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Our series of webinars for the Cambridge online conference, designed for teachers of academic English has now come to an end. If you missed any of the webinars, or want to watch them again click the button below.
Brought to you by Cambridge University Press
30th October to 2nd November
Tuesday 30 October
Wednesday 31 October
Thursday 1 November
Friday 2 November
In recent years there has been a growing understanding of the importance of critical thinking within EAP, but many teachers still find it difficult to translate this into the classroom. This session will look at ways in which critical thinking can be embedded within ‘regular’ EAP activities, and our students can be fully empowered with these crucial 21st century skills.
Many of us work on foundation courses where students are being prepared to enter mainstream tertiary education where they will be studying in English. Apart from the context of a university or polytechnic and the learning environment of lectures, seminars and tutorials, how different is the English they require compared to that needed to work or even just travel in English? In this webinar I will look at the four skills and compare the content of a general and an academic English course.
Session 1 How much A does an EAP course need? · Robert McLarty Session 2 Strategies for teaching critical thinking more effectively · Chris Sowton Session 3 Synergistic Speaking Tasks: Ways to manage successful end-of-unit tasks for the oral communication classroom · Daniel Newbury Session 4 Basic literacy in ELT · Gary Pathare Session 5 Motivation in EAP and the use of intrinsically interesting 'academic light' topics and engaging tasks · Adrian Doff Session 6 Academic English tests: What are the challenges in testing language proficiency and academic skills of high level (B2+) learners? · Sarah Unsworth & Sian Morgan Session 7 Specialised vocabulary in English for Academic Purposes in research and teaching · Averil Coxhead Session 8 Rhetorical Readers in Academic Writing: A Corpus-based Contrastive Analysis of Reader Engagement in English, French and Spanish · Niall Curry
9:30 - 10:00am GMT 10:30 - 11:00am GMT 9:45 - 10:15am GMT 10:45 - 11:15am GMT 9:45 - 10:15am GMT 10:45 - 11:15am GMT 9:45 - 10:15am GMT 10:45 - 11:15am GMT
Tuesday 30th October
Wednesday 31st October
EAP texts often include productive speaking tasks such as presentations, oral reports, and mock debates as capstone activities to consolidate the language taught in the respective units. Both preparation and the finished product are beneficial in giving learners confidence regarding their mastery of the material and providing a realistic setting for them to utilize what they have learned. I will present different scaffolding methods to facilitate successful outcomes in terms of student engagement with the material and achieving a balance of creative expression and the attainment of course language objectives.
Learning English using current language teaching methods and materials generally requires learners to have mastered basic English literacy (the ability to encode and decode English script). Learners are often required to write, not only to practice the writing skill, but also to provide personalized examples etc. For adult learners with literacy issues, levels of motivation and achievement may suffer. This topic is gaining relevance for more and more English Language teachers. I will discuss this and outline ideas for teaching approaches, and strategies that can help address the issue.
Thursday 1st November
There are good reasons for making EAP materials lively and engaging, especially as learners who need English for academic study are not always highly motivated and may have little background knowledge of academic topics beyond their own specialism. EAP syllabuses provide learners with significant challenges in terms of linguistic content and skill deployment and teachers can mitigate some of these challenges by offering engaging methodology and materials. This presentation will consider these issues and look at ways of applying features of general English teaching to academic skills materials.
This session will reflect on the overlap between academic literacy and language proficiency in testing at CEFR B2 level and above. It will examine two models of general language proficiency and consider how they fit into the concept of academic literacy. The session will then compare the constructs of high level language proficiency and academic literacy and go on to consider the implications for testing the academic English of high level language learners.
Research has shown that first language interference is a strong predictor of potential errors and pitfalls that individual learners face in language learning. This presentation looks beyond the sentence level transfer and considers reader engagement in academic writing in English, French and Spanish research articles, looking at how writers position readers in texts and how this differs across languages. The results of this study reveal some important similarities and differences which have implications for the teaching of English for academic purposes to learners in French and Spanish first language contexts.
