DEVELOPING MATERIALS AND IMPLEMENTING VALUES IN ELT

Marina Afanasyeva has 12 years of experience in teaching foreign languages both in Russia and Spain. Worked for such schools as EF English First in Moscow, Helen Doron, International People and Colegio SIL in Barcelona. Currently heading OLYMP Academy in Norilsk and teaching English and Spanish. 

Creativity and Design of Materials

The main goal of the workshop is to learn more about the different types of materials beyond the traditional, how to choose and design them. Also study up on the basic concepts of graphic design and the usage of free online tools which can help to produce innovative and creative materials (and teach students to make them too).

Daniel Clayton is from Britain, but he has lived in Russia for 8 years. He studied Arabic and Linguistics at university. He is currently studying for a Master’s in Applied Linguistics. He works as a Director of Studies at a language school in Moscow.

Creating Communicative Speaking Tasks for Progress Tests

In this session, I will talk about how you can create your own speaking assessments for checking learners' progress during a course. We will look at tasks that are different from those that course books typically provide or those that just copy international exams, and I will show you how these tasks can be based upon the functional language you have studied in your course book.

Alexey Lebedev is afreelance Swedish and English teacher with 8 years of experience, MAin Philology. He specializes in teaching adults. He possesses an IHcertificate Teaching 121. He leads a project called ‘Sångskolan’that helps his students study Swedish with songs.

Making the Most outof the Song

At our workshop wewill create a set of different tasks based on one and only song. Youwill be able to use them right away. I will show you many differentapproaches and outcomes, and you will realize that creating tasks isnot that time-consuming. Having worked with songs for a while I knowwhat works well with students, but I am open to new ideas - we willshare, discuss and have fun working on the best piece of art - asong.

Danny Singh is fromLondon, based in Rome, uses laughter, breathing, dancing, singing,playing, stretching, hugging and massage, the five senses andexploring emotions, to facilitate memory and learning. He has writtentwo books and offers workshops and teacher-training on demand.

Team Building:Inside and Outside the Classroom

Team building is asimportant to a great lesson as the content itself. If all members ofthe group are willing to collaborate with each other, the lesson willbe successful and everybody benefits! In this practical workshop, wewill actively perform several team building exercises that you can useinside and outside the classroom with guaranteed success! All of themare easy and simple to use and can be used with all ages and levelsof students.

Anita Modestova is aqualified teacher and business trainer. She specialises in teachingadults and also delivers seminars on how to build your career as aself-employed teacher. Anita manages her own community for teachers -Teacherpreneurs Club.

Authentic for theСlassroom: Create Audios and Videos that Students Want to Listen toAgain and Again

When discussing alistening task, many teachers say 'yeah, yeah, but how do you makethem listen?'. About a year ago I started recording different peoplefor my students to listen. And I can honestly tell you that mystudents never get tired of those. They want more and more listening!During my workshop, I'm going to tell you who/what/when and where Iusually record what can be done with those audios and after that,you'll create 1-2 personalised and authentic recordings for yourstudents.

Julie Stolyarchuk isa freelance teacher who runs the Speaking Club for LGBTQIAs inMoscow, which has been instrumental in building community and givingpeople a voice in the world.

Let every Voice beHeard: the Why and the How of Running a Speaking Club

A speaking clubabout speaking clubs. I will share my best tips on how to writequestions that spark genuine discussion and offer a number ofactivities that work every single time. There will also be a spacefor you to share your best practices and discover the values andmethodology that drive your work as a speaking club facilitator.

Olga Tsareva is ateacher, teacher trainer and material developer specializing inteaching English to very young learners and young learners. Olga isnow focusing on material development and all kinds of projects foryoung learners.

Research-BasedSecond Edition of Own Materials

The talk will befocused on the process of refining own materials to match the needsof the school. I will share the steps we undertook to issue thesecond edition of the handbook we now use with primary students. Iwill describe the findings of the research done among students, theirparents and teachers and the result we achieved.

Nataliya Ivanova works as a DOS for a language school in Novosibirsk. She is a teacherwith more than 15 years of experience, and a teacher trainer. ASpeaker at Trendy English Talks Siberia. The organizer of CPDconferences for teachers in Novosibirsk. Specializes in teachingteens.

