Session Reports by Elisabete Thess

My name is Elisabete Thess and I’ll be one of British Council’s Roving Reporters on the Brighton 2011 IATEFL Conference. Needless to say, I am both thrilled and honoured to have been chosen to be there and take part in this fantastic world of learning and sharing for the first time. Together with my fellow reporters, I’ll give you a taste of the conference and tip you on the highlights, hoping to stimulate and inspire teachers to keep learning and doing their magic in classrooms around the world.

I was born and raised in Brazil and have always worked in my country. Learning English came to my life as a pleasure rather than an obligation and we really hit it off. I liked it so much that I dedicated myself enough to be invited to start teaching after only two years of learning. I soon quit my old job and went back to university to graduate as an EFL teacher. Nowadays, I’m still learning, even though I’ve been an EFL teacher for 24 years, teaching English for groups of all ages, but mostly adolescents, who are my favourites by far. I’ve also worked as a teacher trainer, I am a Cambridge ESOL examiner for Speaking and currently work as a manager for the Cultura Inglesa branch in Petrópolis, Rio de Janeiro. My special interests are the use of technology in the classroom, learner autonomy and teacher development.

Apart from teaching, what makes my clock tick is my passion for my two sons, arts and crafts (especially painting), travelling, cooking and vanilla ice cream. I am a firm believer in laughter as a medicine, so ‘fun’ has to permeate my job and in my life as a whole.

During the conference I’ll be all ears to capture new trends and ideas and pass them on, hopefully taking them back home with me to try and be a better teacher in my country. Working as a Roving Reporter will provide me with the opportunity to interact with EFL professionals from all over the world, sharing the experience I most certainly will gather in this wonderful event. So off we go!

A thank-you note to the people at IATEFL

Submitted by Elisabete Thess on Sun, 2011-04-24 03:19

This is a simple thank-you note to all the people who in one way or another helped me during the IATEFL event.

Before and during the event, British Council people were fantastic. From planning the trip to the conference itself, the professionals I met were always there for me and never let me down. They taught me a lot and I owe a special thanks to the Brighton Online team: Julian, Rena, Neil, Sirin, Martin and everyone else, thank you!

The last day – 19th April 2011

Submitted by Elisabete Thess on Sun, 2011-04-24 02:48

There’s a stale taste in my mouth, one that I had not much anticipated. I wake up with the sad realization that it was the last IATEFL day. With it came the fact that I’d be saying goodbye to my friends – new and old – and my main duty as Roving Reporter was coming to an end. However, everything had run so smoothly and the days had been so packed with activities, talks, writing and events that Tuesday caught me by surprise.

Should we be planning to teach grammar? If so, how? - Catherine Walker, 19th April 2011

Submitted by Elisabete Thess on Sun, 2011-04-24 01:59

Eric Baber, the new IATEFL president, introduced the speaker. Listening to him, one got really impressed by her list of achievements. Well, she is indeed a qualified speaker and kept her whole audience hooked on her words and ideas.

She started by saying that grammar is not the most important part of a lesson or that teachers should spend most classtime teaching it. She agreed with the idea that vocabulary is many times more important than grammar, but what is to be done with vocabulary if it cannot be inserted in coherent sentences, for which grammar is needed?

From Paper to Paperless - Marisa Constantinides – 18th April 2011

Submitted by Elisabete Thess on Tue, 2011-04-19 09:42

Marisa begins explaining her talk is for course providers, teacher trainers, prospective trainers and/or awarding bodies. This friendly techno-savvy Greek teacher trainer begins by asking the audience if we thought technology should be dealt with during CELTA training – this initiated a good discussion about the pros and cons of the matter. Everyone in the room voted for technology, since that now is a fact and not an option.

Comedy night with Mrs. Hoover

Submitted by Elisabete Thess on Tue, 2011-04-19 09:31

What a good laugh it was.

