The Challenge of the Indigo Children
David A. Hill ( Hungary )

If you have been teaching for the last 20 years you may have noticed a radical change in the behaviour of the children you are now dealing with. Equally, if you have children of your own, their behaviour may be very different from that of you and your partner when you were their age. This is not just another "kids these days..!!" Generational issue. It seems that we are witnessing an evolutional change in human beings. Your pupils and your own children may be Indigo Children, and, as such, require a very different style of education and upbringing to the one which we have traditionally been offering. This Plenary Lecture will explore these issues.

• "Critical Incidents" in Teaching
  Slavko Cvetek ( Slovenia )

  The aim of this workshop is to raise the participants' awareness of the importance of pedagogical decisions that language teachers make when they have to cope with unexpected and problematic situations in the classroom. These situations or incidents, if analysed, are a valuable source of information that the teacher can use in order to make principled and effective pedagogical decisions.

• Content-Based Language Instructions via Civic Education
  Craig Dicker ( Slovenia )

  This workshop introduces participants to some of the essential principles of teaching languages from a content-based approach. The importance of developing learners' critical thinking skills in foreign languages is highlighted. Participants then experience 3-4 activities from an on-line course entitled "Language and Civil Society" and evaluate the appropriateness of these materials in light of their teaching situations.

• Communicative Approach to Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night
  Meta Grosman ( Slovenia )

  The book is a thought provoking novel read with a wide range of readerly emotions. Yet only a few students venture to speak about it and share their emotions and thoughts. Can we persuade all students to share their opinions and thus contribute to a more complex understanding of the text? Participants are strongly recommended to have read the text.

• The Changing Face of English
  Bruce Milne ( UK )

  In this workshop we will examine some recent changes in English (vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation) and consider how these have come about. We will also look at how corpus studies have changed our perceptions of how native speakers use the language and participants will have the opportunity to practise some advanced features such as ellipsis, cleft sentences and vague language.

• A Crash Course in British History
  Mirka Milovančev, Meta Kač ( Slovenia )

  Who fought the Wars of the Roses? What is a Union Jack and how did it come about? The 400th anniversary of which event will be celebrated on 5th November?

  Have you ever been embarrassed (or are embarrassed while reading this) for not knowing these basic historical facts? If the answer is affirmative, our presentation is an absolute must.

• Group Dynamics in Language Learning Groups
  Kalina Stamenova ( Bulgaria )

  The aim of the workshop is to experience and observe group dynamics and unconscious processes in classrooms and student - students and teacher - student/s interactions. Participants will explore some ideas and their influence on group cohesion and group dynamics. The group will use action methods to facilitate interaction. Participants and workshop leader will learn from and share their experience.

• The Teacher's Partner - The Internet
  Janja Zupančič ( Slovenia )

  The workshop will cover a wide range of possibilities for using the Internet in EFLT. Several examples such as class conferences, topic projects and a web newspaper will be presented and supported with materials produced by secondary school students. In the second part participants will take an active role in producing materials for their students.

• Task-Based Class Project
  Alenka Budihna ( Slovenia )

  This project enables students to set their common goals which emphasize dialogues between students and teachers and between students themselves. It is a task-based principle of language instruction that creates opportunities for meaningful language use. Another aim of introducing this is to stimulate interaction between students and flow of ideas and opinions and make it work in practice.

• From Confidence to Competence
  Steve Lever ( UK )

  When dealing with young learners, a teacher's most important task is not only getting the students to acquire language, but to help them feel confident enough to want to continue learning. The speaker will discuss theoretical and practical issues related to achieving this. Examples will be taken from Sail Away and Welcome Starter.

• Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Britain (but Were Afraid to Ask)
  Petra Petek, Katarina Rogelj ( Slovenia )

  Ever been puzzled by the 20th century Britain ? Play a quiz with us and we will help you to puzzle out a few important but also exciting moments in the recent British history. Join us and learn interesting but rarely mentioned facts from this field and later use them to impress your students and colleagues.

• The Oxford 3000 TM - a New Departure
  Irena Rozman ( Slovenia )

  One of the new ideas developed for Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary - 7 th edition is the Oxford 3000tm , a list of keywords which is designed to address the recent innovations in dictionaries. This talk explains why the Oxford 3000tm is a good thing, why the list is the way it is and what makes it more reliable and more useful than the others.

• Songs of the Coming Age
  Marijan Rudel ( Slovenia )

  Covering experiences of different cultures, the songs of the Coming Age build a new consciousness of humankind and can provide a much needed spiritual component in present-day education. Come and sing along with a professional musician either to get materials for your classes or simply to relax and learn something new.

