Meet Our Speakers

Interviews with our Plenary Speakers: Ken Wilson

Please tell us a few things about yourself and your involvement in education.

I'm an author and trainer. I started out teaching English in Spain, and when I returned to the UK, apart from continuing to teach, I got involved in writing songs and books, and also TV and radio programmes for English learners. Then I joined a theatre company called the English Teaching Theatre and wrote sketches and songs for the company, too. Nowadays, I mainly work as a consultant or editor-in-chief on ELT writing projects.

What attracted you to the field of education?

Like many English-speaking graduates, I didn't know what to do when I finished university so I did a short ELT training course and went off to teach in Spain (it could easily have been Greece!). I didn't know what I would eventually do, but I enjoyed the teaching so much that I continued. 

Which are some of the most memorable highlights of your career in education?

When I was a young teacher, it was a highlight when I felt a lesson had gone well and everyone had progressed (or at least had a good time). There is a definite physiological sensation that goes with that. 

When I worked with the theatre, we performed shows in amazing places - the back garden of the British Embassy in Cairo, a 3,000-seat theatre in Bucharest (thankfully it wasn't full) and a school in Mali where every time the audience laughed, the monkeys in the surrounding trees started making a noise! But some of the best shows were in little schools in the suburbs of cities in Germany, Belgium, Italy, Greece - they were all highlights.

Now that I'm lucky enough to travel to different countries to give talks and other kinds of training, I'm just amazed at how enthusiastic teachers are everywhere I go, at least the ones who go to conferences! I've presented in more than forty countries, and I can genuinely say I found something positive in every visit.

Which aspects of your work do you enjoy the most?

That's an interesting question. Because I work by myself most of the time, I really appreciate the chance to talk to people in different countries. But at the same time, I still get a bit anxious, about travelling and also because I can never be sure if I will get a good response from the teachers. 

What are you working on now?

At the moment, I am doing a Masters in Creative Writing at Birkbeck College, London. I have to write short stories and plays, NOT for the ELT market. This is the toughest thing I've done for ages! 

In ELT terms I am editor-in-chief of a primary course for Vietnam. The books are being written by very talented local writers, and being edited in Hong Kong. It's a really interesting international project designed for pupils in one country - the best type of project, in my opinion. I think 'international' course books will soon be a thing of the past.

In addition, I'm about to start work on the third edition of my OUP American English series, Smart Choice.

What are your professional plans for the future?

I have written more than a dozen series of coursebooks, and frankly that's enough from one writer! So I don't plan to do any more of those. Nowadays, I try to work more as an editor or consultant. Smart Choice 3e will take me until the middle of next year, and the Vietnam project will take me until 2017, so that's enough for now. 

What should your audience expect to learn during the plenary session at the 22nd TESOL Macedonia-Thrace Northern Greece Annual International Convention?

My main interest at the moment is how teachers can connect with this new generation of tech-savvy students. I think I will be promoting old-fashioned values of face-to-face interaction, not face-to-screen.

What are the three words that sum up your session?

Oh dear, what should I say??? I HOPE - interactive, informative, fun. 

You are a teacher trainer, an author, a composer, you have been a performer and you have written English sketches and radio and TV programmes for BBC English (hope not to miss something). My question is: Is a teacher's success based on his talents and in what ways all these skills helped you to build your career?

You missed out audio producer! :-) Seriously, that's a part of my work that I really love.

The first part of your question is easier than the second. If a teacher has a talent - singing, playing a musical instrument, miming - then she should of course use it. But a teacher's success is ultimately based on how well she knows her subject and how well she communicates with her students.

As for my 'talents', the fact is I didn't know I had most of these skills until someone invited me to use them. I had never acted before I joined the English Teaching Theatre, and my singing and guitar-playing had to improve dramatically before I was good enough for the stage show. As for writing, I didn't know I could do that either until someone invited me to try.

I very much like the quote from US tennis player Arthur Ashe, the first black player to win a Grand Slam tournament - 'Start where you are, use what you have, do what you can'.

On top of that, my advice to teachers is to keep trying new things and take any opportunity for training or experience that you can. 

Thank you very much,


Efi Tzouri
For TESOL Macedonia-Thrace, Northern Greece

Interviews with our Plenary Speakers: Alec Williams

Please tell us a few things about yourself and your involvement in education.

