Conference talks
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From small talks to plenaries as keynote speaker, I've given a wide range of presentations on innovative subjects around the world. Below you can see the locations, titles and conference abstracts for each of these. To enquire about the possibility of speaking at your event, please use the contact form here.
Roadmap promotional tour
France, Spain & Italy, since March 2019
Motivating Learners: the Road to Success.
Increasing motivation and developing, not just practising skills with your learners.
IATEFL Conference and Exhibition
Liverpool 2019
Mapping out the Path to Success
(Co-presented with Hugh Dellar)
Adult learners have varying goals and reasons for learning English. Different classes usually have differing needs, interests and abilities. Dealing with this is one of the key challenges teachers face. In this talk, we will present solutions for tackling these issues, illustrated with materials from Roadmap, the new Pearson English general adult course.
IATEFL Conference and Exhibition
Liverpool 2019
Mapping out the Path to Success
(Co-presented with Hugh Dellar)
Adult learners have varying goals and reasons for learning English. Different classes usually have differing needs, interests and abilities. Dealing with this is one of the key challenges teachers face. In this talk, we will present solutions for tackling these issues, illustrated with materials from Roadmap, the new Pearson English general adult course.
IATEFL Conference and Exhibition
Brighton 2018
Fakepedia.biz: Practical Fact-Checking for ELT
(Opening talk of the MaWSIG showcase)
Nowadays we are consulting sources of information shared via social media more than ever before, whether this be for preparing lessons or writing materials. With this comes a responsibility to ensure the sources we use are factually correct. In this talk, I will demonstrate a wide range of simple, practical measures we can employ in order to do so.
You can find the links mentioned in the talk here.
IATEFL International Conference and Exhibition
Birmingham 2016
The LDT Toolkit: A (Practical) Guide to Language Development for Teachers
Welcome to the complete guide to Language Development for Teachers (LDT). After first setting out what the core skills are, I will go on to demonstrate some practical activities which can be used by both teachers and teacher trainers working in this area. Participants will leave with a range of practical activities they can use in their own context.
IATEFL MaWSIG Pre-Conference Event
Birmingham 2016
Print vs. Digital: Is it Really a Competition?
Panel discussion.
IATEFL MaWSIG Pre-Conference Event
Birmingham 2016
A Road less Travelled: From Digital to Print (and back again)
Several years ago I found myself with a heap of unpublished, written material, which I realised could be of use to teachers studying for the Delta. Knowing that this was a stable, sizeable market, yet too ‘niche’ for a major publisher, I decided to self publish as an ebook via the The Round. After ongoing success with the title, I decided to work with a designer to create a print version. In this talk I will describe the journey of the book’s creation and promotion, and compare this to writing in the more traditional route through a major publisher. I’ll also show how having both a digital and print versions of a self-published book can open up unexpected new avenues for promotion, and how this has led to the book going from a ‘sideline idea’ to one of the best-selling titles at The Round. This talk should benefit both new and experienced authors who are considering self-publishing, as well as those who have already self-published an ebook and are considering producing a print version. I expect delegates to come away with practical tips on how to make the process a smooth one as well as how to successfully promote their title.
Cultura Inglesa Teachers' Forum
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil September 2015
Something to MULL over: Mapping the Urban Linguistic Landscape
(Opening plenary talk, Keynote speaker)
This talk will report on the Map of the Urban Linguistic Landscape (MULL), an online collaborative project which aims to map the global urban linguistic landscape. Group members come from all over the world and share photographs of interesting language use in the urban environment. We collate these and geotag them, with the aim of producing a freely available language teaching resource. After a brief overview of the background and findings of the research so far, I will share some practical ideas on how to use the map in class and the benefits of doing so.
APIRS Conference
Porto Alegre, Brazil July 2015
The LDT Toolkit: A (Practical) Guide to Language Development for Teachers
Welcome to the complete guide to Language Development for Teachers (LDT). After first setting out what the core skills are, I will go on to demonstrate some practical activities which can be used by both teachers and teacher trainers working in this area. Participants will leave with a range of practical activities they can use in their own context.
Braz-TESOL Pernambuco
Recife, Brazil May 2015
The Participatory Toolkit: Practical Ways to Encourage Interaction
This workshop aims to demonstrate a range of activities to bring a coursebook to life and encourage interaction with students.
International House London
London 2015
Something to MULL over: Mapping the Urban Linguistic Landscape
An extended version of the talk given at IATEFL Manchester 2015, for teachers at International House London.
IATEFL International Conference and Exhibition
Manchester 2015
Something to MULL over: Mapping the Urban Linguistic Landscape
This talk will report on the Map of the Urban Linguistic Landscape (MULL), an online collaborative project which aims to map the global urban linguistic landscape. Group members come from all over the world and share photographs of interesting language use in the urban environment. We collate these and geotag them, with the aim of producing a freely available language teaching resource. After a brief overview of the background and findings of the research so far, I will share some practical ideas on how to use the map in class and the benefits of doing so.
Cultura Inglesa Teachers' Forum
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil January 2015
Don't Believe in Fairy Tales: Keeping a Critical Eye on Professional Development
(Plenary talk, Keynote speaker)
In today’s ELT world, there is a plethora of professional development available to teachers, from free webinars to Twitter discussions to more formal courses and traditional literature. Teachers need to approach all of this with a critical eye: both for their own development and their learners’. During this talk I will revisit some established beliefs in ELT, and look at how we can develop our own criticality and that of our learners in practical ways, in order to get the most out of professional development.
