An Author talk with Sue Kay in conjunction with Macmillan
Wednesday 9 June 2010

Sue Kay started teaching English in Lyon after an initial training course at International House in London. During her time there she gained an interest in humanistic teaching techniques and the learner centred approach - something which has underpinned her teaching and writing ever since. After ten years in Lyon she returned to the UK and started work at the Lake School of English in Oxford where she developed and ran refresher courses and workshops for teachers. She started her writing career with the Reward Resource Packs, and since then has been busy writing Inside Out - first the Original edition and more recently the New edition.

Authenticity in ELT. Practical ideas for developing students’ language skills.
In this talk, Sue Kay talked about the process she goes through when choosing and adapting authentic material for the classroom. She described a principled approach to editing authentic texts so that they are accessible and useful as language input, and demonstrated speaking tasks that encourage learners to talk about things that actually matter to them, rather than playing roles or exchanging invented information. In particular she focused on texts and activities from the Upper Intermediate level of New Inside Out.

Peter Viney - Talk on "Getting up to Speed in Reading"
Peter Viney delivered this talk on Wednesday 27 January 2010.

Many adult and young adult students have difficulty with basic reading skills in English. Some adults and young adults from non-Roman alphabet countries can’t read in English effectively enough, and very few can read in English as quickly and fluently as their counterparts from Roman alphabet cultures. Almost none can read as fast as they would like to. The discrepancy between their oral skills and their reading / writing skills makes it difficult for them to cope with contemporary global ELT materials and authentic materials, and their progress is hampered by their speed at reading rubrics, cues and dialogue as well as texts.

Peter Viney will talk about basic “code-cracking” techniques and materials which will rapidly improve the decoding speed of all students in this situation, and which can also be used to teach initial reading of the Roman alphabet to adults.

Publisher Macmillan and Pete Sharma Associates (PSA) hosted a seminar on Digital Skills for the ELT Classroom
on Saturday 30 May 2009. The day focused on interactive whiteboards, podcasts, blogs and wikis.

The author Sam McCarter in conjunction with Macmillan
Sam McCarter delivered a talk on Thursday 12 February 2009. The talk covered techniques to motivate students studying IELTS at different levels and to make studying more interesting. All four main skills and a selection of sub-skills were looked at as well as ways to blend the skills together and make them relevant to the students.

Launch of the Southern Regional Teachers' Association (SRTA)
The SRTA launched in August 2008 with 2 workshops, delivered by the well-known author, teacher and trainer, Jeremy Harmer:

First workshop:
Power, responsibility or imposition? How to engage students as learners
When we concentrate on teaching we sometimes take our eyes off learning. Yet if students are to be successful, it’s the learning that really counts. This workshop will look at learning, and how to give students learning power. But is that a teacher imposition too? What if students don’t want to be autonomous? We’ll look at “power” exercises and see how we feel about their power!

Second workshop:
Just Words? Helping students to learn and remember 
What are the best conditions for students to meet words? What do we know about how students best remember them? This workshop will consider theoretical answers to such questions before going on to show activities which address these issues. We will look at how different vocabulary activities be strung together within a thematic framework.

Foundation in English Language Teaching
Anglo-Continental offers, 'Foundation in English Language Teaching'. These courses offer an introduction to English language teaching for anyone interested in preparing for the commitment of a full, accredited training course, or for state school teachers who would be interested in teaching English to Young Learners in their holidays. Click here for further information on the course.