Tti Podcast Episode 1 plus Our Special IATEFL report from Teacher Marianne

On our first episode of the Tti Podcast , Mel interviews Luke Vyner,Tti Teacher & Educational Director at London Language Experience which creates imaginative and contemporary listening materials. Luke talks about what he enjoys about teaching at Tti, his IATEFL (International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language) workshop which took place on April 5th in Harrogate and what his audio tours are all about!

To listen just click below!

MARIANNE’S IATEFL REPORT 2014

This month our Teacher and Social Programme Organiser, Marianne, attended the IATEFL conference in Harrogate, an association for  teachers, lecturers, teacher trainers, academic managers, researchers and institutions involved in the English Language Teaching (ELT) .

Here is what she had to say:

At this year’s IATEFL conference , I had the opportunity to meet some amazing EFL teachers and speakers from around the world. I was completely surprised by the sheer magnitude of the event! It was huge! I was so impressed.  There were people at the conference who are currently completing their PHDs and Masters in Linguistics and ELT (English Language Teaching). Everyone had something inspiring to share about how to make our classrooms more dynamic and lessons more interesting!

There were English teachers from as far away as the US, Brazil and Siberia! In the evening , there were networking events and parties sponsored by the British Council, Cambridge, and Macmillian publishers.  It was really fun to talk with teachers and share our teaching tips!

There were also the ELT “Super Stars” or the plenary speakers at the conference such as Michael McCarthy, Adrian Underhill, Jeremy Harmer , Jim Scrivener , Michael Hoey, Kathleen Graves , Penny Ur and many more who talked about a variety of innovative ideas for the classroom. There were over 500 sessions to choose from including workshops, symposiums, early morning “How to..” talks and more! It was great.

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Some of the highlights for me were…

  • Business Seminars  or BESIG – This was a discussion on the hot new buzzword “ELF” or English as a Lingua Franca. Today businesses want their employees to  communicate clearly and effectively in English with a focus on being able to handle negotiations,presentations, close deals and more. According to the ELF trend, it’s not all about being 100% accurate with your grammar skills! What do you think?
  • Using your “Soft Skills” in the classroom  – This talk was very interesting especially for teaching Business because it emphasized the idea that teachers should try to deepen their knowledge of business topics in order to teach BE courses better. For example, if you have a lesson on “mergers and acquisitions” – read up a bit on it! This will help you become a better Business teacher even if you don’t necessarily have a Business background.
  • Survival Kits for the Digital Jungle – Lots of seminars on this ! Here I learnt about all the different platforms teachers can use both inside the classroom and outside.  Dr. Thomas Strasser talked about all the new technologies we can bring into the classroom . I can’t wait to share them with the staff here at Tti.
  • More Internet in the classroom! – Another talk showed us how to make the most of the internet, tablets and iPhones in the class. So, instead of shying away from them , the speaker suggested using them to create more dynamic lessons. There are also plenty of online platforms and forums we can use to generate discussions on  a specific debate topic even after class for homework. Really exciting stuff!

By attending IATEFL you feel updated on the industry and what the new trends are in the ELT world. You meet lots of like-minded professionals and you can make new friends! I would highly recommend the experience to any EFL professional.

Click on the video below to check out an interview our teacher Luke Vyner did at IATEFL this year!

For information on IATEFL please visit www.iatefl.org

For more information on London Language Experience please visit – www.londonlanguageexperience.com

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