Cambridge Assessment English exams are based on communication and real-life tasks. But what does it mean to communicate effectively nowadays? And most importantly, how can we teach our students to communicate better? In this workshop we will define what 2020 communication is, what it encompasses, and how we can practise it in class. In doing so we will consider verbal and non-verbal communication, speaking and writing, and the roles of all actors involved in the act of communicating. We will also look at aspects of good communication that will help your students succeed in sample tasks from the Cambridge Assessment English qualifications. You will participate in activities that you will be able to adapt for your classes, be they with primary, secondary, or adult students.

Anne de León Anne has been a teacher educator since 2001. She teaches general English to adults and young learners, and trains teachers and school leaders in various fields such as pronunciation, CLIL, lesson planning, and leadership and management. Anne has worked in various contexts (primary and secondary schools; Montessori, preparatory schools, language academies) and different countries (England, Australia, France, the Czech Republic, Spain, and Romania to name a few). In 2016 she created her own teacher training company, ELT Services Spain, and since then she has been training educators at all levels on a variety of subjects, in both the public and private sectors.

What gets you out of bed in the morning? Are you full of energy and ready to face the new term? How do we ensure that we, as teachers, have the motivation to motivate others? Low motivation links to low productivity both in the classroom and beyond for students and teachers alike. Looking at proven techniques and the psychology behind them, find out how to remove blocks to your productivity and start the new term with a bounce in your step.

Kate Walder has been working and living in Madrid for the past 12 years. With a Masters in training and development, she has taught and examined English at all ages and levels. More recently, she has been focusing her attention on training teachers, lifeskills coaching for both teenagers and adults and enabling her clients and students to use their English as a meaningful and powerful communication tool. Her mission is to enable individuals to achieve his or her maximum potential in an inspiring, fun yet challenging learning environment.

This 2-part seminar will start off by outlining why A2 Key, A2 Key for Schools, B1 Preliminary and B1 Preliminary for Schools are changing from 2020 and what the changes are, including the exam preparation support available. This seminar is aimed at teachers and schools who are familiar with the exams. We will then go on to look at how to evaluate and supplement your coursebook against exam content to prepare your learners in a motivating and engaging way.

Lucy has been working in ELT since 2010, where she has taught in a range of contexts around Spain, including preparing young learners and adults for the Cambridge Exams. In addition to being a Cambridge seminar presenter, she has also been a Cambridge speaking examiner and is an arts workshop leader. Lucy completed the DELTA in 2015 and her ELT interests include the use of technology in the classroom, CLIL and phonology.

Truly understanding reading provides the opportunity to get students engaged and actively involved with a text, and helps them to discover deeper layers of meaning. Research shows that people who have low reading comprehension ability have more challenges in reaching academic, professional or personal goals. It is vital for students to develop solid reading comprehension skills and to develop strategies to expand their learning of English vocabulary. The goal of this workshop is to learn useful strategies for B2 and C1 Reading and Use of English exam preparation and put them into practice using collaborative and metacognitive strategies. The use of metacognitive strategies will allow teachers to be more sensitive to learners’ needs and to better adapt their teaching strategies to exam preparation.

Iulia Vescan has taught English for 14 years. She is currently doing her doctoral dissertation at Instituto Franklin at Universidad de Alcalá. For her doctoral work, she is developing a training program for native English language assistants for bilingual education programs in Madrid. She teaches language awareness and teaching grammar methods at the Master’s in Bilingual and Multicultural Education at Instituto Franklin at Universidad de Alcalá. She is a Teach & Learn in Spain Graduate Students’ Advisor. She also teaches Service Learning in Bilingual Schools, Introduction to Spanish Education Systems and Spain and its Gastronomy to American undergraduate students in the Study Abroad in Spain Program at Instituto Franklin-UAH. She works on teacher training courses at teacher training centres for public and charter schools (CTIF centre in Centro Territorial de Innovación y Formación de Madrid-Sur y Este at Consejería de Educación y Empleo de la Comunidad de Madrid) related to teaching grammar methods, co-teaching and collaboration strategies in the classroom and reading strategies for teens.

