1. End of August
• A new interactive webinar workshop will help you learn about New Online Materials for English language Learning and Teaching:
Wednesday, August 31st 2011; 9:00-10:30am EST or 1:00-2:30pm EST
Login: http://tinyurl.com/webinar9am
Login: http://tinyurl.com/webinar1pm
• “August meetings” is the time to catch up and share news. Those who were lucky to attend the XVIIth annual NATE Conference in Kaliningrad (June 28-30) will tell you about brilliant key speakers as well as about new tendencies and projects in ELT. You could get some glimpses of the Conference at http://www.eltrussia.ru/articles_21.html
2. September
• At the beginning of a new academic year you always face a challenge - how to “orchestra“ your class with all those “instruments”, especially if many of them are “out of tune”. Here is Sylva Etian’s, a friend of ELO, words of wisdom: “The finest music in the world is produced by a wide variety of instruments, played in cooperation rather than competition. The sound of one instrument is complemented as much by those, which are different as those that are similar. Without this unity in difference, there would be no symphony. So check out this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYOVh2QNjHA right now”
• Two major Conferences in Ivanovo (September 8-10) and LATEUM (September 28-30) will open this year’s academic pursuit.
Ivanovo IX Conference INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL ON LEXICOGRAPHY«Multi-disciplinary Lexicography: Traditions and Challenges of the XXIst century» is a must for those who deal with Lexicology and Lexicography.
http://www.ivanovo.ac.ru/conferences/lexico-2011
The 10th International Conference of the Linguistic Association of Teachers of English at the University of Moscow (LATEUM) is a jubilee Conference.
It highlights as one of the key speakers a foremost authority Michele Berdy, who has worked in Russia since 1978, parses Russia’s changing culture, politics, social scene and everyday life through language and the art of translation.
• NATE Working group is asking everyone to help with circulating a questionnaire among your friends, relatives, and former students to find out English language needs on-the job. This is a very significant step in making language training more relevant to real-life needs. This will be the first phase of a challenging ESP Project.
http://virtualexs.ru/cgi-bin/exsurveys/survey.cgi?ac=5966
3. October
Umbrella Gathering "Getting an "A" with Autonomy" will be hosted by ATES (Smolensk English Language Teachers’ Association) on October 28-30. “Autonomy”, “autonomous learning” will surely be buzzwords in ELT community for this coming year. Three new projects will be discussed and launched. Three new DVD-ROMs are expected to be created by the end of the academic year:
• "American and Russian Best Practices in Standardized Testing in English" under guidance of Prof. Mariya Verbitskaya and Prof.Elena Solovova;
• “Developing New ESP Policy and Models for the Russian ELT Community” ;
• “Access Curriculum Development Best Practices”
We invite you to start a collection of materials that will be appropriate for autonomous learning. Here is our contribution: http://quizlet.com/ This simple, free online tool can stimulate learning and make studying fun in class and at home. Makes learning fun and energizes students. Multiple study modes including flash cards, multiple choice, and games.
Easy to do, fast, and free!
Please check the link to Higher Education Teaching and Learning Portal: www.hetl.org It has plenty of useful info on Web 2.0 and other resources in the section “Media Library”, including videos and power points.
Hope you are enjoying the last days of August and wishing you Happy September 1st!
