I. Thank you, FEELTA!

FEELTA/NATE Conference "Building Bridges with Languages and Cultures," (Far Eastern National University, Vladivostok) was a great success thanks to the efforts of lots of teachers http://feelta.wl.dvgu.ru

Just have a look at the abstracts of Featured Speakers! Ludmila Bondarenko, Michael Byram,  John Fanselow,  David Fay, Yuxin Jia, Lance Knowles, Diane Larsen-Freeman, Galina Lovtsevich, Tim Murphey, Alexandra Rivlina, Stephen M. Ryan, Elena Solovova, Maria Verbitskaya.

About 600 participants from many countries were “torn” between almost 250 other presentations, workshops, discussions, a Share Fair of teaching ideas, poster sessions and a full social program. Reports, outcomes, and photos will be available ont the FEELTA website shortly. Here is one of the comments: “It was really nice to share experience and views with our colleagues from different parts of the world. This time was one of the most enlightning in means of new connections and meetings”. Yakut TESOL, Larisa Olesova, President lolesova@yahoo.com

Kazan will host the next NATE Conference – start thinking about taking part in it!

II. Teacher Development Fall Course “A Fresh Look on Teaching English and American Studies” and Umbrella – 7 Conference “Building Networks for Change”

The Ryazan State Pedagogical University, headed by Dr.Irina Sheina (our colleague!), has volunteered to be the host of these great events for the local EFL community and guests on September 16-19. Gathering together to discuss current and future priorities in ELT and American Studies is the foundation of Umbrella meetings. This year's Umbrella meeting will be exploring new projects that will unite Russian EFL community in bettering professional development of EFL teachers. 25 representatives of various Associations are coming to Ryazan supported by ELO grants and 20 opinion leaders are coming at their expense. POC is Nataliya Kovtun. kovtuntasha@list.ru

III. AMFEST in Moscow!

This year the American Film Festival in Moscow "New Images of America" will take place from October 7-12. Here are links to the English and Russian versions of the 3rd Annual American Film Festival http://www.amfest.ru/en  http://www.amfest.ru/ru

Please check the site periodically, new information is posted on a regular basis.

IV. Edutainment for an EFL Teacher

Stefan Mizha, a great friend of our office, has found an interesting, accessible website: Word Detective – please enjoy reading it during this wonderful weekend on the eve of the New Academic Year! http://www.word-detective.com/