CONGRESO ACEICOVA- VALENCIA - INTERESTING FEEDBACK FOR TEACHERS

Yesterday I attended the first congress held in Valencia and organised by FECEI/ ACEICOVA (Asociación Centros de Enseñanza de Idiomas de la CV) ACEICOVA WEB . I was told about this congress by my beloved friend  Maria Adsuara Martínez, teacher at University of Jaume I (UJI Castellón) and English teacher at TEC IDIOMAS TEC IDIOMAS

 Attending conferences is a must for teachers who want to innovate , change or improve their way of teaching. For this reason, I consider that it is a good idea to share what I learnt yesterday with you. 

TALK 1: THINKING BEYOND EXAMS- Guy Brook-Hart 

The main objective of this talk was to reflect on the power of exams these days. It is true that we as teachers sometimes focus on the final exams and if our students pass these exams, we are happy with our job. However, not everything is passing an exam. We should take advantage of the texts, the recordings, the grammar... to introduce different types of activitities that can also be assessed: essays, writings, speaking activities, role-plays...etc. With this, the process of learning is more complete. 

TALK 2: CHANGING THE MAP OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR- Lindsay Clanfield. 

I think this talk was very interesting because it was about how grammar is changing little by little. Whereas the Spanish is "controlled" and updated by the RAE, English does not have any "institution" that "controls" the language. So, what is really wrong? What is grammatically right when we speak? Why are we so obsessed with the idea of teaching the present simple perfectly? A native speaker can make a mistake using the continuous and we understand him/her perfeclty. It even sounds good! There are expressions that we have always taught as wrong and they are starting to be used. What should we do with the fast progress of grammar? Languages are entities that change...why don't we change as well? 

TALK 3: ONCE UPON A TIME. STORYTELLING - Ree Gilllett

Stories are motivating for students. They foster imagination and in my opinion they help our students learn English in context. Mrs Gillett gave use some ideas about how to use stories in class : flashcards, board games, role-plays, theatre scripts..etc. 

TALK 4: THE IMPLEMENTATION OF TECHNOLOGY IN THE TEACHING LEARNING PROCESS- Lucía Carel 

I met Lucia some years ago when we were studying for our competitive exams so I was glad to see her again. I really enjoyed her talk because it was practical and she provided a lot of ideas that can be used in class. She argued that technology must be a part of our classes since it is a part of our lives. Moreover, she talked about the educational uses of FacebooK, Twitter, Tumbler and other social networks. What was useful for me was the list of apps that she showed to us because I believe my students will love them and I can motivate them outside the classroom. Finally, other resources like Moodle, Googledrive....etc have proved to be modern and reliable tools which make of our lessons more innovative and interactive.