How to Kill TwoBirds with One Stone: English and 21st Century Skills

In my talk I amgoing to present the idea of developing students' creativity as wellas teaching them English. I will talk about techniques which help alot to boost creative way of thinking. I will share some activitieswhich teachers could use during the lessons, while teaching grammar,vocabulary, writing or speaking to their students.

Alex Semakin hasbeen teaching English since 1995, mainly in Russia with short spellsin the USA and Israel. MA TESOL from the University of Manchester.Working for UK-based online TEFL courses as a trainer, director ofstudies, materials writer and editor since 2002.

Away from the‘Grammar of Right and Wrong’ Towards a Meaning-driven Grammar

Similar to a humanbeing, each grammatical structure or form has its own distinct‘personality’. It is not just a set of rules to memorise. How cangrammar materials help learners discover that ‘personality’ inorder to make their own conscious choices when they speak or write?How can the essential meaning of a structure/form be captured in acomprehensible, accurate and engaging way? How can exercises andpractice activities be less focused on the idea of right and wrong?

Ekaterina Konon isan EFL teacher, teacher trainer, founder of “Teacher-Switcher”English Teaching Community , CEO of UcanEnglish Language Centre.Author of children books ("The scariest book of monsters andsuperlatives of course") and different props for teaching.

Exploring Ins and Outs of Short Courses and Workshops for Adults Through the Example ofCinema Club

At our half hoursession I will guide you through all the pitfalls and traps fromdeveloping the course to choosing the control group and checking theefficiency of the course through the example of Cinema Club. You willget a view of unique detective game quests and the basics of creatingthem. We will discuss how to determine the relevancy of creating thecourse in your school, evaluate the results of previous work andincrease the intake of students.

Tatiana Aleksandrova (Ph.D, CPE) is an Associate Professor of the English Department atthe Saratov State University and runs her own English languagestudio. Tatiana's teaching interests include teacher training,creative writing, cultural aspects of communication, young learners.

Creative Writing Workshop: "A Trip from Mars to Earth: or How Metaphors are Generated"

The participants ofthe workshop will go on the imaginary interplanetary trip to unlocktheir creative writing potential. They will learn to see the beautybehind the mist of the every day routine and discover the secret ofthe language clues to it. They will also experience the inspiringpower of the modern British poetry and try to create their own poems.

Ekaterina Verbitskaya is a Cambridge certified teacher (CELTA Pass A) withexperience of teaching English in the USA. She holds a Master of Artsdegree in Linguistics from MGIMO University.

Teaching for RussianNational Exam Lexically

In this session wewill look at how core principles underlying lexical approach couldinform course design, materials writing and classroom teaching forRussian National Exam.

Elena Matveeva is a General English and Business English Teacher and a Director of Studies at the Dmitry Nikitin School. Her main sphere of interestlies in teaching Business English and Presentation skills inparticular.

Teaching Teenagers Presentation Skills

We hear everywherethat generation Z are children and teenagers who are not interestedin anything aside from their mobile devices. Bad news spread that nowthey don’t read much and lack critical skills. However, from ourexperience it takes just a little effort to make teenagers interestedand to encourage them to share their brilliant ideas.I am going tospeak about out experience of organizing a Ted-Ed Club for teenagersat the Dmitry Nikitin School in Yaroslavl, Russia. The Club is a safeenvironment where teenagers are not afraid to speak out, to sharetheir ideas no matter how crazy they might be, it is the place wherethey contemplate about the Global Issues and find solutions to GlobalProblems of the Modern World. In the process of finding their voicesteenagers learn how to be a brilliant public speaker, what makes anidea great and how to present so that the audience will listen.During the talk I am going to share our experience of organizing sucha club as an Extra-curricular activity and will speak about the results that wereachieved.

Vyacheslav Bolotnikov is an English teacher for “Baker-street” and “UpCamp”,Ryazan. A professional musician and an expert in Jewish history andculture. Interests: history, politics, theatre, literature, music,sport – everything that makes you thrill!

English Theatre as a Way to Encourage Children to Love English

The main points of the session: 1. Stories and plots for the performances: where to takethem? 2. Classics or modern culture: what is the best choice for theplot? 3. How to adapt dialogues for school children’s level? (Makethem short and lively!) 4. What makes perfect casting (To playoneself or one’s alter ego?) We are also going to - watch thefragments of the performances - adapt original lines and read them,creating characters “on the spot”

Maria Ilmenskaya. Nine years inteaching English and Spanish. Three years in “Albion” languageschool have resulted in a special reading course, English drama club,“My learning diary” product.

