In ELT, as teachers, managers and curriculum developers we may place too much focus on our academic objectives and forget that learners are young human beings mostly overwhelmed with emotions, stressors and they usually lack the strategies to cope with them. Language learning brings about an additional set of emotions (anxiety, boredom, hopelessness and lack of self-confidence) to the educational settings. As language teachers we do our best to contain these feelings as much as possible but sometimes we are out of solutions. In the 21st century as educators, our job is to support the learners not only in their academic skills but also in their life skills which will help them to grow into whole, resilient and competent individuals. Learners who cultivate these life skills will be able to deal with the challenges and stressors in their life and achieve better academic results. Mindfulness based pedagogies and practices are a way to instil these life skills in learners. In this webinar, I will introduce the mindfulness concept and its effects on learning and learners. By the end of the webinar, participants will have learnt some mindfulness activities designed specifically for ELT classes and language learners.

As a teacher, finding space in your packed calendar to include anything other than what is absolutely necessary can be tricky. This unique session will provide you with a whole heap of simple ideas on how to integrate Global Citizenship Education, Diversity and Environmental Sustainability into the year ahead, by offering a range of fresh lesson ideas for some key UN Days. Everyone who attends will also receive an exclusive calendar, signposting key UN dates as well as free, relevant resources to use in class.

A lot of EFL reading pedagogy is still based on popular ideas from the 1970s, such as speed-reading techniques and the concept of reading as a “psycholinguistic guessing game” (Goodman, K. S. (1967)). However, since then research and evidence has upended these ideas and suggested alternatives. Unfortunately, much of the research has struggled to make it across the first-language reading – EFL divide. In this session, we’ll look at evidence-informed teaching techniques for first-language readers and discuss how these could be applied to help EFL students.

This workshop will give you practical ideas to help you get more language learning from your storytelling sessions. You’ll come away feeling more confident about structuring a lesson or series of lessons around a picture book. To do this we’ll consider tips to help identify language learning objectives, see dynamic activities and crafts to help children understand the new language, and explore useful procedures and activities that encourage experimenting and using the new language.

This webinar will show teachers how to work with a phonics story for young learners of English. She will reveal how simple it can be to introduce new articulatory habits through a story of her own called ‘The Polar Bear’s Pin.’ This story creates a world of fantasy to experiment the distinction between the “P” in polar and the “B” in bear. Unless EFL learners produce aspiration, they would tend to say ‘bin’ for ‘pin’. This context will provide the right scaffolding for the distinction of this minimal pair, in a memorable and fun way.

Assessment tasks or test items are a core part of any formal language assessment. For national or international standardised test, item writers or task developers are trained and skilled in working to test specifications to develop relevant and appropriate items. And for these tests, item writing is part of the larger process of test development. However, what about developing assessment tasks for your classroom or your institution? Teachers assess all the time in the classroom in different ways for different purposes. Sometimes, you may just need a quick quiz to check understanding but what if you become responsible for developing your school or institution’s own tests to measure learning at the end of a term or a course. This is no easy task and there are many factors to consider. Teachers need to be able to draw on knowledge, skills and resources in order to develop assessments that are reliable and valid enough for their individual situations. This online seminar will look at developing assessment tasks for the classroom, what is involved in developing a test item, the knowledge required to do this effectively and the resources available to support teachers with this very important part of their jobs.

ENACT is a free web app https://enacteuropa.com/ developed at Newcastle University UK, co-funded by the European Union. The app enables people to learn aspects of foreign languages while performing a meaningful real-world task which enables them to experience the culture of the foreign language. Users can learn a foreign language through the foreign culture by carrying out a cultural activity. Learn Māori while you’re making a poi ball! Devices will guide users through the stages of doing the activity through structured interactive content using photos, text, audio and video to help them. People can use the ENACT Author to create their own favourite cultural activity in their own language so that anyone else round the world can use it to learn the language and culture. ENACT has been used by over 11,000 people in 153 countries. In this presentation, I will provide an overview of the project aims, introduce the task-based language teaching and online interactive material design principles underlying the app design, and briefly demonstrate the key features of the ENACT app: the interactive player, the author, and the community. During the Q&A, we can explore opportunities for producing materials for other cultures and languages. I will provide an overview of the project aims and rationale and briefly demonstrate the key features of the ENACT app. I will discuss collecting Māori materials during my last trip to NZ.

