I've just got back from E-Merging forum 4 organised by British Council in Moscow. It was my first experience in ELT conferences and so far I'm happy with it.
First of all, the conference is free of charge and organization is quite superb I must say. I especially liked that they sticked to the schedule so there were no delays and any changes were reported promptly.
Now the speakers. There were few foreign speakers who held plenary sessions; among them Tony Prince, Nicky Hockley and Jamie Dunlea. After plenaries, participants could wonder off to 5 independent workshops dedicated to Assessment, ESP and EAP, Young Learners, Literature and Culture and Learning Technologies and listen to the presentations of both Russian and foreign speakers.
I've visited some very engaging and extremely fruitful workshops as well as few ... less successful ones (which was great experience anyway as it showed me how NOT to present). I guess, I was most impressed by Learning Technologies section which I attended on the last day and where we were actually working on our own presentations.
Here are some bits and bobs I carried away with me from the conference:
Many thanks to British Council for this wonderful experience!
More detailed information on the speakers and talk can be found here.
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| Ready for the Pub Quiz! |
First of all, the conference is free of charge and organization is quite superb I must say. I especially liked that they sticked to the schedule so there were no delays and any changes were reported promptly.
Now the speakers. There were few foreign speakers who held plenary sessions; among them Tony Prince, Nicky Hockley and Jamie Dunlea. After plenaries, participants could wonder off to 5 independent workshops dedicated to Assessment, ESP and EAP, Young Learners, Literature and Culture and Learning Technologies and listen to the presentations of both Russian and foreign speakers.
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| source |
I've visited some very engaging and extremely fruitful workshops as well as few ... less successful ones (which was great experience anyway as it showed me how NOT to present). I guess, I was most impressed by Learning Technologies section which I attended on the last day and where we were actually working on our own presentations.
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| Here I am presenting on behalf of our group BYOD |
Here are some bits and bobs I carried away with me from the conference:
- "can do outweighs know-how", especially in academic writing. An example of academic writing lesson can be found here (by Zhenya Bakin)
- and on the topic of writing: "there is no good writing, there is only good re-writing" as suggested by V. Zabotkina
- and a formula I'm going to give to my students: essay should be one third descriptive and two thirds evaluative by Tony Prince
- we assess not only student's progress but the learning process itself (summative vs formative assessment - definitely new terms for me)
- great lesson on Pacific NorthWest Tree Octopus (one I heard before though but still amusing). I will definitely try it with my students one day.
- as well as endless possibilities with hilarious literal videos
- mobiles CAN be a useful device in the class as was proved by our group! I should go back to this idea more often and utilize it as much as possible
- leader boards and badges now have a name - Gamification! I've heard about a positive experience organising studies this way and I should definitely go back to it myself and try it on one of my classes.
- new words learnt: a four oh four- a problem as in Internet search problem; to wilf (what was i looking for) - to wonder away in browsing from your initial point
- and finally as our amazing Pub Quiz team proved Napoleon from Orwell's Animal Farm was a Boar not a Pig!
Many thanks to British Council for this wonderful experience!
More detailed information on the speakers and talk can be found here.
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