Welcome to our

Sofia Marinela hotel, Sofia Hall Saturday 22nd April 2023

Programme 08.30 – 09.30

Registration

09.30 – 09.40

Greeting to the audience Winners of the Cambridge Schools Association Creative Works Competition

09.40 – 10.00

Opening Vladimir Kolev, Klett Bulgaria, Managing Director; Peter Lucantoni – Professional Learning & Development Manager at Cambridge University Press & Assessment

10.00 – 11.00

How bringing life to lessons brings lessons to life! Peter Lucantoni – Professional Learning & Development Manager at Cambridge University Press & Assessment

11.00 – 11.30

Coffee break

11.30 – 12.30

Speaking – ‘just go for it!’ Colin Williams – Assessment Group Manager at Cambridge University Press & Assessment

12.30 – 13.00

Kangaroo Global Linguistics Awards ceremony Cambridge Schools Association Creative Works Competition Awards ceremony

13.00 – 14.00

Coffee break

14.00 – 15.00

Just press play! Digital games and videos with Kid’s Box New Generation Helen Kenyon – Product Manager in the Schools, English team at Cambridge University Press & Assessment

15.00 – 15.15

Coffee break

15.15 – 16.00

Mastering language never been so engaging and easy! Kristina Anastasova & Mila Angelova, AVO Language & Examination Centre

16.00 – 16.20

English for professionals Boyana Tabakova – Business Development Manager at Klett Bulgaria

16.20 – 16.30

Raffle and Farewell

Our speakers Colin Williams Peter Lucantoni

Peter Lucantoni has had a long career in English language teaching, teacher training and management, in Europe and the Middle East, and is now based in Cyprus. He is the author and co-author of a range of popular coursebooks for students, including Cambridge IGCSE English as a Second Language, and Introduction to English as a Second Language, both published by Cambridge University Press. He is also the co-author of From Teacher to Trainer with Matthew T Ellman. Peter is Professional Learning and Development Manager for Cambridge University Press & Assessment, and regularly speaks at ELT conferences and trains teachers internationally in both the public and private sectors. His main interests are in teacher education and transitioning teachers into trainer roles.

Kristina Anastasova Mila Angelova Mila has been into ELT for 32 years now, working as a Head DOS, CELTA tutor, teacher and teacher trainer at AVO Language & Examination Centre, Sofia. Her international experience in the trade includes being former Vice Chair Academic of Eaquals, Eaquals inspector since 2008 and member of the Eaquals Accreditation Panel since January 2023. Her main expertise lies in a range of areas such as: teacher training and methodology, course and curriculum design, testing and assessment, academic and administrative management, use of online resources and platforms for the purposes of language teaching and administration of courses, teaching various courses, levels and age groups both face-toface and online. Krissie is a TEFL-certified teacher with over 13 years of experience in teaching General English, Business English, Communicative English, and Exam Preparation courses to students of a variety of ages. She is an Academic Coordinator Adult Courses at AVO Language & Examination Centre and is in charge of generating academic and online content for both students and teachers. She also does extensive training for the teachers with a special focus on innovation and using technology purposefully, including presentations at local and international events. A life-long learner herself, Krissie finds inspiration in motivating her learners to believe in their language abilities and keep bettering their skills while enjoying the language and the power of words.

Since 2016, Colin Williams has been working in Cambridge English on a number of different examinations at a variety of levels and across all skills, and he is now Assessment Group Manager for all Cambridge English Reading and Writing papers. He is also involved in the process of content creation and in developing and reviewing ways in which new content can be produced for the existing suite of exams and for new products in the future. Previously, Colin worked as a Speaking examiner and as an EFL teacher in the Czech Republic, Italy, France, Portugal and the UK. From 2005–2016, he was Director of his own private language school ‘Real English’ in Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria. His Substack blog https://wordsgetaround.substack.com looks at the etymology and meanings of English words and how they are related to words in other languages. He has also written a book, Sl- is for Sleaze but Sn- is for Sneeze!, which describes the intrinsic meaning found within consonant clusters and shows that the words we use are not arbitrary strings of letters, but mean a lot more than we think they do.

Helen Kenyon

Helen Kenyon is a Product Manager in the Schools, English team having worked at Cambridge University Press and Assessment since 2005. Helen has developed and worked on a wide range of innovative English language products at Cambridge with a particular interest in integrating learning and assessment methodologies into products in engaging and creative ways. Helen is passionate about motivating learners to develop lifelong learning skills and to help Teachers truly enjoy their classroom experiences. Prior to publishing, Helen taught English to Teenagers and Adult learners in Japan and Hong Kong.

Boyana Tabakova

Since 2016 Boyana has worked for Klett Bulgaria and currently holds the position of Business Development Manager in the organization. She has professional experience as a multimedia editor, content editor, project manager in the field of digital education, creating specific content for educational resources, training teachers to use various digital tools, participating in EU educational projects and managing online exam preparation courses.

Sessions Peter Lucantoni How bringing life to lessons brings lessons to life!

Colin Williams Speaking – ‘just go for it!’

Peter Strevens said that “language is not a sterile subject to be confined to the classroom. One of two things must be done: either life must be brought to the classroom or the class must be taken to life.” In our session today we are going to look at various strategies which can be used to support a focus on real life use of language in the classroom, with examples from the Cambridge Life Competencies Framework and Cambridge Prepare 2nd edition.

This presentation will focus specifically on Speaking skills at B2 First, B2 First for Schools and C1 Advanced, outlining how the exams are assessed and giving practical tips on how to encourage Speaking in the classroom and to improve exam performance. The presentation will also look at how Speaking and Writing assessments are interlinked and look at the common ‘myths’ about how Cambridge English Speaking and Writing tests are marked. It will look at ways of discouraging students from ‘playing safe’ and improving their confidence to get them out of their comfort zone and develop their productive output.

Helen Kenyon Just press play! Digital games and videos with Kid’s Box New Generation

Kristina Anastasova & Mila Angelova Mastering language never been so engaging and easy!

Technology is now a constant in all our lives and young learners are no exception. Trying to capture their attention and promote engagement in the classroom has therefore become even more challenging for Teachers. Attention spans are limited and abilities are mixed. We know that teaching and learning has always been much easier when children are having fun but what is now seen as ‘fun’ for today’s young learners?

Have you ever wondered how to make revision activities more engaging? How motivated are your learners to do speaking and writing tasks? And how successful are you in helping them use the language freely? Finally, to what extent does your feedback affect your students’ learning?

In this session, we’ll be exploring ways to motivate young learners with digital materials to create a positive learning environment. We’ll look at how to balance education and entertainment so that young learners are positive about learning English and enjoy their classroom experience. With examples from Kid’s Box New Generation, we’ll meet the popular Kid’s Box characters that come to life for learners and make learning fun!

Boyana Tabakova English for professionals

Just like you, we have been trying to find the answers to the above questions ourselves. We discovered that Cambridge One does come to the rescue! How? By simply providing endless opportunities and various solutions to the above challenges. So we will try to present to you in a fun and interactive manner some of the options for language revision and skills development the new Cambridge online resources offer.

In this section Boyana will present how modern digital educational technologies can improve the learning of English for professionals for vocational education in tourism, how the practical use of the language and its acquisition in class can be synchronized, leading to better preparation of students as future experts in specific professional fields.

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