IATEFL 2014 Harrogate

Thanks to all of you who came to the Collins stand during the IATEFL 2014 conference in Harrogate, it was such a pleasure to meet so many of you! Here is a summary of our conference highlights, with links to our speakers’ presentation slides.

We’d also like to send many congratulations out to our three winners!Dora from Greece has won a First English Words Activity Pack plus 15 copies of First English Words Activity Book 1, Kadir from Turkey has won a class set of Research in the Academic Skills Series, and Ivana from the Czech Republic has won 15 copies of the ELT Reader Amazing Scientists. We hope that you’ll enjoy using your prizes with your students!

Queen Victoria at IATEFL 2014

Those of you who visited the Collins stand might remember our special guest, Queen Victoria, who is one of the Amazing People in our new series of ELT Readers. Here are some photographic highlights – with music by yet another person in the Amazing People series, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

http://animoto.com/play/mowM8I3t2IzpvNwhz3u8yA

Have a look at the Harrogate 2014 album on our facebook page if you’d like to see some more snapshots!

Collins ELT Presentations at IATEFL Harrogate

What do you say after “Hello”? Successful networking techniques – Barry Tomalin

Barry asked how we can teach our students to build successful business relationships in English. He introduced listening techniques, gave tips about how to signal interest, and shared the F.A.C.E model.

Download Barry’s presentation slides

Watch the Harrogate Online video of Barry’s presentation

More information about Barry’s title Key Business Skills

First English Words: What can pre-schoolers do? – Niki Joseph and Hans Mol

Sharing lots of engaging activities, Niki and Hans showed how a picture dictionary like First English Words can be used as an active resource with pre-schoolers.

Download Nikki and Hans’ presentation slides

Watch a demo lesson with First English Words

Find out more about all the First English Words components

Post-IELTS writing: helping students to understand and meet academic expectations – Els van Geyte

Good essay writing skills are key to academic success, but it’s difficult to make the step up from the IELTS essay to writing for academia. Els explored how students can progress by focussing on crucial academic principles, also discussed in her latest book, Writing. Writing is part of the Collins Academic Skills Series, which has recently been shortlisted at the ELTon awards.

Download Els’ presentation slides

Find out more about Els’ latest book – Academic Skills Series: Writing

Read an interview with Els van Geyte

A fresh approach to advanced listening practice materials – Sheila Thorn

Sheila examined the authentic listening needs of advanced learners, including decoding fast, unscripted spoken English, coping with NES and NNES accents, dealing with overlapping speech and listening effectively despite background noise.

Download Sheila’s presentation slides

Download audio for Sheila’s presentation

More information and downloads for Real Lives, Real Listening

The Vocabulary Organizer: a new way to record lexis – Pete Sharma

How do your students store new vocabulary? Alphabetically? Digitally? Using flashcards? In this presentation Pete introduced the new Vocabulary Organizer, which enables students to record lexis and distinguish between ‘productive’ and ‘receptive’ vocabulary. The workshop also included practical vocabulary teaching activities, of interest to EAP and general English students.

Download Pete’s presentation slides

Watch Pete introduce the Vocabulary Organizer

Find out more about the Vocabulary Organizer

Amazing People Teach English: new graded readers from Collins – Andy Cowle

Andy offered a practical look at how the exceptional lives and abilities of the most talented people the world has ever seen can make great classroom material, and showed lots of examples, videos, and audio from the Amazing People ELT Readers.