Mrs Hoover, a landlady who’s been hosting foreign students for apparently 40 years, demonstrated with very practical examples how she treats (or mistreats) her guests. Eccentrically yet hansomely dressed, Mrs Hoover immediately charmed the audience with her manners and pitch of voice. As she put it, shouting has ist place, and all students react to a shout used at the right moment.

Training Young Learner Teachers: facing the challenge – Valeria Franca 18th April 2011

Submitted by Elisabete Thess on Tue, 2011-04-19 09:29

Valeria is the Head of Teacher Training at Cultura Inglesa Rio de Janeiro, which employs 750 teachers, most of whom are Young Learner teachers. The reality in Brazil is that having a universitiy degree does not mean a teacher is fully prepared to face a young learners classroom, because teaching at universities is more focused in theory.

Ideas to improve students’ writing skills – Cecilia Lemos Coelho – 18th April 2011

Submitted by Elisabete Thess on Tue, 2011-04-19 09:26

Cecilia started by presenting her audience with a problem she identified with her upper-intermediate students:
-    didn’t score high at Writing in tests despite having very good scores in other parts of the same tests
-    produced rather short pieces of writing (one paragraph in general)
-    the vocab they used didn’t reflect their level of English
-    they were not motivated to write

Hyperlink Heroin - Jim Scrivener 18th April 2011

Submitted by Elisabete Thess on Mon, 2011-04-18 12:32

Do you manage to focus when you start a search on the Internet? or do you end up miles away from your original destination in a matter of minutes because you were lured by a wealth of pictures, hyperlinks or routes to go elsewhere? Well, join the team! Jim Scrivener talked about the difficulty we are faced with nowadays to actually do only one single thng on the net, and it all boils down to reading and how we read, especially on the net.

Reflective Practice for Language Teachers - Thomas S C Farrel - 18th April 2011

Submitted by Elisabete Thess on Mon, 2011-04-18 12:01

Another astonishing talk, delivered by a clever speaker who caught the audience's eye with witty remarks and quick jokes.

He was very straightforward with his message, and started by asking us how one can recognise a Reflective Practicioner. He's the one who constantly seeks answers to questions, as in What do I do? How? Why? What's the result? Will I change anything now I know it?
In short, this is the beginning of Reflective Practice, in which you're supposed to look back and analyse your actions and plan based on reflection.

IATEFL facts, figures and people - as I see them!

Submitted by Elisabete Thess on Mon, 2011-04-18 11:36

About 100 countries, approximately 2.100 delegates, 3 and a half days packed with hundreds of presentations. Phew!

It's no small business. IATEFL people are proving they're very serious about their trade, which explains why this is their 45th conference. I'm truly amazed at the size of the event, the quality of the talks and the speakers, and the punctuality af the whole event. Very British!

Pecha Kucha evening - 17th April 2011

Submitted by Elisabete Thess on Mon, 2011-04-18 11:15

Six women, three men, eight surprises. That's the promise for PK Evening.

German, Chinese, english, French - these were the nationalities of the 4 first courageous souls who stepped on stage and performed for 6:40 minutes to a background of 20 ppt slides. No more, no less than that.

Tales we've been told - David Heathfield - an enjoyable evening event

Submitted by Elisabete Thess on Mon, 2011-04-18 10:54

At historical Paganini room, David once again tells stories he's been told, in a captivating didatic way. He tells his eager audience how Nasreedin outwitted his neighbours and how an apparently harmless Japanese old man played an unforgettable trick on his teenage friends.

Toxic Childhood - Sue Palmer

Submitted by Elisabete Thess on Sun, 2011-04-17 17:27

0.5 million prescriptions for Ritalin are written in the UK every year. Are you surprised?

Well, Sue Palmer, a renowned writer and lecturer, author of various grammar books and bestsellers 'Toxic Childhood' and 'Detoxing Children' talked to a jampacked auditorium about her discoveries about children nowadays.

Activating memory in the language classroom - Hugh Dellar

Submitted by Elisabete Thess on Sun, 2011-04-17 16:52

Hugh Dellar started his talk using the image from one of the felines from the musical Cats, and eliciting one of their famous songs. "Memories" is the one, and even though most of the audience had heard it countless times, noone present was able to remember the full lyrics. Why does this happen?

