We are delighted to welcome you to your Cambridge Day in Berne. This year we will focus on learner autonomy and feature workshops on Business Certificates as well as A2 Key and B1 Preliminary (exam updates) among other topics. This all-day FREE event will take place at the Universal Postal Union, Weltpoststrasse 4, 3015 Berne and will feature a variety of speakers from Cambridge University Press and Cambridge Assessment English.
How to register Please email to eltswitzerland@cambridge.org and include the following: Full name, school and the workshop you will attend in session A, session B and session C. Note that you can only attend one workshop in each slot: one A, one B and one C.
This event is FREE for all teachers. Coffee and lunch will be provided free of charge. Places are strictly limited, so please register without delay. For more details on the workshops and the speakers, please see below. If you have any queries, please contact eltswitzerland@cambridge.org.
Programme 08.30 - 09.15 09.15 - 09.45
Registration and coffee
09.45 - 10.45
Opening plenary: Niall Curry
Welcome by Henriette Graf and John Mc Neill
Research informed practices: strategies for overcoming obstacles to language learning success.
A1
A2
A3
Teaching Business English: creating your own exercises
Practice makes perfect! But only if...
Preparing Cambridge English exams at lower secondary level
11.00 - 12.00
A
12.00 - 13.15
Buffet lunch and exhibition
Bill Mascull
Matthew Ellman
Joe Hediger, Simona Petrescu
B1
B2
B3
Making the most of modern course materials
Strategies for Use of English tasks in Cambridge English examinations at B2 and B1
Introducing A2 Key and B1 Preliminary 2020 as well as best practice in exam preparation
Matthew Ellman
13.15 - 14.15
B
14.15 - 14.30
Mini break and exhibition
John Potts
Joe Hediger, Simona Petrescu
C1
C2
C3
Teaching Business English: creating your own exercises
Grammar - with the fun left in!
Strategies for Use of English tasks in Cambridge English examinations at B2 and C1
Bill Mascull
14.30 - 15.30
C
15.40 - 16.30
Closing Plenary: Matthew Ellman
Rebecca Winthorp
John Potts
Opening Plenary Research informed practices: strategies for overcoming obstacles to language learning success. Teachers and learners face many pressures in any process of teaching and learning but especially so in preparing for language examinations, pressures which are often linked to ineffective language learning, existing examination anxieties and poor working environments. From research in assessment, second language acquisition, and psycholinguistics, we know that language learning and examination preparation is challenging, and many things can negatively impact language acquisition. What becomes clear however is that the most effective preparation lies in developing students throughout their learning journey, supporting them, minimising their anxieties and developing mind-sets that see a value and potential in progress. This talk illustrates how we can each play a role in helping learners in the classroom. This is done by drawing on research on beliefs and emotions that can greatly impact language learning when coupled with traditional exam preparation techniques; this can be applied to low-stake examinations contexts as well. With a goal to bridge theory and practice, this talk uses practical examples and classroom data to exemplify how each of us can help equip learners not only with the required language and knowledge of test formats but also the skills to manage examinations affectively and, the capacity of learners to manage their own progress. Many of the topics and strategies covered are, naturally, of interest to ELT teaching in general – whether an examination is on the horizon or not. Niall Curry
Workshops A1
Teaching Business English: creating your own exercises
Written exercises can be used to practise and reinforce what has been presented/taught, of course, but they also allow teachers to see problems that learners are having and that require more work - there are some issues that may not be obvious when students are speaking that become apparent when they do written exercises. This is related to the notion of process, the idea that students should be encouraged to think logically about, and to discuss, what is possible/suitable in different contexts. We will look at a wide range of potential exercise types that you can use in creating your own materials and tests. To illustrate, we will use examples from the Business Vocabulary in Use series, but the exercise formats we will review can be adapted in your own contexts. We will suggest possible sources for input material to create exercises for learners in particular environments and show how these inputs can be exploited for use in this way. In group work, participants will have the opportunity to suggest/ outline exercises from raw material that we will provide.
Bill Mascull
A2
Practice makes perfect! But only if….
Do you prepare students for Cambridge English exams? Practice is a vital part of good exam preparation but there is a right and a wrong way to practise. In this session, we will look at the different official exam practice materials provided by Cambridge, and we’ll explore the best ways that you can use them with your students – both in and out of the classroom! Matthew Ellman
A3
Preparing Cambridge English exams at lower secondary level
This workshop will introduce participants with no experience in exam preparation to B1 Preliminary 2020. In the second, more practical half of the workshop, participants will learn how B1 Preliminary for Schools and B2 First for Schools have been adopted by the lower-secondary school Käferholz in Zürich. Furthermore, we will show how these two exams relate to the curriculum L21.
B2 First, with brief reference to B1 Preliminary where appropriate. In particular, we will focus on the word formation and sentence transformation tasks, both of which lend themselves to language development activities for your classroom, while also discussing some generic frameworks for approaches to language-focus tasks and activities. Throughout, we will look at how we can also use test materials as teaching/learning materials, so that your students expand their English while becoming familiar with the format of the test itself.
John Potts
Joe Hediger, Simona Petrescu
B3 B1
Making the most of modern course material
Nearly every published ELT title now includes online resources that can offer real benefits to learners, if used in the right way. So what needs to change in order for teachers and students to make the most of this 21st century teaching set-up? In this talk, we will look at the online tools provided by Cambridge, see how teachers can be sure which tools are the best ones for their students, and explore teaching strategies for using online tools successfully.