Friday 2nd November
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The focus of this talk is specialised vocabulary in EAP in research and teaching. We will look at three key points: the nature of specialised vocabulary, word lists, and planning for vocabulary in EAP classrooms and curricula. Activities and examples for curriculum and materials design, as well as vocabulary exercises for language classrooms, will be presented and discussed.
Although there is a lot of research evidence demonstrating the benefits of extensive reading (ER), it remains a relatively under used practice in ELT. This talk will outline the linguistic benefits learners may gain from participating in ER programmes, consider the reasons why ER is not more widely used and how the blocks to ER may be overcome. We will then go on to examine the part ER can play in successfully developing thinking and learning skills.
As education becomes increasingly global, bilingualism is becoming a core education policy for more and more countries. From improved cognitive skills and problem-solving abilities through to improved cultural awareness and preparation for English medium tertiary education, there is growing evidence of the benefits for some students of bilingual education. But what are the implications for teachers in the classroom? This session will explore the lessons and opportunities for teachers and educational leaders implementing a bilingual approach.
This session seeks to provoke some questions with regard to shifts and turns in more recent socio-cultural and political landscapes which are rapidly changing the face of classrooms across the world. Given that increasing numbers of classes are multilingual and multicultural, I believe that learning in any context with languages other than the learners' first is offering a rich opportunity to build on what we know supports successful learning whilst extending and re-conceptualising through a more holistic lens the role of (pluri)literacies in learning across ages and stages across languages and contexts. In particular, I will draw on more recent research in content and language integrated learning and look at how these principles and practices might impact positively on more language-oriented classrooms.
In this keynote, Tim considers the role which education has in building collaborative skills in learners, with reference to PISA 2015.
An opportunity for a coffee and conversation about hot educational issues. We will look at recent headlines from the news, which relate to education, and discuss the impact on our educational contexts.
This talk will look at how we can better understand the different aspects of 21st century/life skills and how they can be integrated into English language programmes. We will look at the Cambridge Framework for Life Competencies, and show how it can help us develop these skills through teaching, curriculum, materials and assessment.
PICK AND CHOOSE TALKS Optional Session 1A · The Wolfson Hall The Cambridge Framework for Life Competencies · Ben Knight Optional Session 1B · Jock Colville Hall Education in the news · Karen Momber and Jo Timerick Keynote 3 · The Wolfson Hall Assessing collaborative skills: OECD's interest in widening ideas of student performance · Tim Oates Keynote 4 · The Wolfson Hall Adapting, adopting and implementing bilingual approaches in our programmes: principles, practices and possibilities · Do Coyle Coffee break PICK AND CHOOSE TALKS Session 3A · The Wolfson Hall Gone global: Learning lessons from successful bilingual classrooms · Jane Mann Session 3B · Jock Colville Hall Reading skills, language development and life competencies: The benefits of extensive reading · Peter Watkins Lunch Innovation Showcase
8.30 9.30 10.25 11.15 11.45 12.30
MORNING
Tuesday 26th July
AFTERNOON
Tuesday 26th June
My talk will give an overview of the trends in the mixed media landscape of children's content. I will showcase some innovative digital work from a schools hub in Germany. I will offer some thoughts and ideas on how best to balance the relationship between traditional and digital learning tools today.
Digital literacies are the technical skills and social practices needed to effectively interact with and communicate via digital technologies. Digital literacies are key 21st century skills, and are increasingly important in educational curricula the world over, across all subject areas. This plenary looks at some of the theory underpinning digital literacies, and considers the implications for educational managers and leaders. We explore how educational institutions can take a principled and effective approach to integrating digital literacies into the English as foreign language curriculum.
There has been some recent interest in research evidence in ELT. This has mostly focused on debunking popular approaches: what doesn't work. In this presentation, I will draw on four of the most widely quoted meta-analyses (studies that bring together many research projects) in general educational research to identify things that might work in ELT classrooms. The personal list I will present includes some surprising (and unfashionable) approaches. I will conclude by analysing meta-analyses themselves and consider the extent to which language teaching can actually be evidence-based.
