ELTA Conferences

Conferences

ELTA Conferences are characterized as being lecture series by invited speakers to share resources. Regional and national conferences are usually reserved for invited members rather than a public workshop. These conferences also serve administrative purposes, as the ELTA Steering Committee also meets to set budgets and every two years elect new positions. The goal of these conferences is to work to share resources and to present the latest pedagogical research on teaching methodologies.

NATIONAL YEARLY CONFERENCE OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHERS, BERAT

ELTA would like to thank everyone who participated at the 2009 conference. Over 100 English teachers and education supporters attended, making it our most successful to date. A special thank you goes to the presenters and to Fitore Sulejmani, ELTA VP, and Corrine Gulan, PCV, for organizing the event.

The presentations included:

Personalizing your English Classroom - Fannie Daou, Express Publishing
ELP and the Intercultural Element; Educating Respect for Diversity - Ludmilla Stefani, ELTA
To Act or Not To Act - Fannie Daou, Express Publishing
Making Washbacks and Rubrics Work - Nancy Ackles, Author of The Grammar Guide, Developing Skills for Academic Success
Using English in Research - N. Mehmeti, Ministry of Science and Education
Teaching with Fun and Games in Higher Levels - Aida Branez, PCV
Using Authentic Texts and Materials - Adam Neblock, PCV
Building Leadership skills with Gifted Students - Ymer Leksi, ELTA

Please keep posted as we upload materials from the conference! For any contributions or feedback from the conference, please email the webmaster here.

ELTA 4th CONFERENCE IS SCHEDULED FOR MAY 21-23 2010, TIRANA.

The theme of this year's conference will be 'Quali-Training to Empower English Professionals'. For information on participating as a speaker or presenter, please see instructions on our Participation page.

The following speakers are scheduled:

Clair Spears, British Council Albania
Lisa Harshburger, US Embassy
Leigh Rider, US Embassy
Hill Denham, Peace Corps
Janis Droegkamp, Peace Corps
Jay Pfaffmann, University of Tennessee
Deborah Lee, University of Tennessee
Nancy Ackles, Author of The Grammar Guide, Developing Skills for Academic Success
Nancy Limpreht, American History and Culture Professor
David Newby, EMCL Austria
Jim Scrivener, Macmillan Author
Silvana Richardson, ESOL Trainer

Sharing resources from conferences abroad

ELTA Albania is proud to have partners throughout the Balkans and internationally. ELTA Albania represents Albanian teachers in their participation at conferences abroad and works to deliver them to the English teaching community.

During a presentation of materials from a Macedonian conference, one participant wrote,

“I do mostly appreciate the opportunity we teachers of ELT have, to exchange and gain experience from teachers all over the region. So far, I have participated in the “Third International ELTAM-Conference held in Ohrid, Macedonia, in October 15-17/2004.
"I was astonished by the way such a big conference was organized. Hundreds of teachers, really lively, made me feel part of that big family, even though I was the only one from my town. The aim was of course something else. I was on the way of achieving some of my goals.
“Everything seemed to be very well managed, and what I was most interested in, were the workshops. The first one I attended was from David Evans, author of a well-known Powerbase business textbook, former actor, teacher and present teacher trainer. He had a very interesting topic to present, entitled, “Do teachers forget they were teenagers once?”
Teaching teenagers is a completely different discipline, because no teenager is the same as another. However this shouldn’t be too challenging for us, as we were all teenagers once too. We learned something on how to look at what makes teenagers tick, and how to make them sit up and learn. …I am really delighted with the experience I gained in the Conference in Macedonia. Sharing and exchanging is a chance we all have, if we want to.
“It is easy to assume that, 'Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths theater, (Gail Goodwin) but, a play needs much rehearsal to be successful.”
-Doloreza Kosova, Kristo Isak, “Foreign Languages School,” Berat

Regional Albanian & National Teacher Conferences

Conferences are a good way to get a wide audience for sharing resources and teaching experiences. Participants are then responsible for sharing new knowledge with their communities. Conferences also are an excellent way to build professional networks, as there are always a variety of guest speakers from partnership organizations and supporters.

HOT issues in ELT – Opportunities for Professional Growth (Durres, May 2008)

This conference was organized to address the international support English teachers have been receiving and suggestions on how to implement new resources and teaching methods in Albanian classrooms. Sessions included topics such as, ‘Teaching Critical Thinking’, ‘Free English Language Resources Available on the Web’, ‘Teaching Phrasal Verbs and Idioms with Corpora’ and ‘Practicing [Classroom] Aims’.

National Yearly Conference of English Language Teaching (Berat, November 2008)

This conference aimed to provide methods, techniques and procedures that enable teachers to update their teaching and improve student involvement, opportunities for enrichment and exchange and to strengthen networking and collaboration. Sessions included topics such as, ‘Increasing Reading Fluency’, Multiple Intelligences’ and ‘Process Writing’.

Regional Conference of Teachers of English, ‘The World of ELT’ (Elbasan, April 2009)

This conference focused on the interactive student in an English language classroom. Sessions included topics such as, ‘Stimulating Retention. The Student Brain and You (the Teacher)’, ‘Writing Minimal Objectives’, ‘How to Incorporate Creative Writing into the Existing Curricula’ and ‘Making Your Classroom more Self-Centered’.