Professional development workshops
25 January 2020, Saturday
With kind support from
HELTA e.V.
Ernst Klett Sprachen GmbH
Cambridge University Press
Berufliche Schule für Medien & Kommunikation / Eulenkamp 46, Hamburg
(Map: https://cambridge-nord.de/contact/)
This is a free event open to all teachers
(whether preparing students for Cambridge Exams or not …yet!)
Registration: cambridge@hamburg.de
(Attendance/Fortbildung certificates provided on request)
How can a corpus help us organise advanced level teaching?
Michael McCarthy
In this workshop we begin by discussing the language needs of more advanced students (B2-C2). We then examine evidence from native-speaker and learner corpora. We find we can enhance advanced grammar teaching by (a) teaching new meanings and functions for old forms already learnt at lower levels, (b) new forms for old meanings learners have already learnt to express. We also look at useful grammar that is evident in corpora but rarely or never taught. Finally, using learner corpus evidence, we look at some problems more advanced learners have. The workshop is hands-on, working with real data.
About Michael: Michael McCarthy is Emeritus Professor of Applied Linguistics at the University of Nottingham, Adjunct Professor of Applied Linguistics at the University of Limerick, Ireland and Visiting Professor at Newcastle University. He is the (co-)author and (co-)editor of 50 books and more than 100 academic articles, including the Cambridge Grammar of English, English Grammar Today, From Corpus to Classroom and Grammar and Usage: Your Questions Answered. He has been actively involved in ELT for more than 50 years.
Exam preparation in the real world
Olha Madylus (Sponsored by Cambridge University Press)
Do you teach an exam class? It’s not that easy, is it? Even though students are all preparing for the same exam, they aren’t at the same level. Even though there is a clear goal, they aren’t all equally motivated. Even though they are in an exam class, they also want to learn to use their English in real-life situations. And wait a moment, not all the students in your exam class may actually be planning to even take the exam.
By using examples from the new course from Cambridge University Press, Open World, this presentation explores the challenges of preparing students for exams and offers strategies and tools to help cater for them all. For example, considering that students won’t all be at the same level, students can review and practise areas of grammar independently before class, so that class time is better spent on interesting tasks, which require interaction, and those who need more practice can get it. For those students who are feeling a bit bored, because tasks seem too easy, and are losing momentum, they can be challenged by tasks that push them beyond the exam level. Techniques which provide focussed exam preparation will also be identified as well as activities which not only equip students to be successful in exams, but also allow students to learn and practise real-world English (and finally understand the lyrics of their favourite song).
About Olha: Olha has taught in the UK, Greece, Hong Kong and Venezuela. She is a freelance consultant and teacher trainer and trains language school teachers (and trainers) worldwide.
She is based in London and does consultation, teacher training and teacher trainer training for organisations such as international publishers, The British Council and Ministries of Education worldwide. She is also a materials’ designer and author.
Her main focus is on understanding and motivating learners as well as literacy development.
She is the author of Film, TV and Music, a photocopiable activities book for teenagers, Cambridge University Press.
