Dear all,

please find the news and updates for this week below:

1. Common Time Professional Development Sessions

You can find the details of this week’s sessions below:

DATE & TIME& VENUE TITLE PRESENTER(S) BRIEF INFO
10.10.2019, 09:00-10:30, ScOLa 220 Having fun with grammar Nazan Özçınar Sirel & Ezgi Öner Grammar is the backbone of a language which needs to be presented and practised in class. Presentation is the stage at which students are introduced to the form, meaning and usage of a new piece of language. Teachers cannot not skip this stage if they wish to have their students grasp the necessary items of language. However, if they want their students to understand how to use that language item they need to use various ways of practice activities in class which suit their students’ interest and their own teaching style. Therefore, students need to be provided with opportunities of practice activities that engage them with the target language in order to be succesful language users.
10.10.2019, 09:00-10:30, ScOLa 314 Reading Club Kezban Altuntaş Reading text:

Five Minds for the Future by Howard Gardner

 

10.10.2019,
14:45-16:30ScOLa 220
Speaking Swapshop Gülçin Coşgun This session will provide the participants with the opportunity to create a checklist for teaching speaking skill effectively and share their experiences/activities with each other and reflect on these practices referring to this checklist.

 

Please send an e-mail to presenter(s) by Wednesday if you would like to attend this session so that they can make the necessary arrangements.

2. Conference application procedures document

We would like to inform you that there are some minor changes in the conference application procedures. Please refer to the updated version in the TLDU folder on Z-drive.

3. Cambridge University Press Webinar- Assessing Speaking: How to reduce some of the challenges of evaluating your learners by Craig Thaine  

Date & Time: 15 October 2019,  09:00 BST

Brief Information about the session:

Most formal English language tests and examinations include a component that focuses on spoken language. The aim of this assessment is to determine a learner’s level of spoken competence. The results of these tests are similar to snapshots frozen in time, and they provide learners with useful feedback and some kind of evidence of ability.

At the same time, there is another kind of evaluation of learners’ speaking that is carried out regularly by teachers on English language programmes. Their aim is to determine the kind of progress their learners are making with their oral language and to provide them with feedback for future learning. This is typically known as a Learning Oriented Assessment (LOA) approach to evaluating students’ speaking.

This webinar will outline some of the differences between formal and classroom-based assessment of speaking. It will then look at what aspects of spoken language teachers can evaluate and focus on an LOA approach. It aims to provide practical suggestions that can make the assessment of speaking easier for both the learner and the teacher.

About the speaker:

Craig Thaine is Cambridge DTEFLA qualified and has an MA (Hons.) in Applied Linguistics.  He is currently Director of Teacher Training at Languages International, Auckland and is a Cambridge ESOL Teaching Awards assessor for both the CELTA and Delta schemes.  Craig has extensive experience developing and teaching English language courses to adult learners, including ESP and EAP courses. Craig is co-author of Empower, the general English adult course.

Registration link