On September 29-30, 2018, II Annual Conference for English language teachers «Teach Better» was held in Minsk. U.S. Embassy in Belarus and English Language Teachers Community #Teacherstalkshop (Minsk) were the organizers of the event.
The staff members at the Centre for Foreign Languages Study and the lecturers at the Department of World Literature and Foreign Languages participated in the conference. They had an opportunity to communicate and exchange experience with foreign and Belarusian colleagues.
Master-classes and workshops were given by more than 25 lecturers, including 8 American representatives, who had come to Belarus under the Fulbright Program and “English Language Fellow (EFL)”. Jocelyn Pihlaja, a fixed term employee at Polotsk State University, spoke at the opening of the conference.
The participants could attend up to 8 master-classes, connected with the subject matters they needed. Most part of the lessons were connected with the use of modern technologies and effective organization of education in teaching English. Moreover, the recent trends in the sphere of languages studying, opportunities for professional development and self-education were also discussed at the conference.
Each moderator of a master-class managed to provide efficient work, practical orientation, content flexibility depending on the participants’ requests, the possibility to enter a discussion, receive the answers and support. The audience, in its turn, demonstrated the readiness for cooperation and experience exchange.
Olga Zhuravskaya, Head of the Centre shares her impressions: “We participate in the conference for the second time. Here we find useful techniques, technologies and methods of teaching, bring new materials that we actively use. But the main thing is our ideas, which we will realize in the near future. Both our readiness to work efficiently and the support from our American and Minsk colleagues will help us with it.
The participants of the conference “Teach Better” express their gratitude to Jenifer Moor, the representative of the U.S. Embassy in Belarus, and to Natalia Kulinkovich, the manager of the project #Teacherstalkshop for the high level of organization, efficient work, materials provided, readiness to communicate and continue the cooperation.
Antonina Kononova, Centre for Foreign Languages Study
Photos by: V. Matskevich, U.S. Embassy in Belarus