Positive Attitudes and Motivation to Learning: Language School Promotional Expertise

In the sessionthe"Albion" language school educational supervisor willshare the 3-year practice of promoting positive attitudes andmotivation to learning English as a foreign language. The experiencecomprises 3 directions of work: developing gamification tools forstudents' self awareness in language learning; organizing extracurricular clubs and special needs courses; supporting students withlearning difficulties.

Oksana Eckensberger from Yaroslavl, teacherat Dmitry Nikitin School. I love fillingeach school year with educational opportunities that will guide the children’s growth! I tailor activities to maintain learners’interest. I enjoy using laughter, funny voices, singing, playing,exploring the five senses, reading books, crafting. The variety ofactivities make children enjoy the class and therefore they are morelikely to get the most out of the classroom.

Developing Materials: Very Young Learners and Young Learners

Goodteaching materials engage students into the learning process and helpus, teachers, feel successful in the classroom. Textbooks do notalways meet the variety of conditions in a language class, tap intothe learners’ interests and take account of their learning styles.‘Self-made’ materials are based on myexperience and understanding of mystudents; therefore, they help me add a personal touch to teachingand make content relevant to my students’ interests. In thisworkshop we will see how to create materials, where to look forideas, what is the best combination of the textbook and extramaterials, what are the best practices in materials development. Jointhe session and let’s be creative!

Katerina Stashevskaya: EFL teacher and teacher trainer, educational games designer, founder of PRO EnglishOnline EFL Teacher Community , organizer of PRO English OnlineConference and 10 Minute Talks, founder of Britannica School.

Lesson Plans from Scratch : Turing a Picturebook into an Adventure!

Picture books are agreat tool for teaching young learners. But do you use them to theirfull potential? Speaking, storytelling, writing and lots of otheractivities may be based on picturebooks. In my session, I am going toshare my experience and some universal techniques that will help youdesign great lesson plans for picture books.

Maria Tsoy is a teacher of English and a teacher trainer, a recognized expert in early language developement and Cambridge YLE preparation.She has designed a system of natural language aquisition known as EXPLORER METHOD.

EXPLORER METHOD: natural language aquisition in your classroom

Studying English sounds like hard work, exploring the world in English sounds like fun adventure! EXPLORER METHOD uses the most effective principles of mother tongue acquisition where a language is of applied significance as long as natural child development isfundamental.

Alexey Konobeyev - The speaker is the editor-in-chief of Titul Publishers, Russia's specialized ELT publishing house, and an ELT author andeditor.

Guidelines for young authors: what a publisherl ooks for in your manuscript

Alexey will tell about what apublisher looks for in a new manuscript and will provide advice onwhat to tell a publisher and how to organise work to get your bookpublished.

Valeriya Meshcheryakova, an English teacher,has been training the main conversational skills of the children aged 3-10 for more than 30 years. In the process of this work a series of books on teaching/learning English “I Can Sing”, “I Can Speak”,“I Can Read”, “I Can Write” and “I Can Analyse” appeared.Her experience has been summed up in the book “I LOVE ENGLIS, the Empirical System of Early Language Learning”. She conducts seminarsand workshops for English teachers in the methodical center “I LOVEENGLISH” in Moscow.

This time she will show how to organize along-lasting project in the group of 5-7 year-olds using their textbooks. That may inspire teachers to create their own educational material.

Julie Nagay - DOS Pilot language school (Rostov-on-Don), (TKT, CAE, CELTA,DELTA, Cambridge teacher, CELT-P/S trainer). I've worked as an EFgroup leader in Malta, the USA (New York, Los Angeles),Singapore.

Our responsibility to teach children ethics not only English

Teachingis never objective: it always reflects teachers’ beliefs, valuesand even personal characteristics. Consistent with this line of thinking is that when you interact with another language, it meansthat you are also interacting with the culture that speaks the language. As a result, our teaching of a foreign language is definitely biased. We play a great role in shaping our students’ personalities especially talking about very young learners. That is why we must be very careful and thoughtful choosing a particular course, extra resources and authentic materials as they do projectethical issues and values. In my talk I’m going to share my tips on how to evaluate children’s books and choose the right resources for fostering bright and conscious humanity.