• Methodology of TEACHING Young Children from 3 to 6 in the International Kindergarten
  Marija Rus ( Slovenia )

  Demonstration will focus on the methodology of teaching young children from 3 to 6 years in the International Kindergarten through the presentation of big circle, action and didactical games, learning rhymes and songs, reading stories, drama and role play. Video and audio materials will be used to illustrate the content.

• One Computer and the Web Quest?
  Vida Vidmar ( Slovenia )

  During the workshop participants will be able to learn more about using an existing web quest even when they have only one computer and one projector in the classroom. I will also encourage participants to design their own web quest with the help which is already on the Internet.

   

• Four Eyes Are Better than Two
  Craig Dicker ( Hungary )

  The classroom is a mysterious black box where teachers and students, behind closed doors, learn and teach. People justifiably fear their colleagues' judgmental comments. However, if trained to conduct non-judgmental, focused descriptions of classroom behaviour, peer observations can be real eye-openers. This presentation outlines how to observe and share descriptions in a non-judgmental fashion.

• To Blog or Not to Blog
  Šarlota Godnič Vičič ( Slovenia )

  This presentation explores the ways in which "blogs," a type of web journals, help to develop writing, reading and communication skills. The potentials that blog assisted language learning offers to EFL and ESP learners are illustrated with practical examples of blogging projects around the world. As the interactive and reflective features of blogging provide opportunities for teachers' own professional development, these will also be briefly addressed.

• Reading and the Common European Framework
  Robert Hill ( Italy )

  This session will explore the points of contact between the Common European Framework and the skill of reading: how to grade reading skills; what texts to use; how to grade texts; what is the importance of cultural content. Is the CEF exhaustive and reliable? Both graded and non-graded reading material will be used to demonstrate the CEF's strengths and weaknesses.

• Perfectionism: The Double Edged Sword
  Simon Marshall ( UK )
  

  This interactive talk will look at the positive and negative sides of perfectionism. Sadly, research indicates it is the most dedicated teachers who suffer the most. Why is this so, and ways of alleviating stress and guilt will be of central importance.
  

• The Global Approach to Understanding English Language Tenses
  Rita Baker ( UK )

  Our brains are designed to perceive whole patterns - understanding the big picture before getting down to details. Conventional language teaching dissects and thereby obliterates patterns, presenting the remaining chunks as rules. The Global Approach accelerates learning by presenting the whole patterns of a language visually and kinaesthetically. This workshop will show how to use the Approach to teach English tenses.

• Choice Theory for Teachers
  Mojca Belak ( Slovenia )

  "Popular, respected, loves teaching and has some freedom at work." This ideal picture of a teacher's job covers four basic human psychological needs, encoded in our genes according to Choice Theory, which was developed by American psychologist Dr. William Glasser. Come and learn about Choice theory through in-depth exploration of yourself as a teacher and as a person.

• Human Rights Education and Language Development
  Stefan Colibaba ( Romania )

  The workshop focuses on the way a human rights education programme in English can develop knowledge, values, attitudes, skills, and language competencies with secondary school students and pose a professional challenge to teachers of English. The presentation aims to show the convergence of principles of English language teaching and human rights education methodology.

• To Blog or Not to Blog
  Šarlota Godnič Vičič ( Slovenia )

  This workshop is for newbies who would like to get a hands-on experience in setting up their own blogs and sending simple pots to their internet journals immediately. Topics such as changing your settings, inviting friends/new members, sending comments to other bloggers, linking posts to websites, incorporating photos, setting up a class blog and monitoring student blogs will be covered.

• First-Hand Alternative Assessment - Teachers as Peer Editors
  Annie Polatsek ( Croatia )

  Want to experience peer editing firsthand? Find out how less work for teachers creates more learning for students. We'll loop the topic and process using your writing as a sample and exploit the experience for demonstration and discussion. Humanizing assessment in action for you to transfer to your own context!

• Reading - Ideas for Teachers, Benefits for Learners
  Robert Hill ( Italy )

  This session will demonstrate some methods that teachers can use to motivate learners in reading: the use of visual aids; dramatisation techniques; ways of working with vocabulary. It will also demonstrate how learners can benefit from the cross-curricular connections that reading texts can offer, and how they can improve all four language skills. Reading can even help in exam preparation!

'You Must Remember This.' Making New Language Memorable
Clive Oxenden ( UK )

One of the most important stages of a class is when we present new language to students. A good presentation should itself be memorable and help to make the target language easy to remember. To achieve this we need our students to be focused and involved, not with their heads in the book (perhaps not even looking at the right page!). This talk looks at ways of adapting and improving text book presentations to make them more effective, more relevant, more fun and above all. more memorable.