Talks and Workshops

First of all I’d like to thank everyone for the increasing audience of the ELT and WEB Connections blog. It’s really good to see we’re helping teachers do their work somehow.

Below you’ll find an updated list of my talks and workshops. Some of them already include an abstract. In case you wish to know more about those who do not have the abstract included here, you can get in touch with me through the comment link or through the e-mail eduardo@eduardotrindade.com.br.

Effective Speaking Classes

Having problems with getting students speaking in the classroom? This workshop sure helps you with practical ideas of motivating, content-rich, fun activities and games, focusing mostly on fluency. In schools, all over the world, usually the most difficult skill to teach and learn is, for several different reasons, speaking. In this workshop we’ll take a look at some of the issues and theories about the speaking skill in the classroom of English. We’ll also present some very interesting ideas of activities and games for breaking up the ice and helping students speak effectively. The main goal of this talk is to present motivating ways for us to change the focus from accuracy to fluency and really get students speaking, mostly by reducing their traditional fear or unwillingness of exposing themselves. All activities come from real use in real classrooms all over, representing tried out successful experiences.

Graded Readers in ELT – From intensive to extensive reading

Intensive reading sure helps develop some abilities in English. And it’s surely something important mainly for improving reading exam skills. But when it comes down to raising students’ motivation towards reading it usually fails. In this workshop we’ll look at different ways of motivating our students to read for the sake of reading and we’ll also present hints and suggestions on how to implement a successful Extensive Reading Project with your students.

Hollywood and ELT: Using original films in the classroom

We live in a world dominated by visual images. The use of original movies or its trailers in the classroom of English is, thus, a certainly important motivation factor. But, in order to appreciate a movie as a piece of artwork and at same time develop and practice the linguistic abilities of our students, we need interesting and practical ideas and suggestions. This way we can effectively access the movies’ messages and integrate them, with relevance, in our language teaching. This workshop will start with a short theoretical introduction and brainstorming about the use of original films in the classroom of English, and then we’ll move on to some very motivating and relevant activities for our students to play with.

Blended Learning: First ideas and activities.

Blended Learning has come to stay. It involves using a combination of both face to face and distance learning activities in the process of teaching and learning a language. In this talk we’ll take a look at some important theoretical points to consider before using the web and new technologies in the classroom. We’ll also go through a lot of practical ideas and suggestions for better integrating the internet and other technologies in the ELT classroom.

Web Content-Producing in ELT - One step further using the internet

Using the Internet as a motivator is surely valid, and it’s probably the first step for those who want to incorporate blended learning in their instruction. But this workshop intends to show teachers ways in which they can use the internet not just as a motivator, with ready-made activities, but as a complete learning tool where students can produce content and interact even more with the web. We’ll learn how to create blogs, flogs, podcasts, etc. and use them effectively in ELT. Blogging has recently taken place in many areas, mainly in Journalism, but it has not yet been much used in ELT. In this talk we’ll try to help teachers move from using ready-to-go websites to using blogs, flogs, podcasts and so on, to get students producing content for the web rather than just using it.

We’ll start watching a seven-minute video created in a school in the U.S. to show its staff the importance of new technologies in the role of educators in the 21^st century.

The first practical step is a writing activity in the computers, where teachers will create a short animated film and publish it on the web through a WEB 2.0 application platform.

We’ll then briefly talk about the WEB 2.0 concept and the hypertext theory. Another 5 minute video, now about hypertexting and web 2.0 applications, will be shown.

This small video will lead to creating a blog and then teachers will follow procedures that will connect their blogs, in pairs, in case this is done in a lab. Otherwise, we’ll just show teachers the steps and give them reference to further apply what we’ll show.

Contemporary English: chunking, texting and the changes in Shakespeare’s language

In this talk we’re going to take a look at some of the most recent changes in contemporary spoken English in the UK that are already used in spoken grammar and are starting to change the traditional English grammar, at least, according to some innovative grammarians. We’ll also take a look at some features of Internet English and Texting, and discuss how those new codes might (or not) interfere in the structure and form of the formal language in the future. Thought-provoking, this talk will make us reflect on our teaching practices and the benefits or disadvantages of all those changes in our lives as teachers.

ELT Games and Contests

Some of the first things we think of when we talk about games in classroom are: motivation, fun, opportunities for speaking practice and enjoyment. Of course we could list here a lot of other things we think of when talking about games, but in this workshop we’ll concentrate on the above.

In the first part of this talk we’ll brainstorm some theoretical views and issues regarding games and contests in the EFL / ESL classroom. Since this is a very participative workshop, after that, we’ll then move on to some very practical activities to be carried out with your students at almost any age or level.

A physical approach to pronunciation

Using the IPA (International Phonemic Alphabet) with students of English can be quite difficult. With the physical approach to pronunciation the phonetic symbols are organized in a chart according to the movements we do with our jaw and lips for sounding each one of the English phonemes. This workshop gives you better understanding of the English vowels and consonants sounds as well as their combinations and how they’re produced in our aural cavity.

During the workshop, based on the Sound Foundations resource book, by Adrian Underhill, we’ll also suggest a lot of simple short activities to carry on at any point, in any English course, and they are suitable with almost any level of knowledge.

Interactive White Board: Facts and Myths

The Mixed Ability class

Approaches and Methods

Understanding natural speech

Teaching Teenagers

Using traditional media in the ELT Classroom