I suppose you could say that my first ‘involvement in education’ came with my parents telling me stories! I remember my father making up stories for my sister and me, and my mother reading from books. My later career was in library services, not teaching, and early on I started to specialise in library services to children, education and schools. I told stories (usually reading picture books) to classes of children who visited the public library. As so often happens in life, my reward for being good at something was to be ‘promoted out of it’, and I ended up managing children’s library services, behind a desk! In 1999, though, I left libraries and now I work for myself, going back to that storytelling that I enjoyed in the past – but also training, presenting, and speaking about children’s books, reading, libraries, and stories. Maybe the storytelling I also did as a parent has contributed to my son now teaching English at the University of York!

I live in the North of England, in an old farmhouse on top of the Yorkshire Pennines, between Manchester and Leeds. Physically, I’m tall, dark, amazingly attractive, and good at making up stories…

What attracted you to the field of education?

In my library career, I always say there were two main things that attracted me into working with children and young people. One was the sheer quality of children’s books being written in the UK at that time. It was a real eye-opener to read stories by Peter Dickinson, Helen Cresswell, Leon Garfield, Philippa Pearce, Joan Aiken and many others (try some yourself!). The other thing was the energy and enthusiasm evident in specialist librarians who worked with children; they had ‘a light behind the eyes’, and a mission to bring books and children together. I remember one librarian, a big guy with a beard, getting down on his hands and knees during a training course, to show how important it was to be at children’s level when you talked to them. That threw a mental switch!

I’m sure enthusiastic colleagues have been role models for young teachers, too, and I also hope many were drawn to the job by the great pleasure of working with children; it’s the latter that has attracted me to my present career in storytelling, because children’s reactions to stories are different, every day, in every school…

Which are some of the most memorable highlights of your career in education?

In my first job (and subsequently), meeting many famous children’s authors. In my second job, a storytelling session after which primary children wrote: “Thank you for all those stories; none could have done better!”, and “All our class thought you were just like Mr Bean…”. In my third job, creating some brilliant new school libraries, and finding a gift for public speaking (“I only heard him talk for ten minutes”, wrote one parent, “but I’ve never forgotten him…”). In my fourth job, leading a team of thirteen great children’s librarians, and realising my vocation as a trainer (“The most enjoyable course I’ve been on for ages,” wrote one teacher, “He was a breath of fresh air!”). In my present job, occasions such as speaking at the International Conference on Storytelling two years ago, plus experiencing the many countries to which my work has taken me. And, of course, my visit to Thessaloniki…!

Which aspects of your work do you enjoy the most?

Speaking! Although I do write, I find it hard, and I don’t like being tied to a computer. My work involves speaking as a presenter, a trainer, and a storyteller, so – to borrow some English slang – I’m a gob-on-a-stick! I also enjoy working with children, either telling stories or simply talking to them. One four-year-old girl came up very close to me and asked: “Are you a real man?”, a question quite difficult to answer!

Every storyteller likes an audience, but with storytelling the audience is especially important. Unlike in a play, where the lights are out and the same thing happens on stage every night, with storytelling the lights are up, and the audience is involved – either without knowing it, by influencing what the teller chooses to tell next, or directly, in the case of children joining in with choruses, animal noises, or actions.

What are you working on now?

I’m still adding pages to my new website (www.alecwilliams.co.uk); so keep checking it for new things in future! I’m preparing to be the ‘entertainment’ at the leaving party of my former boss. I’m bracing myself for being out at a school every day during World Book Day week (beginning Monday 2nd March). I’m working on two one-day training courses, that I’ll be delivering in May – one (in Scotland) on reading for pleasure, and the other (in the south of England) on how school libraries can help children with special needs. In between all this, I’m trying to learn some new stories…!

What are your professional plans for the future?

I’m happy if people like what I do, and I’d be delighted if my present level of work is maintained. I’m not making big plans to expand into other areas, or be twice as busy, because I need time in between engagements. This is partly to keep up with the admin involved, but also to read, research, and even write some poetry for children.

What should your audience expect to learn during the plenary session at the 22nd TESOL Macedonia-Thrace Northern Greece Annual International Convention?

I hope they’ll learn a lot about ‘bringing stories alive’, and how useful this is in teaching English. There’ll be a little about why stories are valuable, a look at different types of story, and some points on how stories help language learning. I’ll suggest how to choose stories, how to prepare them, and how they could form part of a story session. In particular, I’ll be talking about making stories interactive, giving some practical tips for telling that will boost people’s confidence – including how to hold children’s interest, and how to deal with interruptions! There are some suggestions for follow-up, too.

What are the three words that sum up your session?

Entertaining, humorous, and participative. And, I hope, ‘useful’!

Storytelling is an art. Is it possible for everyone to master or does it take a special kind of character?