Mastering productive skills in a foreign language is a complex process with very specific demands. As all language teachers know, it goes far beyond a good command of grammar: students need to learn how to develop, organize and structure ideas, choose correct words, and distribute the information coherently. To help learners in this process, scaffolding techniques provide them with the transitional support and foundation to the independent work required in the exams. In this workshop, we will learn about the potential of scaffolding, and create frameworks to be used as temporary supports to facilitate the mastery of speaking and writing. We will focus on the specific tasks required for exam purposes (giving factual information, providing spontaneous spoken language or producing formal pieces of writing, among others). Come and take away techniques accommodated to different levels and ready to use in your classrooms!

Beatriz López-Medina holds degrees in English Philology and in German Philology and a Ph.D. in English Linguistics. She has extensive experience as a teacher trainer both at University and for different official and private institutions. Currently works at the Faculty of Education (UCM) in the area of ELT. Simultaneously, she participates in projects related to the area of Quality Assurance in Higher Education. She has previously worked as a Director of the Master in Bilingual Education at Nebrija University and as a teacher at the Official School of Languages -currently on leave-She obtained the Second National Award of Spanish Educational Research with a project on gifted children. Her research interests include CLIL approach, bilingual education and foreign language teaching and learning.

Our students’ performance in speaking and writing often belies a much broader range of vocabulary and a much better understanding of grammar than they actually demonstrate. Put simply, they often know more than they show. At intermediate levels in particular, when the tendency of many learners is to rely on more familiar language, one of the challenges for any teacher is to help students say better what they can already say more basically. How, then, do we encourage students at B1 and B2 levels to express themselves as fully as possible? How do we get them to speak and write with more variety, more nuance, more cohesion and, importantly, less grammatical and lexical repetition? This seminar will look at activities that can help students hone their productive skills, with a focus on paraphrasing, organising stretches of speech and text, varying usage of grammar and vocabulary, and distinguishing and employing different registers.

Daniel has taught English for over 20 years in the UK, Japan and Spain, and has recently finished co-authoring a new ELT coursebook for teens. He has a wide-ranging interest in language pedagogy, with an MA in Endangered Language Revitalisation. He currently works as a teacher and materials writer for the British Council in Madrid.

Assessing and evaluating oral skills is a challenging process since it involves transferring a variety of subskills into a single mark. For the students, the difficulty lies in the ability to use specific strategies required to succeed in the different tasks. In this seminar we will break down the purposes behind the oral tasks: what exactly is meant by “follow and understand” a wide range of spoken materials? What lies behind “communicate effectively”? Through a range of practical activities designed to break down the core assessment criteria, attendees will take away a set of techniques to improve their students’ awareness of what is being assessed and to develop their strategic competence in oral exams. ability to use specific strategies required to succeed in the different tasks. In this seminar we will break down the purposes behind the oral tasks: what involves “follow and understand” a wide range of spoken materials? What lies behind “communicate effectively”? Through a range of practical activities designed to break down the core criteria of assessing, attendants will take away a set of techniques to improve their students’ awareness of what is being assessed and to develop their strategic competence in oral exams.

Beatriz López-Medina holds degrees in English Philology and in German Philology and a Ph.D. in English Linguistics. She has extensive experience as a teacher trainer both at University and for different official and private institutions. Currently works at the Faculty of Education (UCM) in the area of ELT. Simultaneously, she participates in projects related to the area of Quality Assurance in Higher Education. She has previously worked as a Director of the Master in Bilingual Education at Nebrija University and as a teacher at the Official School of Languages -currently on leave-She obtained the Second National Award of Spanish Educational Research with a project on gifted children. Her research interests include CLIL approach, bilingual education and foreign language teaching and learning.