IATEFL is excited to be running a new online event for English language teaching professionals entitled 'IATEFL Themes 2023'. This one-day online training event will focus on a range of the most up-to-date themes in English language teaching this year, and so will ensure you refresh and develop your knowledge of current ELT themes. The event is open to all English language teaching professionals, with IATEFL members receiving a discounted price.

Setting up activities and tasks for students is teachers’ bread and butter, and when you are doing it effectively you are a master of the craft. This workshop will look at five stages of tasks and activities, starting with an instruction and finishing with feedback. We will look at how to give good instructions so students can start working promptly and confidently. We finish off with meaningful feedback for students to notice what they have learned. Finally, we will look at linking activities within the lesson to make students understand better what and why they are doing. This 5-step routine when mastered makes teaching effective.

Gentle parenting is trending! Can the same principles be applied in the classroom? Siegel and Bryson (2016) call it no drama discipline. This workshop-styled session is for the behaviour-conscious teacher. The session will introduce the concept and principles of gentle discipline to participants. In the session, teachers will be led through an exploration of the workings of the young brain to understand the long-term effects of gentle discipline on the character, skill set, emotion regulation abilities, and behaviours of the individual student. They will further investigate various ways in which elements of gentle discipline can be applied in the ELT classroom, while considering challenges teachers might face in using this approach for behaviour management.

The webinar will start with looking at various examples of what counts as “learning materials” in ELT. The session will go on to discuss some reasons why we feel the need to escape from the course book from time to time, and will mention some of the differences between adapting and creating own materials. Participants will end up with six important points to consider when creating their own learning materials, and will gain confidence to do so.

Join us for an exciting online how-to workshop designed for language teachers who are interested in learning more about how to create learner-centred activities with the aid of ChatGPT.

Reading activities are commonplace in EFL materials. However, typically many of these activities practise the skills as opposed to developing them. In this talk we will examine how reading is often presented in EFL materials, making the case that practice alone will not lead to perfection. We will propose an alternative approach, exploring how to write materials that raise learners’ awareness of reading skills, and develop as opposed to practise or test these skills.

This presentation will explore the design and implementation of an extracurricular pronunciation training program tailored for EFL learners with a Turkish L1 background. The initial focus will be on how research informed the prioritization of pronunciation teaching targets, aiming for enhanced intelligibility among Turkish EFL learners. The design considerations of the four-week program, insights from the implementers, benefits, challenges, and participant feedback will be examined. With research- and practice-based insights from this understudied context, the presentation aims to foster a discussion on the potential of extracurricular pronunciation instruction as an alternative approach, while also generating ideas for future implementation.

Discover the tools and knowledge to help prepare all English language learners for the workplace and their careers in this insightful webinar.

In this practical, classroom-rooted session, we’ll be looking at what makes good listeners good: knowing language, hearing the language you know, and the ability to automatically match meaning to sounds. Using examples from Outcomes Third Edition, we’ll look at how we can develop these skills through our choice of input, through micro-listening tasks, and more.

How can AI tools improve your English language classes? This webinar will share useful guidance about how to use AI effectively and safely in teaching for all ages.

Join this webinar to find out what future skills are, how you can incorporate them into your lessons to improve language proficiency, and why they matter for all learners’ futures.

Find out how to explore the issues the world is currently facing with your learners, focusing on the climate emergency, and bring them to life with planet-friendly classroom hacks.

In this webinar, we will explore the importance of understanding accessibility and diversity in the ELT classroom, emphasizing the impact of cultural, linguistic, and cognitive differences, as well as disabilities on students' learning experiences.