It’s that time of year again, nearly time for the 2014 IATEFL annual conference,this year to be held in Harrogate. Are you going?

I am – thanks to the kindness and support of my employers who are allowing me to attend! Also thanks to the generosity of Leeds Metropolitan University who are fully funding my attendance via a scholarship. And, this year, I shall be presenting for the very first time. (!!)

The title of my talk is:

“Bridging the gap between learning materials and an English-speaking environment”

Here is the abstract:

Private language schools often send their learners out to interview people in the streets, but could these learners get more out of this activity? This talk explores how task-based learning and an intercultural approach can be combined to develop materials that enable learners to benefit more fully from a potentially rich learning opportunity and develop their intercultural communication skills. 

My talk will take place on Thursday the 3rd April at 1745 and will last until 1815: 20 minutes of me talking (but don’t worry that includes you talking too!) and 10 minutes for questions/discussion. The room I’m in apparently holds 180 people – the more the merrier?! This talk is based on the approaches I used in my materials that I made for my dissertation project (which were recently shortlisted for one of the British Council ELTons). If you are at IATEFL and haven’t already tootled off to the pub by that point, it would be great to see you in the audience! (Am *really* hoping not to find myself presenting to an enormous room with about five people in it…)

Of course, if you aren’t able to make it to Liverpool, there will be lots of talks and interviews recorded, and some sessions streamed live. You can find all this and more on the British Council IATEFL Harrogate online website. (Click on the image below)

Bring IATEFL Harrogate 2014 to your sofa! 🙂

I’ve also registered as an IATEFL Harrogate 2014 blogger and aim to upload a few posts based on the presentations I watch, as well as my conference experiences. I will also post a write-up of my talk and my references in due course. So, watch this space! 🙂

I’d love to meet any of you who read my blog, so do come and say hi if you happen to see me!