PICK AND CHOOSE TALKS Session 4A · The Wolfson Hall What might work · Philip Kerr Session 4B · Jock Colville Hall Balancing digital: Learning and play today · Neal Hoskins Keynote 5 · The Wolfson Hall Digital literacies · Nicky Hockly Forum session with refreshments Day 2 Closing remarks · The Wolfson Hall
14.00 15.00 15.55 17.20
This talk will draw on research evidence from large-scale international studies to explore why teachers' CPD is a fundamental activity in any organisation that is serious about its learners' learning, what forms of CPD are particularly effective, what factors need to be in place, and how leaders can ensure that effective CPD is implemented.
Textbooks have certain limitations, specifically relating to issues of authenticity, context, immersion and practical application. VR can be an excellent tool to address these shortcomings as it allows students to see English in an authentic context, one that simulates the environment in which they will actually be deploying the language. Furthermore, considering the majority of students are EFL learners (i.e. learning in non-native English speaking countries) VR is especially beneficial to presenting cultural nuances of language use. In conclusion, although at the current point and time VR can be used as excellent supplement to textbook-learning, in the future, it could very well change the way in which we teach, learn, and use language.
Virtual reality (VR) is becoming increasingly prevalent in a range of contexts, including medicine, entertainment and education. One simple way of experiencing VR is through 360-degree video, an immersive type of video that allows viewers to move and look around in all directions, affording choice and control over what they see. This talk will discuss the strengths, limitations, opportunities, and software necessary to begin exploiting the significant potential of VR as a tool for engaging students, designing materials and supporting trainee teachers.
With speaking in English being the most difficult skill to master among L2 users, understanding how to help learners become better speakers remains at the core of ELT research. Such research often centres on identifying trends and patterns that differentiate spoken and written language. However, psycholinguistic and language learning research increasingly demonstrates the importance of identifying role models and creating safe-spaces in which to use language in the development of speaking skills. This talk extrapolates on several of these studies, illustrating what teachers and learners can do to develop speaking strategies from a research-informed perspective.
Optional Session 2 · The Wolfson Hall Developing speaking skills: Contemporary approaches in ELT and psycholinguistics · Laura Grimes & Niall Curry Keynote 6 · The Wolfson Hall Exploring virtual reality for teacher training, materials development and student engagement · Paul Driver Session · The Wolfson Hall Textbooks turned 360: How Virtual Reality facilitates language learning and improves student outcomes· Lulwa Bordcosh The Cambridge experience · The Wolfson Hall A virtual trip around Cambridge · Rupert Daniels Coffee break Keynote 7 · The Wolfson Hall Impactful leadership of teachers' professional development: What matters and why it matters · Silvana Richardson Closing remarks · The Wolfson Hall Lunch Optional Cambridge Activity Punting!
8.30 9.30 10.25 10.50 11.05 11.25 12.15 12.45 15.00
Wednesday 27th June
Sarah Unsworth
Daniel Newbury
Niall Curry
Adrian Doff
Chris Sowton
Averil Coxhead
Gary Pathare
Robert McLarty
Niall Curry is a Senior ELT Research Manager at Cambridge University Press and conducts research on language and language pedagogy to inform materials development. He focuses on how we can use research from fields like corpus linguistics to better inform the choice of language to be learnt as well as educational research to guide the best way to learn language. Prior to working at Cambridge University Press, Niall worked as a language teacher and lecturer in applied linguistics at universities in France and Ireland. He is also completing his PhD at the University of Limerick, Ireland on corpus-based contrastive linguistics of academic writing in English, French and Spanish.
Adrian Doff has worked as a teacher and teacher trainer in Finland, Yugoslavia, Britain, Lebanon and Egypt. He is co-author of Meanings into Words and the Language in Use series; author of the teacher training course Teach English; series editor of Cambridge Skills for Fluency series and co-author of Listening 1, 2 and 4 in that series; and one of the authors of English Unlimited. He is currently living in Germany and working as a freelance writer and teacher trainer.
Chris Sowton is an experienced teacher, trainer and materials writer in the field of the English Language. He worked for many years teaching EAP at British universities, primarily Cambridge and King’s College London, and has written extensively in the field. He is now an international education consultant.
