We often present at ELT conferences and events. Just select the title below if you're looking for the handout or download from a talk or workshop you have attended.
Learners of English living in an English speaking environment have rich exposure to the spoken language, yet, at the same time, they regularly experience frustration at not being able to understand what people say. In this workshop, we’ll look at and try out tasks which can be used with different texts to help boost confidence and develop a learner's listening skill.
We will look at 8 features of pronunciation which are of particular relevance for Spanish speaking learners of English. These will include vowels, spelling of vowels, consonants, clusters, word stress, stress patterns, tonic syllables and joined up speech. Each feature will be explained, contrasted with Spanish and demonstrated with an example game.
It is often said that we test rather than teach listening. In this workshop, we consider the characteristics of classroom listening tasks and activities we can use with authentic audio materials. They have been designed to develop the listening skill, and simultaneously help non-native listeners become more effective, confident and autonomous.
Pronunciation is just as important for listening as for speaking. In this workshop, we will look at what features make connected speech difficult to follow. We will try out a series of tasks and games for raising awareness of these features. Finally, I will suggest how teachers can prepare their own micro-listening activities. Find PDF of handout below...
(You can find Mark's powerpoint slide show at the foot of this page, and an interview at IATEFL here) (Read a summary here) The concept of English as a Lingua Franca is not new, and research into ELF has
Read a full article based on the talk on the PDF at the bottom of this page. Listen to the podcast of the talk. How does technology relate to the human touch? And what else apart from these is there in the world of ELT?
What aspects of listening, learning and listener character traits come into play when we take authentic listening texts into our classrooms and how might they relate to tasks and activities we devise? In this workshop we’ll look at the challenges authentic listening texts present for non-expert listeners around B2 level.
A session to present and explain a concept map of current ELT. The idea is to show how the different ideas and acronyms relate to one another, so that we can keep the big picture in mind. We need to see both the wood and the trees! See a related article here.
Do you want to use more authentic listening materials with your learners? Are you looking for ideas on the kind of tasks you could design that will make the listening experience doable, develop your learners’ skills and inculcate confidence - all at the same time? And what's ambiguity and risk got to do with it all? Just some of the questions to be mulled over in this session.
Pronunciation is not only about the mouth, but also the ears. And, with English being a global language, the ears must learn to be flexible in order to make sense of all those varieties of spoken English out there. This session is about helping learners to deal with this variety.