He presented some impressive numbers:

The ELT Journal Debate at IATEFL 2011 - Tweeting is for the birds, not for language learning.

Submitted by Elisabete Thess on Sun, 2011-04-17 16:32

Is that so? The title of the debate is already intriguing in itself, for we're living in a technological era, when teachers are more and more involved in using technology in and outside the classroom in order to facilitate learning.

A thousand years of words on words – David, Hillary and Ben Crystal

Submitted by Elisabete Thess on Sun, 2011-04-17 07:58

Mr Crystal and his family are an audience magnet, this is a fact. Wherever they go, they’re followed by people ready to be charmed – for this is what they do – by particular, sometimes minute details of the English language which are turned into big deals. This is the catch for this “light hearted reflection”, as they themselves called it, on what writers have to say about the English language.

Exhibition Hall

Submitted by Elisabete Thess on Sun, 2011-04-17 07:57

Imagine you are at a language teaching market square, where merchants proudly advertise their product to the passing potential customers, inviting them to savour the latest developments in the field…Customers, who in turn are eager to find out the novelties, are entranced by new books, state of the art technological devices, ground breaking methodologies and – let’s be honest – the freebies offered in each stall.

Voice, music, silence – Mojca Belak

Submitted by Elisabete Thess on Sun, 2011-04-17 07:55

This was a hands-on workshop where attendees played the role of students and performed the activities proposed, all of them with or about music.

From blank-filling to expressing your feelings, Mojca showed us that music can be used and useful in the learning environment. We even sang a Christmas carol and a jazz chant! It is true that music can help people learn words and by singing in the language you are learning your speaking rhythm improves. So, sing away!

Open Door – Kathy Hill

Submitted by Elisabete Thess on Sun, 2011-04-17 07:53

The title already sounded inviting, so I just made myself comfortable in Auditorium 2.

Kathy started by showing a photo on a ppt slide and eliciting thoughts/words it brought to our minds. ‘Scary’ was the recurrent word, and this was to introduce the feeling most teachers experiment when they are going to be observed. Being a teacher myself, I somewhat share the thought, but as a manager, one of my duties is to observe the teachers working at the branch, so, what did she have to say?

Using the “inner workbench” to enrich teaching and learning - Adrian Underhill

Submitted by Elisabete Thess on Sun, 2011-04-17 07:51

That session came as a surprise to me. Not because of the speaker, whom I knew to be a must-see, but because of what he proposed. Intuitively, we teachers already do that in a way, but Adrian explained it to the audience in a very simple, manageable way.

Storytelling to Celebrate Cultural Diversity - David Heathfield

Submitted by Elisabete Thess on Sat, 2011-04-16 14:01

To the sound of a bell, the story begins... Once upon a time... Well, David used another word to retell a story he heard at last year's IATEFL from a teacher from Mozambique, and I dare not try to repeat it here, for fear that I will be laughed upon for a very long time. Anyway, he told us the story and it proved to be one full of engaging parts, in which we, the listeners, were invited to participate, either singing, answering a question or clapping hands.

Strange Seas of Thought - Plenary by Peter Grundy

Submitted by Elisabete Thess on Sat, 2011-04-16 13:38

If we look out of the window, we do see the sea - the rather gray, gloomy Brighton seaside.

Day 1, Special Group Interest – Leadership and Management.

Submitted by Elisabete Thess on Fri, 2011-04-15 15:51

What a brilliant opportunity to mingle and meet people from literally all over the world, doing a variety of management jobs in ELT. Shirley from local Brighton, Josh from Kazakistan, a friendly fellow from Indonesia whose name I can neither pronounce nor write…and many other smiley eager faces.

George Pickering opened the day talking about Customer Service.

Ready to rock!

Submitted by Elisabete Thess on Thu, 2011-04-14 13:37

Hi there! I’ve made it to cloudy gray Brighton after 4 days in London.