If it IS an art, it’s an art that many of us already have. I’d prefer to call it a craft, because we all tell stories (about why we were late for work, about funny things that happened to us, and so on); all you need is to gain confidence about doing the same thing in front of an audience, and using that same excitement, to bring the words alive. With storytelling, everyone’s eyes are on you the whole time – so it helps if you don’t mind (or rather like!) being the centre of attention. With children especially, you also have to be prepared for the unexpected! Character can come into it, too, because storytellers are all different. Some are quiet and still, some more noisy and physical; men and women’s voices have different registers, so that will create difference; the storyteller’s character comes out in the way they tell; and my choice of stories may differ from yours. That’s why it’s so important that children experience a range of different people telling stories, to show that there are many ways of doing it!

Thank you very much,

Natasha Loukeri


For TESOL Macedonia-Thrace, Northern Greece

Plenary Speakers: Interviews (Andrew Wright)

Please tell us a few things about yourself and your involvement in education.

What a joy it is to be constantly able to develop by trying to help other people to develop! Such a rewarding job to do! I cannot imagine wanting to retire from it in spite of being so historical! 

What attracted you to the field of education?

All my family were teachers, my grandmother, my parents, aunts and uncles and even my brother. So it seemed to be a wide road to walk on and so it has proved to be.

Which are some of the most memorable highlights of your career in education?

I was very lucky to be asked by the University of York to publish a new approach to teaching English as a foreign language to young beginners. That was in the early 1970s and I, together with my two colleagues published ‘Kaleidoscope’ with MacMillan which was the first topic based course ever written. 

Then I had years of writing resource books for teachers which, from an income point of view, is not a very clever thing to do! But I enjoyed it so much: ‘1000 Pictures for Teachers to Copy’…’Games for Language Learning’…and later ‘Five Minute Activities’ with Penny Ur. And then ‘Storytelling with Children’ and ‘Creating Stories with Children’, with Oxford University Press. There were others…most are out of print now but some are still trotting along.

I suppose nothing can be more moving than doing my work and then hearing from teachers and children that it was a good experience for them. That is really a super thing to hear!

And to be invited to contribute to the Thrace Macedonia Conference, of course!

Which aspects of your work do you enjoy the most?

I enjoy the company of all the people I work with and I fundamentally don’t want language teaching to be about language teaching but about being with people, doing interesting things in which language has a central part to play and making language learning a bi-product of this.

I also love writing books and articles; I like making things and also I learn so much by having to ask myself what I really want to say. It is so easy to think you know something until you have to write concisely about it.

What are you working on now?

I am still doing an 18 lesson week and that is quite a lot at the age of 77 and given I want to do so many other things, as well. I have family duties because my wife, Julia, is a working woman and she runs our language school apart from everything else. But my key other work is constantly trying to increase my understanding of how fundamental stories and storytelling is in our daily life. Stories aren’t just for entertainment, stories or ‘descriptions of sequences of connected events’ are a fundamental way of thinking and communicating with other people. CNN said, ‘The stories we bring you today are the world you will live in tomorrow.’ As I respond to this questionnaire I am preparing to work on an EU project about the role of stories in youth education particularly related to employment. Fascinating!

I am also continuing to work on my next collection of short stories. I published my first collection, last year.

What are your professional plans for the future?

I would love to keep doing this sort of work! I am running workshops in August on the craft of making, writing and telling short stories based on one’s life. I did something similar two years ago and I had 9 or 10 teachers from different countries including 4 or 5 from Turkey. Now, that’s another nice job to do. If anybody is interested please write to me: andrew@ili.hu

What should your audience expect to learn during the plenary session at the 22nd TESOL Macedonia-Thrace Northern Greece Annual International Convention?

I can’t say that I EXPECT people to learn anything from what I might offer! But I will be talking about stories, story making and story telling and my understandings are much more broadly based than those usually associated with the topic. I will also be talking about how fundamental stories are to everybody’s daily life, to their understanding of who they are and to their relationships with other people. Given stories are usually told with words then stories clearly are a candidate for being the main highway for language learning, in the classroom.

What are the three words that sum up your session?

Stories are us.

Technology has become a big part of our everyday lives today. In your experience, would you say that the art and craft of storytelling has changed at all or will change due to this?

The first thing to say is that there will be no change in the centrality of stories in society. The next thing to say is that the stories we tell and how we deliver them have always been affected by where we are, by the physical circumstances of the telling and by the purpose of the telling.

Did tellers just tell their stories or sing them together with playing a harp? And then: shadow theatre, puppets and masked players, sound and vision recording. Each medium offers its own range of ways of telling. So, yes, how a story is told will be constantly changing according to the social and physical setting it is told in.

Thank you very much.

