Prezentacja IATEFL/TESOL France

As language instructors, we need to provide today's learners with the skills to effectively handle the demands and challenges of everyday life. Teaching these "Life Skills" can be complex and often requires out-of-the-box thinking. What are the hurdles? Will we then question our pedagogy? Will we feel like fish out of water? Together, we will explore what an English Language Life Skills classroom looks like and how we can overcome the challenges.

Prezentacja PEARSON LONGMAN

The area of teaching functional language is fraught with traps, hurdles and irregularities. Learners often construct expressions from their own language or use expressions out of context. Equally, teachers sometimes feel uncomfortable when approaching this complex linguistic area.

Many traditional courses have dealt with the area of functional language as an ‘add on’ represented by a box of ‘useful expressions’ somewhere in the lead up to a speaking activity, but is a simple list of ‘useful expressions’ really enough to get learners to use functional language appropriately and effectively? Teachers often sigh with relief when learners use ‘I disagree’ instead of ‘I am not agree’ – but whilst grammatically accurate, how often is this expression really used in natural communication?

With the benefit of research into speech acts, conversational analysis and intercultural studies, this talk will investigate some of the shortcomings of ‘old’ approaches, and will look at ways of helping learners choose and use functional expressions appropriate to the context.

Prezentacja MACMILLAN POLSKA

Given the status of English as a language of global communication, what sort of content should it be taught through: is there such a thing as global topics? And a global culture of English? If so, what does it imply for the Polish English classroom? Finally, is ‘thinking in English’ chiefly about manipulating thousands of words and instant functional reactions, or also – perhaps mainly – about treating the content of teaching as a springboard for developing 21st century critical skills of analyzing, selecting and processing information?