English UK English Language Teaching Conference

Watch recordings of the two plenaries from the English UK English Language Teaching Conference.

English UK's 2021 ELT Conference is an event of two halves: Wednesday's programme is for ELT managers working at English UK member centres, and Thursday's programme is for ELT teachers, free of charge and open to all.

Visit the English UK conference website for more information, and read about the two live-streamed plenaries below.

Plenary: The native factor and the last five years with Silvana Richardson and Chia Suan Chong

Five years ago Silvana Richardson gave one of the greatest plenary sessions at IATEFL 2016. Meticulously researched, excellently delivered and grounded in real experience, Silvana effectively dismantled many of the surviving myths supporting the idea of native English speaker teachers and made sure the discussion was put under the glare of the ELT spotlight.  

Now we are five years on. With discussions in society around equality, diversity and fairness gathering pace and ever more visible in society, Silvana considers our industry and what, if anything, has changed since 2016 and how we might think about moving forwards to have a more equitable post-pandemic ELT industry.   

Silvana will be introduced by author, blogger, trainer and teacher Chia Suan Chong, who will also join Silvana to discuss some aspects of the presentation.  Chia Suan speaks English and Mandarin as first languages, also speaks Japanese, Spanish and Italian.  She has written about the idea of native and non-native-speaker considerations and interactions in EFL teaching and learning, and we are exceptionally proud to have two key thinkers on our programme. 

Recorded on 22 April 2021

Watch a recording of this plenary talk

 

Plenary: Climate action in language education: impactful ways to integrate environmental issues in English language teaching with Colm Downes, Christopher Graham and Dianna Toroysan

This session will be centred around the research strand of the British Council’s new 'Climate Action in Language Education' project. The first section will be led by Christopher Graham who will briefly outline some of the headline findings in the research, and their possible classroom and institutional implications. Colm Downes will lead the second section and drawing on case studies of good practice from around the world, this session will focus on practical ways English language teachers can develop and deliver lessons with a sustainability focus, moving beyond traditional coursebook environment units. The third element will be led by Dianna Torosyan who will outline the project that led to the development, writing and publication of her 20-hour supplementary coursebook ‘Our Planet’ for students aged 10-14. 

Recorded on 22 April 2021

Watch a recording of this plenary talk

 

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