Programme

Games have emerged as a leading technology medium for education over the last decade. How excited should we be as educators? How can we use the research to make informed decisions about games for learning?
What will you get out of this session? This session presents both research and application on what makes a good online game in ELT.

Cambridge University Press have a wealth of data and information stored in their general and learner corpora. This talk looks at how the unique value of this data is being unlocked for teachers through the creation of a chatbot. The talk will look at the hackathon process that ELTjam and Cambridge have engaged in to build the early versions of the bot, and how the product can act as a fun and effective way of finding information to help with lesson planning.
What will you get out of this session? A better understanding of how Cambridge corpora can aid lesson planning. An understanding of bot technology and agile approaches to early stage product development.

Music is essential in children lives. Using songs and musical activities for learning a foreign language is very fruitful for different affective, cognitive and linguistic reasons (Calatrava, 2016). I will present a program of Teaching English and Music in Preschool Education based in the interdisciplinary teaching and applied at a state school in Barcelona. The English contents, from Macmillan “Captain Jack” collection and music contents, from the school syllabus, have been fused together.
What will you get out of this session? This talk will present an investigation of an innovative teaching program applied in a real state school of Barcelona. Attendees will be able to see an example of CLIL program where Music and English were fused.

Terrence Rattigan’s popular comedy French Without Tears (1936) was named after a well-known textbook of the time. The title plays on the widespread longing for a language teaching method that is painless, pleasurable, and fast. Fun, in short. But can language learning really be fun? Isn’t it about effort, concentration and the long haul? In these two talks (All work and no play and No pain, no gain) I’ll argue the case for and against foregrounding fun as a guiding principle in methodology and course design. Just for fun, you won’t know in which order I’ll be doing the talks.
What will you get out of this session? A better understanding of how affective factors impact on learning; a sense of how to combine both the serious and the pleasurable and a more finely-tuned capacity to assess the claims of certain merchandisers.

There are so many buzz words around ELT nowadays that it’s sometimes difficult to match the theory to the practical. This session explores what is meant by authenticity and its implications for classroom teaching. Teachers will learn how to better incorporate authenticity into tasks, materials and situations to enhance classroom learning.
What will you get out of this session? A better understanding of how authenticity can be applied practically into the classroom by breaking it down into 5 distinct strands and showing how to use these strands with some examples from a course book.

What does Star Wars have to do with the passive? What can Prince Harry teach us about reported speech? Who is Zoella, and what can she add to your lesson on adverbs of frequency? This talk looks at using youth culture as a vehicle for target language. One struggle of teaching the ‘youth of today’, is relating to this transient age group, especially in the information age where content and ideas are in constant motion. View examples of content and how you can implement these into your teaching.
What will you get out of this session? The intended takeaway of this talk is to encourage thinking on what motivates students, and how this can be increased through the use of relevant and topical pop-culture content.

Authentic video may offer the most effective route to classroom fun. But authentic video is much more than authentic speech. By harnessing the natural elements in film including music, humour and action-led narratives we can create a fun, fully integrated video-centred learning experience. Join us in this session in which we will play around with a series of sample clips and define the dos and don’ts that will ensure student engagement at any level!.
What will you get out of this session? Best practices in the choice and use of authentic video in class or as part of a blended learning model, allowing video to be placed at the core of a lesson that will grab students’ attention, boost retention and push them into action.

It’s all so serious these days! We used to have a good time teaching, and then the coursebook came along and spoiled it all. We’ll look at the fun to be had from winging it, losing the plot, throwing away the script, flying a kite, playing it by ear. The serious point being: spontaneity and improvisation are powerful aids to learning.

That motivation plays an important role in language learning is no secret to any teacher or student. That lessons which are fun motivate students is also something we can all observe in the classroom. What we have heard less about is how fun cognitively demanding and reasonably challenging activities can be.
What will you get out of this session? This session will focus on practical activities for teachers preparing students for the Trinity ISE exam, making sure students´ lower and higher order thinking skills are employed to encourage student participation and desired performance.

busuu's enormous community of language learners represent a huge array of insights into the struggle towards mastering an additional language. In this talk, Kirsten will present the findings of research conducted with busuu learners, and look particularly at the role of 'ideal' and 'ought to' future selves, and how crucial these are for successful language learners.
What will you get out of this session? Some insights into what motivates busuu's community of 80 million language learners.