Matthew Ellman
B2
Strategies for Use of English tasks in Cambridge English examinations at B2 and B1
In this practical workshop, we shall look at some approaches and activities to help your B2 learners with the Use of English paper in
Introducing A2 Key and B1 Preliminary 2020 as well as best practice in exam preparation
This workshop will inform you about the changes in A2 Key and B1 Preliminary coming into effect in 2020 as well as the rationale behind these changes. In the second half of the workshop, we will present best practice in preparing B1 Preliminary for Schools. The focus will be on developing techniques, which will help students to get top marks in the Speaking Exam and move on to preparing higher-level exams.
Joe Hediger, Simona Petrescu
C1
Teaching Business English: creating your own exercises
Written exercises can be used to practise and reinforce what has been presented/taught, of course, but they also allow teachers to see problems that learners are having and that require more work − there are some issues that may not be obvious when students are speaking that become apparent when they do written exercises. This is related
to the notion of process, the idea that students should be encouraged to think logically about, and to discuss, what is possible/suitable in different contexts. We will look at a wide range of potential exercise types that you can use in creating your own materials and tests. To illustrate, we will use examples from the Business Vocabulary in Use series, but the exercise formats we will review can be adapted in your own contexts. We will suggest possible sources for input material to create exercises for learners in particular environments and show how these inputs can be exploited for use in this way. In group work, participants will have the opportunity to suggest/outline exercises from raw material that we will provide.
Bill Mascull
C3
Strategies for Use of English tasks in Cambridge English examinations at B2 and C1
In this practical workshop, we shall look at some approaches and activities to help your B2 learners with the Use of English paper in B2 First, with some reference to C1 Advanced where appropriate. In particular, we’ll focus on the word formation and sentence transformation tasks, both of which lend themselves to language development activities for your classroom, while also discussing some generic frameworks for approaches to language-focus tasks and activities. Throughout, we’ll look at how we can also use test materials as teaching/learning materials, so that your students expand their English while becoming familiar with the format of the test itself.
John Potts
C2
Grammar - with the fun left in!
Does teaching English grammar fill you with apprehension for a class full of bored, disengaged learners? Do you avoid grammar reference books, for fear they will send your students to sleep? Then it is time for a change! In this interactive session, we will look at a few fun, simple and engaging ways to inject a shot of energy into your grammar lessons, to help students find the motivation they need to continue their grammar learning outside of the classroom.
Rebecca Winthrop
Closing Plenary Bringing everything together in this closing plenary, we will explore how we can implement some of today’s themes into your classroom. We will look at specific examples of how digital technology have changed the language classroom in ways that may go unnoticed, but which offer opportunities for learning and increased student autonomy. More importantly, we will look at how you can take advantage of them to benefit your students. Matthew Ellman
Our Speakers Niall Curry is a Senior ELT Research Manager at Cambridge University Press and conducts research on language and language pedagogy to inform materials development. He focuses on how we can use research from fields like corpus linguistics to better inform the choice of language to be learnt as well as educational research to guide the best way to learn language. Prior to working at Cambridge University Press, Niall worked as a language teacher and lecturer in applied linguistics at universities in France and Ireland. He is also completing his PhD at the University of Limerick, Ireland on corpus-based contrastive linguistics of academic writing in English, French and Spanish. Matthew Ellman works as regional ELT Trainer for Cambridge University Press, delivering training for teachers and institutions across Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. He has worked as a teacher and trainer in the UK, Spain and Malaysia, where he was responsible for managing training to British Council teachers nationally and has delivered workshops and talks in a further 20 countries. Matthew sits on the committee of the IATEFL Teacher Training and Education SIG and was the winner of the British Council’s 2018 MA Dissertation Award at the ELTons. Joe Hediger holds a Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics from the University of California, Berkeley and has been teaching English, French and German for over 38 years. He has an extensive experience in ELT and was the project manager for the introduction of “early English” in the canton of Schwyz. Joe has been preparing students to B1 Preliminary as well as B2 First for many years and regularly gives workshops on a variety of ELT topics.
Bill Mascull has taught English in-company and trained teachers in the north of Sweden, the south of France, and Paris. He is the author of Cambridge University Press’s Business Vocabulary in Use (Elementary/Pre-intermediate, Intermediate and Advanced levels, the latter two now in their 3rd edition, 2017), among many others. John Potts has been a language teacher since 1979, and a teacher trainer since 1983. Until recently, he divided his time between classroom teaching (mainly for Cambridge English exams), and teacher training. He has been a CELTA tutor since 1983, and is currently CELTA and Delta Course Director at IH Baden in Switzerland. He has also worked as a CELTA assessor since 1988, and was a CELTA Joint Chief Assessor for over a decade. Rebecca Winthrop is a Managing Editor at Cambridge University Press. She now works on digital materials for Primary learners but spent four years before that on the best-selling In Use series, developing books, ebooks, apps and more. Before moving into publishing, she taught English in the UK, France and Russia. Simona Petrescu has been an English teacher since 1996, focusing on Cambridge English exam preparation courses. She is an experienced teacher trainer and teaching materials writer, formerly a Cambridge English Speaking Examiner and Speaking Examiner trainer. She works for Cambridge Assessment English as an Assessment Services Support Manager for Europe with a focus on Switzerland, Austria and Germany.
How to Get There Universal Postal Union Weltpoststrasse 4 CH-3015 Berne By train As you leave Berne railway station, go to platform B («Perron B») in the tram stop area under the glass canopy, take tram No. 8 towards Saali (get a «1-2 zones» ticket, as it is more than 5 stops), alight at Weltpostverein, the 7th stop from the station. By car Please consult the detailed information on: www.upu.int/en/more/access-plan.html. Please do note there will be no parking available at the location, limited street parking is available in the neighbourhood. Habsburgstrasse 19 Parking, Habsburgstrasse 19, 3006 Berne, is twenty minutes by foot.