Four editions of Modern Teaching Methods, on the record

In this practical, hands-on session, we explore different ways of thinking about giving feedback on student speaking and explore why some approaches may have better long-term impacts than others.

Integrating AI and technology into the EFL classroom has brought some significant benefits, such as personalized learning, instant feedback, and, maybe, increased engagement. However, several challenges have emerged that educators must address to maximize effectiveness. As an introduction we will discuss some of the pitfalls discovered as a result.

Critical thinking (CT) has long been heralded as an essential skill for learners, yet despite decades of discourse on its importance, it has often failed to be addressed with the urgency and depth it deserves. In the age of AI, where information is abundant, but discernment is scarce, fostering critical thinkers has never been more crucial. We will explore how the Socratic Method—a timeless approach based on dialogue, questioning, and reflection—can be rebooted to meet the challenges of modern education.

By reintroducing the Socratic Method into EFL learning environments, we can encourage learners to engage deeply with content, question assumptions, and articulate their thoughts clearly and critically. In an age where AI technologies can provide answers but not reasoning, the need for learners to develop their own evaluative and reflective skills is paramount.

Rebooting the Socratic Method isn’t just about asking the right questions, it's about equipping learners to think independently and critically in an AI-driven world cultivating a generation of thoughtful, analytical individuals who don’t just accept information at face value, but instead question, probe, and interpret it.

Content and language integrated learning or CLIL is a method which develops both curriculum content knowledge and foreign language competence simultaneously.

This talk will outline the three core dimensions to CLIL, namely concepts, procedures and language. The presentation will also describe how a typical CLIL lesson moves from 'guiding learners through input content' in textual and multi-media forms to 'supporting learners in producing content' in spoken and written form.

The talk will present the above principles through a range of classroom tested resources and activities which the audience is invited to take away and try in their own teaching contexts.

What if the key to long-term language learning success isn’t grammar or vocabulary (or not just grammar and vocabulary) but a powerful first coaching session? In this session, we’ll dive into the structure and purpose of goal-setting sessions in Transformational Language Coaching©. You’ll discover how to guide learners toward meaningful, motivating goals using coaching-style questions and practical frameworks. We’ll explore goal-setting session outline, and the “why” behind every step—so you can start your own learner journeys with clarity and purpose. We’ll wrap up with a Q&A where you can bring your questions and reflections.

Learning is an act of curiosity and starts with curiosity, it is accentuated through observation and

finally through exposure to information humans are lead to actual acquisition. There are, of course,

limitations. For example, how the information is organised makes a difference. Second, we are

social beings, so our learning is social too. We love constructing knowledge with others and we

thrive on feedback. In general, others play a part in our learning. Still, learning is personal,

arduous and determined by motivation and personal engagement. Contrary to that, teachers these

days are faced with lack of (intrinsic) motivation, limited and fluctuating student engagement and

lack of student response all of which contribute to block learning. This session aims to identify

learning blockers and to suggest simple steps teachers can take to facilitate student learning.

Competency in intercultural communication amongst international companies, groups and organizations has been challenging as more and more diverse teams form. This talk will look at some of the basic misunderstandings that have taken place within different groups of trained, expert educators, native and non-native alike, due to our own varying cultural backgrounds and offer up better methods to avoid potentially serious errors or miscommunications through examination of our own cultural voicing.

This talk will unravel the essence of coaching in education, providing a comprehensive exploration of coaching and its potentially multifaceted role in the educational landscape. From personalized teacher development to fostering student resilience, to transforming how we teach and teacher communication patterns, we will look at educational coaching, instructional coaching and the latest trend integrating coaching within teaching environments. In itself, professional coaching can cultivate a positive learning culture, enhance pedagogical approaches, improve teacher-student relationships as well as provide teachers with the necessary tools to address challenges, promote resilience, and ultimately shape a more dynamic and inclusive educational landscape.

Are you an English teacher who wants to enhance your skills in teaching English to groups of learners? Then this session is for you. Whether you're instructing beginners or advanced students, group teaching presents both distinct challenges and valuable opportunities. In this session, you will gain practical strategies, techniques and tools to effectively manage group dynamics, promote collaborative learning, and ensure that every student is engaged and progressing.

There are numerous tools in ELT classrooms that are notoriously underestimated and have disappeared without any particular reason. In this practical workshop, we are going to give a second life to dictations by looking at them from a different perspective and testing the waters ourselves.

You'll learn 6+ practical activities that you can use in your class the very next day to enhance the efficiency of your lessons immediately.

As our daily teaching schedule and all that involves takes up so much of our time and energy, we don’t often have the chance to thing about ‘what else’ we could be doing. We tend to stick to certain routines and sometimes don’t take advantage of possibilities to stretch ourselves or take on challenges in other areas. This talk will explore the implications of this regarding our teaching styles, methods we are accustomed to using, the types of classes we usually teach, the technology we are comfortable with and a variety of choices available to us as ELT professionals outside the classroom. Some of the reasons we keep doing what we have always done will be discussed providing a basis for us to work together and come up with ways for us to ‘get unstuck’.