Sarah Unsworth is Assessment Group Manager at Cambridge Assessment English, where she has many years’ experience developing and producing English tests including tests of Academic English. Sarah is Assessment Project Manager for Cambridge English Empower, a joint Cambridge University Press and Cambridge Assessment English blended course which incorporates on-line assessment and appropriate follow-up activities. Sarah has substantial experience in assessment development and delivery, especially in the area of Learning Oriented Assessment. She also has many years’ experience as an English Language teacher and teacher trainer in Germany and the UK. She has a Post Graduate Certificate in Education in Modern Languages and TESOL and a London Chamber of Commerce and Industry diploma in Teaching English for Business.
Daniel Newbury is an associate professor at Fuji University and teaches adjunctly at Iwate University in Iwate Prefecture, Japan. He teaches primarily general, business, and EGAP classes. His research interests are integrating technology with language learning and designing tasks that balance students’ attention on fluency and accuracy.
Associate Professor Averil Coxhead is the Learning, Teaching and Equity Director in the School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Averil teaches undergraduate TESOL and MA courses in vocabulary and EAP. She is the author of Vocabulary and ESP research (2018, Routledge) and the co-author of Academic Vocabulary for Middle School Students: Research-Based Lists and Strategies for Key Content Areas (2015, Brookes).
Gary Pathare has taught English in the Dubai HCT Foundations program since 2001, after ten years’ teaching English and teacher training in Spain. His main professional interest is in developing and sharing new teaching approaches and materials to support them. Gary is author of many ELT course books including Unlock Basic Literacy (Cambridge University Press), Headway Academic Skills, Headway Plus and Milestones (Oxford University Press), and Skillful (MacMillan), and he has published articles on teaching writing, reading, and pedagogical uses of IT. Gary has extensive experience as an IELTS and Cambridge examiner, IDP consultant, and item writer for the UAE national exam body and the British Council APTIS test. Gary has an M.Ed. (TESOL) from Newcastle, with a dissertation focus on teaching spelling, a Trinity Licentiate Diploma in TESOL, and a degree in law.
Robert McLarty works as Principle Academic Staff Member at Waikato Institute of Technology where he teaches EAP to international students who wish to move on to study in tertiary education in New Zealand. He has previously worked in Paris and Oxford as a teacher, teacher-trainer and school principal. He is editor of Modern English Teacher and has written materials for OUP, CUP, Pearson and Richmond. From 2004-2014 he was Publishing manager for ESP and EAP at OUP.
Siân Morgan works in the Research and Thought Leadership Group at Cambridge English Language. Siân works on IELTS, teaching qualifications, research communications, and thought leadership projects. Her interests include Performance Assessment, Learning-Oriented Assessment, and Teacher Assessment Literacy. She has taught EAP in Italy, the USA, and the UK, and has an Ed.M. in Applied Linguistics (Language Assessment) from Columbia University, NY.
Siân Morgan
Details
betterlearning@cambridge.org
For any questions surrounding the conference please email
Our Better Learning conference attendance is by invite only.
You should now have all your flight information, if this is not the case, then please do get in touch with us: betterlearning@cambridge.org All of our guests will be greeted at the airport, you should receive details via email over your airport transfers two weeks before the conference start date. Once exiting arrivals at your London airport (after clearing immigration and collecting luggage) a representative will be waiting to collect you, they will be easily identifiable, as they will have one of our Better Learning Conference and Cambridge University Press signs, they will then drive you straight to Churchill College in Cambridge. Download our immigration letter here. All of our guests are staying at the Churchill College and this is where the conference is hosted. Is one of the prettiest Cambridge University Colleges and set in spacious wooded grounds, just outside of the Cambridge city centre. There are local shops, restaurants and cafes close by for convenience. During your spare time, outside of the conference programme, you may wish to explore the historic city centre and we will be happy to advise the best ways of doing this. Look at the map › All of our guests are invited to attend our formal dinner at Churchill College. Dinner will be served at 19:00. Dress code is smart/formal, but no need for black tie! This will be a free evening for guests to spend as they wish After lunch we have arranged to take our guests on a guided punting tour on the river Cam, to see the famous sights of Cambridge. There will also be some free time for guests to explore Cambridge themselves too (please note comfortable shoes are advised).
Accommodation
Formal Dinner Monday 25th June
Churchill College
Arriving at the Conference
