Who you can meet at this year’s conference?

Zoltán Rézműves has been an English teacher for over 30 years, starting out in 1990 in a Budapest Secondary School. After many years as an editor for an International publishing company, Zoltán set up his own publishing services company called Consonant Kiadó and became a freelance author, teacher trainer and editor. He has also written numerous teacher’s books, practice and test materials for several International publishers including Cambridge University Press and Assessment. Zoltán’s teacher training and conference work has taken him to over 35 countries worldwide and in 2018 he was Vice-President of IATEFL-Hungary. 

Roads to Success: Integrating Different Learning Goals 

Students in our English classes are on different learning journeys: some want to become confident in everyday communication, some have academic ambitions, and some hope to pass an important language exam to obtain qualifications.How can we empower all our learners to choose their own destinations, and help them to reach their respective learning goals?

Equipped for the Real World: Life Competencies

In today’s fast-changing world, students need more than just a particular set of skills and a well-defined pool of knowledge to succeed. In order to learn and to adapt to the changing needs and expectations, they also need skills for life. What exactly are the core life skills? How can they be developed at different stages of language learning? The Cambridge Life Competencies framework was developed to give us a better understanding of those skills that our learners need and that language teachers are increasingly expected to incorporate into the English curriculum.

Principles and tools for preparing materials for students with specific learning differences (SpLDs)

The aim of the session is to discuss the principles of materials development for students with specific learning differences such dyslexia.

In the first part of the session I will talk about principles that can help ensure that written material considers the difficulties experienced by some dyslexic people e.g. fonts, page layout, line spacing as according to British Dyslexia Association: ‘Adopting best practice for dyslexic readers has the advantage of making all written communication easier on the eye for everyone’.

In the second part of the session the focus will be on free tools teachers can use to modify the appearance of materials for students with specific learning differences, including some

functionalities of word processors and YouTube you are probably unaware of, online OCR tools, screen-reading software, tools for creating subtitles, tools for slowing down recordings, and more.

Participants are encouraged to ask as many questions as they need!

Jiří Horák works as a freelance teacher trainer for both Cambridge University Press & Cambridge Assessment based in the Czech Republic. He also works for the Cambridge University Press YouTube channel “Learn English with Cambridge”, scripting, editing and starring in videos for English language learners. He is an enthusiastic teacher trainer and a passionate English teacher with a vast experience in teaching kids, teens and adults. Currently, he is a teacher at Gymnázium Evolution Jižní Město.

Life Skills Toolbox. Activities to enhance collaboration, social responsibility and emotional development 

Nearly every English teacher would agree that nowadays developing life skills in our students should be part and parcel of our language classes. Yet when it comes to practical activities that would help our students with these skills, we tend to have comparatively few ideas and options in our “bags”. In this seminar, we will focus on Cambridge Life Competencies – specifically on collaboration, social responsibilities and emotional development. I will share hands-on activities and ideas that I have gathered and implemented in my own classes along with useful resources that you can experiment with in your lessons.

CLIL, Culture and 21st Century Skills in the EFL Classroom

Educators often warn that children need improved 21st century skills and that if we not developed properly, students won’t be adequately prepared for college and the workforce. But what exactly are 21st century skills? Are we just talking about computer and technology skills? This session begins by taking a look at the key skills seen as pertinent in the EFL classroom as defined by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills and their respective aims in the learning process. Next, we will see a short video which presents some stunning facts about the world we currently live in and the unpredictable and ever-changing future that awaits our students. Next, we will look at the framework and support systems that exists in order to promote the learning of 21st century skills and subjects. We will then analyze all the skills sets and see some examples of how they can be promoted in our classrooms and then discuss which skills should be given priority in the classroom. We then will move on to defining and discussing the importance of including CLIL and cross-cultural elements in our lessons and see real examples of exercises and activities that promote 21st century skills, CLIL and cultural awareness.

Feels over reals? The “reálie” research revisited

The talk presents a summary of research on the concept of “reálie”. Not only does it investigate what the term means and how it is commonly understood and applied by Czech ELT practitioners, but it also aims to shed light on the usefulness and adequacy of that understanding and those applications. Various alternatives with respect to CEFR and the Czech maturita exam are offered. High school teachers are especially welcome to attend and share their views.

Charles has been working in the ELT field for over nine years, teaching ESL, speaking at various ELT conferences around the Czech Republic and writing and delivering teacher training in several countries around the world. Throughout his teaching career, Charles has been fortunate to teach all levels, both young learners and adults. However, over the last few of years, his focus has been drawn more towards teaching young learners, both general English for Primary ages, and B2 and C1 exam preparation classes for secondary aged students. Consequently, Charles is heavily involved in the Young Learners Department at the British Council in Prague, where he currently lives and works, and teaches Exam preparation at a local Czech gymnázium. 

Let´s talk about progression 

Getting our students actively engaged in speaking English in our classes can sometimes be challenging. With the ever-present reality of having to prepare them for an official English exam, speaking is an area many teachers address, but rarely are speaking skills taught in conjunction with a speaking task. In this interactive workshop, we will focus on identifying the various speaking skills needed across the levels A2-C1 and looking at some practical activities we can use in our classrooms to teach them in order tobetter prepare our students to take an official Cambridge English Exam (Key, Preliminary, First, and Advanced Exams).

V Oxford University Press pracuji jako Educational Representative od roku 2020. V rámci svého studia na Univerzitě v Hradci Králové jsem absolvovala Učitelství angličtiny a výtvarné výchovy pro 2. stupeň základní školy a následně si rozšířila svoji aprobaci o kurz tlumočnictví a překladatelství. Svůj zájem o jazyk a profesní zkušenosti jsem dále prohlubovala na studijních pobytech v USA a Dánsku, stejně jako na základní škole nebo v různých (soukromých) institucích v libereckém kraji, v kterých jsem měla možnost působit.

Oxford English Hub: a launchpad for learning

Přístup ke všem digitálním komponentům nejnovějších kurzů OUP z jedné webové platformy, při jednom přihlášení a pomocí jediného přístupového kódu. Demonstrace jednotlivých digitálních komponentů nového kurzu OUP pro SŠ – Life Vision.