Andy Cowle
About
Starting out as a graduate of German and English Linguistics and an English language teacher, Andy has been in ELT publishing and teacher training for more than 30 years, working in more than 40 countries. Passionate about the creative use of ELT materials and motivating teaching professionals, For the last 15 years Andy has been an independent ELT consultant for publishers and schools, and is known for his enthusiastic and practical talks. He encourages teachers to try new ideas and connect language learning with the real world. He is interested in showing teaching how to use images and video in the classroom and is especially interested in showing practical, proven ways to motivate students (and teachers!) to read more with lasting, language-enhancing results. Andy grew up near Liverpool, England, and now lives in Glasgow with his family. He loves travel, film and film studies, comedy, podcasts, photography and playing guitar.Sessions
School English for Life: 21st Century Skills through reading more
Sat, Aug 6, 18:30-19:15 Asia/Tokyo
Students will tell you that they don’t like reading, but this is simply not true. On social media and through instant messaging students are reading (and writing) all the time – more than any other generation before them. They do not think of this as reading. Moreover, they are following engaging narratives about people, and responding to what they read on various important cognitive, emotional and social levels. Our classroom practices must and can be adapted now to connect with this very positive reality. So, if we introduce reading which is easy, in contexts learners understand and enjoy, they will be more motivated and will develop essential 21st century life skills alongside natural, meaningful language development. This session looks at ways to implement this with young adults, encouraging them to see how reading leads defining and redefining our values by exploring the lives and cultures of others.
Younger learners Tell Me All About it! Speaking Activities with Graded Readers more
Sun, Aug 7, 21:00-21:20 Asia/Tokyo
When we let students choose stories on topics they like and choose, and can read easily, then we have so many opportunities to get them speaking. They can discuss characters and narratives, but they can also respond with opinions and feelings about messages, ideas and conflict in narratives. They can use illustrations as prompts for mini-presentations or storytelling activities. They can compare them with film versions, re-enact scenes for drama and do many different role plays. And above all, they can interact together with the books in a meaningful way on their own terms, in a supportive and creative language learning environment. This workshop presents lots of ideas for using readers to get young learners speaking, and to see that reading is so much more than a series of texts for teaching language.