Natasha Loukeri

for TESOL Macedonia-Thrace, Northern Greece

Plenary Speakers: Interviews (Marjorie Rosenberg)

Please tell us a few things about yourself and your involvement in education.

My degree is actually in music (a Master of Fine Arts in music performance) and I have a teaching certificate from New York State to teach music as well. I have been in Austria since 1981 where I began in adult education and soon after arriving did a diploma in teaching to adults. I have found, however, that what I learned teaching music in the States gave me insights into aspects such as classroom management and rapport with students. I also feel that we never stop learning and have taken part regularly in professional development courses and seminars. Conferences are also a wonderful place to experience new ideas and I go to them whenever I can.

What attracted you to the field of education?

In the States I began to teach as this was what music majors did while auditioning for roles and this actually continued when I got to Austria and started auditioning for agents in order to sing in an opera house. Slowly but surely teaching became my main profession and I have now been in the field of ELT for over 30 years. What I like about it is that it is a very wide-spread field, I can be involved in teaching associations such as TEA (Teachers of English in Austria) and IATEFL, I can write, I can blog, I can train teachers, and I can continue in the classroom as well. I like the flexibility, the challenge and the fun of working with people and watching them develop in many ways, not just in their language skills.

Which are some of the most memorable highlights of your career in education?

I think being on the board of TEA and then Chair (2003-2005) and then being elected to the IATEFL BESIG committee, first as a joint events coordinator and then as coordinator (2009-2015) are memorable highlights. Others include my first plenary in Wiesbaden for ELTAF (English Language Teachers of Frankfurt) and being invited by other organizations to hold plenaries, such as here in Thessaloniki. And of course, a major highlight was be nominated as Vice President/President of IATEFL and being successful in this endeavor.

Which aspects of your work do you enjoy the most?

As I mentioned earlier, I love the flexibility, the chance to make a difference and being able to travel and work with teachers in many different countries. I have presented or held workshops in places as diverse as Austria, Germany, France, the Czech Republic, Monaco, Italy, Israel, Finland, Denmark, the UK, the Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland and the USA. Next on my list is Hungary, Malta and Greece. 

  

What are you working on now?

I am mostly working on finding out what I need to do as Acting Vice President of IATEFL and Chair of the Publications Committee. Usually there is a full year for this position but due to the circumstances of me taking over towards the end of a term I have lots to catch up on. In addition, I am working on an ebook for teachers on how to write activities for different learner types and am in the middle of a research project for university students on learning styles and learner strategies. Several other ideas are in the pipeline but I have had to put them on hold for the moment.

What are your professional plans for the future?

I think that the major part of my professional plans will be taking on the Presidency of IATEFL for two years (from April 2015 – April 2017) and then serving again as Vice President for a year. This job has many aspects including chairing committees such as publications and the annual conference. I plan to stay at the language institute of the University of Graz teaching a few classes a week and also working with corporate clients. Epublsihing is new for me so I hope I can finish the book I mentioned and get it published as an electronic version.

What should your audience expect to learn during the plenary session at the 22nd TESOL Macedonia-Thrace Northern Greece Annual International Convention?

I would say that the main thing is to find out about all the options we have and begin to become aware of how we can stretch out of our comfort zones.

What are the three words that sum up your session?

Taking chances, exploring, discovering

In your biography you mentioned:"In my investigation of the concept of learning I came across an NLP course being held in Austria so I signed up for it".Could you tell us how a NLP is connected to learning and why this area of studies attracted you?

This is an interesting question. I find that in corporate training today NLP has become invaluable. I work with people in HR who coach as well as project managers dealing with change management. NLP has many tools which can be implemented here and my students are always interested in this. For years I ran courses on NLP for school teachers with a colleague who wrote a book on NLP techniques (in German) for teachers and many of the participants of our seminars told us how we helped them both professionally and privately. I also use NLP techniques myself when I feel stuck. I think the main aspects connected to learning are the following: establishing and maintaining rapport, being congruent (authentic), reframing meaning (this includes turning negative ideas into positive ones), enabling others to set realistic goals (often used in coaching), creativity strategy, classroom management and flexibility in being aware of other’s models of the world. Once I realise that someone is doing something because it helps them in some way, I can be more tolerant of behavior that might otherwise get on my nerves.

Thank you very much, 

Efi Tzouri 

for TESOL Macedonia Thrace Northern Greece

Meet our Plenary Speakers - Ken Wilson

Bio

Ken Wilson is an ELT author and trainer. He has written about thirty titles, including a dozen series of course books. His most recent course material includes Smart Choice, a four-level American English course for OUP, and Achievers, a five-level course for teenagers, which will be published by Richmond UK in 2015. He is also editor-in-chief of English 3 and English 4, a co-production between Vietnam Educational Publishing House and Macmillan Hong Kong. 