Cultura Inglesa Teachers' Forum
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil January 2015
Whose Turn is it Now? Teaching Real Spoken Interaction in Class
What is speaking? Can we actually teach it, as opposed to just practicing it in class? This workshop sets out to answer these questions. We will first look at how processing and reciprocity conditions affect different types of spoken interaction, and the features of spoken discourse that they produce. We will then look at practical ways in which we can teach these features through a range of interesting activities. By the end of this workshop, teachers should have a comprehensive understanding of which aspects of spoken interaction we can teach as well as a range of ready-to-use activities.
Braz-TESOL International Conference
João Pessoa, Brazil July 2014
Real Eyes Realise: The Urban Linguistic Landscape as Language Resource
No matter where you are in the world today, you can see English everywhere. It’s in shops, signage, menus and graffiti, to name just a few areas. In this session, we’ll look at a range of examples of how English is used in the urban landscape, before looking at how we can exploit this valuable language learning resource in class.
IATEFL International Conference and Exhibition
Harrogate 2014
PechaKucha
PechaKucha 20x20 is a simple presentation format where you show 20 images, each for 20 seconds. The images advance automatically and you talk along to the images.​
IATEFL International Conference and Exhibition
Harrogate 2014
Don't Believe in Fairy Tales: Critical Thinking in Teacher Development
In today’s world, teachers need to embrace critical thinking: both in their own development and their learners’. This workshop is an opportunity to revisit some established beliefs in ELT, and look at how we can develop our own criticality and that of our learners in practical ways. I will refer to some examples from my ebook, How to Pass Delta.
ACINNE International Conference
Recife, Brazil 2013
Don't Believe in Fairy Tales: Critical Thinking in Teacher Development
(Keynote speaker)
In today’s world, teachers need to embrace critical thinking: both in their own development and their learners’. This workshop is an opportunity to revisit some established beliefs in ELT, and look at how we can develop our own criticality and that of our learners in practical ways. I will refer to some examples from my ebook, How to Pass Delta.
ACINNE International Conference
Recife, Brazil 2013
Real Eyes Realise: The Urban Linguistic Landscape as Language Resource
(Keynote speaker)
No matter where you are in the world today, you can see English everywhere. It’s in shops, signage, menus and graffiti, to name just a few areas. In this session, we’ll look at a range of examples of how English is used in the urban landscape, before looking at how we can exploit this valuable language learning resource in class.
Braz-TESOL International Conference
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 2012
Critical Thinking in Teacher Development: A 21st Century Approach
In today’s increasingly competitive ELT market, teachers need to embrace critical thinking: both in their own development and in their learners. This session will look at how we can develop our own criticality and that of our learners, in order to be better prepared for increasingly complex and competitive markets.
IATEFL International Conference and Exhibition
Glasgow 2012
Language Play: Practical Activities for the Modern Classroom
It is often thought that we need to make our classrooms as 'real-life' as possible for learners. This workshop will briefly examine what this means in terms of how we use language both for work and play. This brief theoretical overview will then be used to demonstrate a range of practical and innovative activities based on Language Play.
Braz-TESOL International Conference
Curitiba, Brazil 2011
Language Play: Practical Activities for the Modern Classroom
In today’s This session will take a brief look at the current situation in terms of methodology, before demonstrating a range of innovative classroom activities based on Language Play theories of learning.
Braz-TESOL International Conference
São Paulo, Brazil 2010
Language Play from Theory to Practice: Making the Unreal Real
A range of practical activities related to Language Play in the classroom.
British Council International Conference
Sorrento, Italy 2005
Has Communicative Language Teaching Gone too Far? Making Language More Memorable with Literature
Over the last 20-30 years English Language Teaching has been heavily influenced by communicative theories of language teaching, and in more recent years these have given rise to Task-Based Learning. One of the main beliefs of such theories is that classroom activities/contexts should be as real-life as possible. This presentation seeks to examine some of the theoretical problems of this firmly-held belief, and introduce an interesting alternative approach. The theoretical analysis will then provide a springboard to the introduction of some practical, literature-based activities which will be of immediate use to teachers in making their classrooms more motivating, enjoyable and memorable.
IATEFL International Conference and Exhibition
Liverpool 2004
Practical Activities for Business English
This workshop will aim to demonstrate a variety of practical activities for Business English, which will be of instant use to both teachers and learners. It is hoped that the demonstration of these activities during the workshop will provide teachers with a rich bank of ideas that will be of immediate use to them in the classroom.
IATEFL International Conference and Exhibition
Glasgow 2017
Advanced Grammar in Teacher Education: Encouraging Reflection and Discussion
(Co-presented with Penny Hands)
In this talk we will present the results of research into the role of grammar on advanced teacher training courses. We will then look at specific areas that teacher educators would like to see developed further, and present some practical solutions, with reference to the new edition of COBUILD English Grammar and links to free online resources.
IATEFL International Conference and Exhibition
Brighton 2003
Practical Phonology for Business training
This workshop will show that one of the key features of language practice in Business Classes is the recognition and production of supra-segmental phonological features of connected speech. It will then go on to outline and demonstrate two simple yet effective techniques to allow trainers to increase their learners’ confidence in using English in their everyday lives.