Adam Saleskovics

Year of birth: 1979, Place of Birth: Budapest, Diploma: Pannonian University, Faculty of Arts, School of English Language and Literature (2006), Moved to Uruguay: 2011, Started to work at The Anglo School Carrasco: 2011

Teacher creativity and learner autonomy with the help of technology in the classroom

The presentation is aimed at teachers who need innovative approaches in their daily practices and would like to prepare classes that are not dependent on coursebooks. The objective is to help them adopt a more flexible mindset that allows for creativity in planning, focuses on language skills development, raises cultural awareness, fosters learner engagement, autonomy and collaboration in the classroom with the help of technology. It aims to break down a series of classes that can easily be implemented and customised by fellow teachers according to their and their students’ needs. 

The presentation has been designed to show how to take students from finding important cities on the map of the United Kingdom to writing their own essays about local communities benefiting from keeping their myths alive (the tourism built around the Loch Ness Monster). All the activities that have been tried and tested will be shared with fellow teachers in the presentation with clear explanation of the purpose of each. The activities explained are as follows: *Finding major UK cities on a blind map (raising cultural and geographical awareness) and reinforcing their spelling and pronunciation (with the help of a reliable source on Youtube) *Reading about different accents in the UK and thinking about why they even exist (individual reflection and class discussions to foster critical thinking) *Expanding vocabulary (analysing and working with the new, advanced vocabulary connected to UK accents, such as: ‘ubiquitous’, presented in the reading material found online) *A deeper understanding of accent-related differences (watching a short video of failed communication between a Scottish MP and a New Zealand-born MP to help students further understand that learning a language is a never-ending process and to work on listening comprehension) *Improving Use of English and expanding vocabulary (learning about the same accent-related incident from a written text found online that presents advanced words transformed into the correct answers of a Word Formation exercise) *Learning about Nessie, the monster of Loch Ness (by moving on from the Scottish MP’s accent to Scotland’s iconic place with the help of a Youtube video converted into an audio file) *Listening challenge (asking students to write down, word for word, a 15-second-long extract from the previously presented audio material about Nessie to reinforce listening, pronunciation, spelling and vocabulary) *Expanding vocabulary (teaching students phrases to express disbelief: ‘skeptical about’, for example) *Fostering collaboration, critical thinking and reinforcing new vocabulary of disbelief (asking students to prepare and hold a short presentation in small groups based on their in-class researches on different cryptids – among them: the Loch Ness Monster. They are asked to use phrases of disbelief to explain why their own creatures are improbable to exist.). *Reinforcing Use of English and new vocabulary (phrases of disbelief through a Key Word Transformation exercise generated with the help of Artificial Intelligence). *Improving Writing skills and fostering critical thinking (through AI-generated task and model text analysis; the topic is that of local communities benefiting from keeping their myths alive; once students’ essays are written and reviewed in detail, they are asked to share their strengths and points to improve in their texts during a plenary). The presentation aims to provide fellow teachers with both practicality and a more general view on language teaching in the classroom that can easily become an active workshop with a wide range of engaging tasks. By the end of the presentation, the audience should be able to answer this simple question: ‘What can I do as a teacher in the absence of a coursebook?’