He also writes supplementary material, including sketches and other resource material. In 2008, OUP published Drama and Improvisation, a collection of more than fifty of his drama activities for teachers. 

His first ELT publication was a collection of songs called Mister Monday, which was released when he was 23. Since then, he has written and recorded more than two hundred ELT songs, published as albums or as integral parts of course material. He has also written more than a hundred ELT radio and television programs, including fifty radio scripts for the Follow Me series, thirty Look Ahead TV scripts and a series of plays called Drama First. 

For many years, Ken was a member of the English Teaching Theatre, a company which toured the world performing stage-shows for learners of English. The ETT made more than 250 tours to 55 countries, including Greece. 

Ken lives in London with his wife and two cats, and works in a shed at the end of his garden.

Read more about Ken and his work at https://kenwilsonelt.wordpress.com/ 

Plenary talk: Only connect - seven strategies for ensuring teacher-student communication in the classroom

Does the conventional classroom, with a teacher and students sitting at desks, have any place in modern learning? Has technology rendered the normal learning environment redundant? It would seem not, as teachers and students all over the world are still required to turn up at a particular time and place and engage with each other in some way. However, in classrooms where technology is available, has this engagement changed radically? And what about the students' own technology? Does this make a difference to the classroom experience, or are there some traditional aspects of teaching/learning that should remain the same?

This talk will show how the vital link between teacher and students can be maintained, in a hi-tech classroom or in a situation where the students themselves have sophisticated personal technology.

Workshop: Is Anybody Listening?

Students have three ways of working on their listening skills in class: listening to the teacher, to machines and to other students. Most students do the first two, but not the third. In this talk, I will show how you can encourage learners to listen to each other, for example by using the power of images and also with instrumental music. The amazing activities will have you listening intently to each other to complete the tasks.

Meet our Plenary Speakers - Alec Williams

Bio

Alec Williams is a storyteller, trainer and speaker with a background in children’s books and libraries. He tells stories and runs training both in the UK and internationally; in 2014 for example he has visited schools in France, Cyprus and Turkey, along with many engagements in the UK. Now working independently, Alec gained many years’ experience in children’s books through a career in library services; he’s an Honorary Member of the Youth Libraries Group of CILIP (the UK Library Association), and one of the UK National Literacy Trust’s ‘Reading Champions’ for his work getting boys reading.

Alec has visited over thirty countries, both telling stories and training teachers, often through the British Council but sometimes at the direct invitation of schools. He was a keynote speaker at the International Storytelling Conference in Istanbul last year.

An enthusiastic advocate of both traditional tales and modern children’s fiction, Alec believes that language learning is hugely enhanced by stories and poetry. Because students enjoy this aspect of learning, it’s naturally more memorable, and it shows the sound of English ‘in performance’. Alec’s sessions for teachers are rich in humour, examples, extracts, and practical anecdotes – making them enjoyable and memorable too!

Read more about what Alec does at www.alecwilliams.co.uk

Plenary: Bringing it Alive! Interactive Storytelling and the Early Years

This entertaining session looks at the role of stories in language learning, especially with children of 2-6 years. It begins with ‘Why tell stories?’, and goes on to look particularly at how stories help language learning. There’ll be advice on choosing stories to use; preparing a story; planning a story session; making stories interactive; practical tips for telling; and suggestions for follow-up. Alec will show how to make the most of picture book stories, as well as introducing you to stories for 2-6 year olds that can be told from memory. He’ll also look at using rhymes and simple poetry, which could be another part of a regular classroom ‘storytime’ in school.

Finally, there’ll be down-to-earth advice from an experienced storyteller on building your confidence; holding children’s interest; and dealing with interruptions – plus a chance for delegates to recommend a story to each other!

Throughout the session, there’ll be examples of stories to enjoy, both from books and from memory; you’re sure to go away with some new stories to try out with children, and pass on to others!

Workshop: Storytelling in ELT - Hints and Tips to Make it Work

This workshop* is a hands-on session for teachers who’d like to learn how to tell stories; for those who’d like to increase their confidence; and for those who are regular storytellers but would like to refresh or improve their technique.

It will look at storytelling both from books and from memory, and there’ll be examples of each type of story. Delegates will look at stories in groups, and discuss how to introduce them, how to deal with unusual language, scope for interaction, and follow-up – but no-one will be forced to read a story, or be videoed!

The session will focus especially on stories for younger children, but Alec will highlight some approaches for older children too.