Longman

Pearson Longman at the ELTA Conference

The greatest event for English language teachers in the previous school year was the 6th ELTAIATEFL International Annual Conferenceentitled "The Classroom That Beats the Odds" which was held in the Sava Centre, Belgrade, from 30 May - 01 June 2008. As before, Pearson Longman was one of the sponsors of the event but also its participant with the ELT resources exhibition, Great Teachers competition, two plenaries and two presentations and Longman’s surprise party on the first evening of the Conference.

 

 

 

The opening plenary entitled “To err is human; to forgive improve divine”
was given by Robert Hastings, our distinguished ELT author and teacher trainer. Later on that day, in an afternoon session, Robert Hastings presented practical teaching ideas to engage our learners’ minds, capture their interest and so improve their English.

On the second day of the Conference, Robert Dean had a presentation entitled “Getting Inside the Examiner’s Head”. He focused on exam preparation classes and suggested a series of practical ways in which we can train our learners in exam strategy.

Robert Dean also had the closing plenary devoted to the speaking skill. He spoke about the ingredients which are necessary for effective spoken discourse and how they can be catered for in the English classroom.

Most of the Conference participants were anxious to see what Longman’s surprise party would be about this year. We had to come up with something special and not disappoint the teachers. So we invited the Roma children from the primary school “Branko Pešić” in Zemun who performed a short play in English entitled “The Empty Safe”. It was a great success and the children and their fantastic teachers who had prepared them got a rapturous applause. The performance was followed by food and wine and music from a DJ.