NUBiP of Ukraine Hosts 22nd Annual National IATEFL Ukraine Conference
March, 31 – April, 1 were very crowded in National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine. More than 320 high and higher school teachers from all over Ukraine, United Kingdom, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Turkey, Iran came to our university to discuss current research problems in education, to learn about new techniques of teaching English, to meet old and to make new friends.
Rector Stanislav Nikolaienko welcomed the participants and said about the importance of studying the English language which is the global language.
President of IATEFL Ukraine Svitlana Andryeyanova thanked our university and particularly Faculty of Humanities and Pedagogy, namely dean of our faculty Vasyl Shynkaruk for hosting 22nd Annual National IATEFL Ukraine Conference.
Margit Szesztay, incoming President of IATEFL International spoke about learning through discussion, creativity in ELT, the teacher as educator , and building professional communities.
Simon Etherton, the Head of English Projects for the British Council in Ukraine told about how we can change what we do in our classrooms to make a real difference to the quality of learning of our students.
Tony Prince from Poland focused on the new developments in language assessment and explained such concepts as Cambridge English Scale or Learner Oriented Assessment to the audience.
Olha Madylus from United Kingdom helped the participants to answer the question What type of skills and competencies that will our learners need in the future?
The rest of the conference consisted of talks, concurrent sessions, workshops and roundtable discussions, offered over two days. The issues discussed were as follows (selected):
1. Teaching core skills: meeting the demand of the 21st century.
2. From the Dnieper to the Danube and the Black Sea to the Atlantic. Exploring the local in ELT.
3. SMRT curriculum in the classroom as a source of motivation.
4. Focus on FCE training: exam tips.
5. Questions and questioning to improve teaching, learning and …?
6. Test? Today? Hurray!
7. Preparing with Prepare: enjoy working with Cambridge textbooks.
8. Find your level – objective measurement of student progress.
9. Developing professional skills with Company 3.0
10. Assessment literacy: theoretical utopia or classroom reality?
11. How to motivate teenagers.
12. Be brave, don’t be afraid of creativity: there are so many ideas around us!
Even after receiving the certificates the participants continued to vividly discuss the problems that Ukrainian education faces nowadays.
Olena Soloviova
