? Forget both.
In this session we will analyse tests of communicative competence which might help you really sort out what your students can and can't yet do.
Teaching Discourse
ELT 1 Friday 9 November 2007 10.00-12.00
The grammar/structure approach to language teaching has been prevalent for a very long time and is responsible for such model sentences as: "By next Tuesday your black cat will have been taken to Canada by a man in a blue raincoat" (from page 96 of Michael Swan and Catherine Walter's 'Good Grammar book') and such non-English statements as "A shirt was bought by me yesterday." It ignores real language examples such as "If you're going to buy a house you're going to need a lot of money" because these don't fit the prescriptions. Language exists at the level of discourse, not invented sentences.
In this workshop we will be looking at real language examples and how to teach them beyond the level of the sentence.
Stop reading, start using text
ELT 2 Friday 30 November 2007 10.00-12.00
A lot of classroom time is spent with students reading a text, answering comprehension questions on it and then talking about it. What do they learn as a result? They already know how to read, and they know what they don't know when confronted with English text.
In this workshop we will do away with the skimming and scanning and exploit texts in ways which help our students learn English.
The 'incurable lust to teach' syndrome
ELT 3 Friday 11 January 2008 10.00-12.00
The 'incurable lust to teach' syndrome - how to let them learn (and an introduction to cryptic crossword puzzle solving to keep you busy while they do):
9 Down: A beginner leading a bread winner who hopes to develop. (7 letters)
Answer: 'Learner'
Geddit? No? Best come to this workshop then! Actually it is all about helping learners learn while keeping out of their way. A demonstration of Community Language Learning will be included.
Powerful teaching tools #1 : Voice
ELT 4 Friday 1 February 2008 10.00-12.00
The teacher's best teaching tool (and often the teacher's worst enemy) is his or her voice and can be used as effectively as your parents used theirs to teach you your first language.
In this session we will look at story telling, live listening, comprehensible input and question techniques as well as some silent teaching techniques in which you can give your voice a rest.
Powerful Teaching Tools #2 : the written word
ELT 5 Friday 29 February 2008 10.00-12.00
Whatever you write on the board the students copy. Whatever you print out and photocopy goes into a student file (or does it?). In this session we will be looking at ways of ensuring whatever they get is really worth it.
This session includes using PowerPoint and looks at colligation (the habitual grammar of words) as an aspect of teaching vocabulary. It also looks at student generated learning material.
Using technology: Easy projects with easy technology
ELT 6 Friday 28 March 2008 10.00-12.00
Even if you consider yourself barely computer-literate, there are lots of things you can do with technology that make for fun, easy projects which your students can get a lot of language learning out of.
We'll be suggesting easy things you can do with creative writing, blogs, webquests and podcasts and hope that you'll agree at the end of the session: you could do that with your learners!
What's new? What's the latest?
ELT 7 Friday 18 April 2008 10.00-12.00
A review of methodologies and 'principled eclecticism' in language teaching with a particular focus on holistic approaches to language work.
Designing tests of communicative competence
ELT 8 Friday 9 May 2008 10.00-12.00
See above for details
See also
Previous "Adults" series
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