BIODATA
Pre-emptive or Responsive – which route (Plenary Talk 1)
Do you often take a route to teaching/learning mediated by materials or the one “located in the interactivity between teachers and learners, and between the learners themselves?” (Thornbury, 2009) Do you believe the more (or fewer) resources (e.g.: Hand-outs, videos, games, etc) you use in class, the more students learn? Do you agree or disagree that a lot of teaching practice in our profession should consist in teaching particular things in a particular order, in particular lessons? (Allwright, 2005). These and other questions will be addressed in this talk, which compares and contrasts the strengths and weaknesses of teaching pre-emptively and/or responsively and possible implications of teachers’ adopting such approaches.
Fernando Guarany: Born and raised in the heart of the Brazilian Amazon rainforest, Guarany has worked in multiple ELT roles for 25 years. He’s the president of BRAZ-TESOL RN (btrn.wordpress.com) and a member of the national BRAZ-TESOL advisory council. Guarany strongly believes that every teacher and learner has unspeakable potential and takes pleasure in helping as many as possible fully achieve it. He loves cycling, sailing and playing with his super grandson, João Roberto.
Teacher Reflection and Professional Development (Plenary Talk 2)
One of the hottest trends in language teaching is the use of teacher reflection as a tool for professional and personal development. This session will give participants the opportunity to look at what teacher reflection is and how it can benefit their teaching. We will also examine several frameworks to help guide teachers to a fuller understanding of themselves as educators.
Thomas Santos joined the US Department of State after a career as an English teacher and teacher trainer. Currently posted to Brasilia, Mr. Santos has previously served at the embassies in Kyiv, Moscow and Seoul. He holds a Master of Teaching degree from the School for International Training where he also taught for ten years. Previous to his career as a teacher, Thomas was a professional actor holding a Master of Fine Arts degree in performance from the University of California, San Diego.
Professionally, Thomas’s areas of interest are effective classroom practice, teaching grammar, academic writing, and the use of drama in the language classroom. He was a Fulbright Scholar in Budapest, Hungary and an English Language Fellow in Korea. He has also taught in Morocco, Czechoslovakia, the Czech Republic and Bangladesh.
Spice It Up With Your Super Powers (Plenary Talk 3)
In this talk we depart from the question “What makes a Hero?” to discuss some of the teacher’s challenges in the classroom and the ‘super powers’ we have handy. It aims to offer highly practical ideas to maximise engagement and add more spice to our lessons.
Alberto Costa, Senior Assessment Manager for Cambridge English Language Assessment, holds the Cambridge RSA Diploma for Overseas Teachers of English (DOTE) and has a specialization in teacher training (PRINSELT) from the College of St. Mark & St. John in Plymouth, UK. He has worked as a teacher, teacher trainer and academic consultant for 30 years, having also worked as a Cambridge English Speaking Examiner and course tutor for CELTA, ICELT and DELTA.