City & Guilds: 2nd Annual Teacher Development Symposium

Symposium Programme

10:30-11:00	Registration & Coffee / Book Exhibition (Betsis ELT, Cengage - New Editions, Express Publishing, Litera Books)
11:00-12:00	Critical ELT – Making It Real Dr Sara Hannam This session will look at what being ‘critical’ means (and doesn’t mean) when applied to ELT. It will explore the language classroom as a critical microcosm through the relationship between teachers-students, respective beliefs, the impact of outside events and what it means to be learning English in the modern world. Dr Sara Hannam is the Director of the English Unit at City College, Thessaloniki. She has extensive experience of teaching and testing in a Greek and Balkan environment. Sara is interested in the importance of teachers playing a more active role in shaping educational policy and practice and regularly writes, presents and blogs about Critical ELT.
12:00-12:15	Pecha Kuchas Session
12:15-13:15	Critical Thinking in Action Lindsay Clandfield If, as some claim, we are living in an age of information then it’s very important that students think critically about the information they are exposed to. Developing learners’ critical thinking skills has become a hot topic. What exactly does this mean? This talk looks at practical ways that teachers can help learners think critically. We will look at topic and task design as well as a series of activities that you can begin using with your students right away. Lindsay Clandfield is a teacher, teacher trainer and international author from Canada. He is the main author of Macmillan’s new award-winning and critically acclaimed adult course Global (2010). His work has appeared in numerous magazines and journals relating to ELT and he has written a column on language teaching for the Guardian Weekly newspaper. He was the founder of Pecha Kucha ELT (a form of short presentation) and creator of the popular blog www.sixthings.net, a collection of miscellany from the world of English Language Teaching.
13:15-14:15	Lunch Break / Book Exhibition (Betsis ELT, Cengage - New Editions, Express Publishing, Litera Books)
14:15-15:15	Critical Language Testing: Revisiting our Assumptions George Vassilakis With a focus on the consequences of language tests and test preparation courses, this session will problematise what language testers and teachers often take for granted: the hegemony of the CEFR, the uses that are made of language tests and the ethics of exam preparation.  George Vassilakis has worked in the field of English Language Teaching for twenty-five years. He is currently Director of Language Certification with PeopleCert. George has written more than twenty ELT books and is an approved CELTA and DELTA tutor. His blog, detefling, often explores ethical and political issues in ELT.
15:15-15:30	Pecha Kuchas Session

ELT News and Linguaglobe will be present at the 2nd City & Guilds Symposium.