Why do we avoid failure in real life but thrive on it in games? In many games you will lose a hundred times for every fleeting victory. Spawn, try, die, repeat. Spawn, try, die, repeat. How is this fun and what can we learn from it? This session will examine how failure, play, fun and learning are intertwined, looking at how specific game mechanics can be applied in lesson design and the creation of learning materials.
What will you get out of this session? A dab of existential philosophy, a scoop of game literacy and a good dose of transferrable, game-inspired interaction design ideas.

Rapport can be described as “a relationship marked by mutual understanding and trust”. Building rapport is a crucial component of successful teacher-student relationships, as once established it promotes open communication, develops trust and fosters student’s desire to participate in class activities. Moreover, these positive relationships are the basis of FUN. So, let’s see what lifehacks we already use and how we can benefit from those.
What will you get out of this session? Building rapport is a crucial component of successful teacher-student relationships and it appears to be a basis for fun. At the talk we'll discuss some lifehacks how to create that bond and promote student’s desire to participate in class activities.

As teachers we want to deliver fun and interactive lessons and hope technology can help us to achieve this. However, using most of the EdTech products aimed at students often results in learners working with their heads down, fully immersed in their world and not communicating with each other. Unable to find the product that met my teaching needs I got up enough courage to create my own. I hope this session will inspire you to get involved and bring your ELT expertise into Ed Tech.
What will you get out of this session? Deepen your understanding of why teachers need to get involved in EdTech and how they can make it work to their advantage. Plus a free voucher for the exPLAYn app to help you engage your students and bring more fun into your classroom.

While fun is an important element in the young learner classroom, it's not just simply colouring, playing games and singing. Teachers of this age group need highly-specialised training to plan lessons with age-appropriate activities that help move students forward in their learning. This talk shows how teachers can bring Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development come to life in the language classroom. Fun and challenge complement each other, they're not binary opposites.
What will you get out of this session? Attendees will have the opportunity to bring fun into the classroom while still maintaining challenge. Teaching children is not just singing and colouring. The modern young learner teacher is expected to deliver classes with clear learning outcomes.

In this talk, I will explore ways in which an experienced teacher can stay motivated and derive pleasure from their every day practice. I will talk about the key role continuing professional development plays in maintaining motivation and what benefits and pleasure this brings to the individual, their learners and their organisation. The talk will also cover areas such as what motivates experienced teachers and what factors can affect their levels of motivation.
What will you get out of this session? Attendees will gain an insight into various ways of staying motivated as an ELT professional, even after years of teaching. They will come away with ideas on how to continue to develop their own practice and keep the fun in teaching.

All too often Teacher Observation is carried out with little gain apart from "ticking the boxes" and minimal reflection (on both sides). Why is it often such a struggle? In this interactive session we will be looking at ways in which we can make the process more productive and reflective for both observer and observee. In addition, this practical session will demonstrate how integrating Observations into overall CPD programmes is able not only to enhance enjoyment, but also engagement.
What will you get out of this session? All too often, observations are carried out with little gain apart from "ticking the boxes" and minimal reflection (on both sides). In this interactive session we will look at ways in which we can make the process more productive/reflective for all.

Despite new textbooks, technical devices and real-life contexts, we still do not always succeed in engaging all our students. This talk bridges the gap between theory and practice, and offers an agency-based communicative approach through which students create their own fun and meaning. This sociocultural approach intrinsically motivates students by giving them freedom to create, so they can become unique individuals who are in control of the new language they are learning.
What will you get out of this session? The agency-based communicative approach helps students to create their own meaning and become unique individuals in control of the English language.

Designing a delightful learning experience would seem essential if we want to motivate adult learners to engage with our products. But do adult learners value ‘fun’ learning experiences? In this talk we explore student perceptions of products designed to provide entertaining, stress-free learning, such as bite-sized video-based activities and social clubs. Specifically, we examine questions raised by some students of the efficacy of learning experiences which don’t feel like 'hard work'.
What will you get out of this session? Relevant to both teachers and course designers, we’ll share research on student perceptions of ‘fun’ and learning, explore some effects that pressure and stress have on language learning, and consider implications for your own learning design.

Having a user-centered design approach when creating a new service, in this case education, is key. And of course, we want our customers/students to have fun while learning and to stay engaged. This talk will cover concepts to help you create a good user experience, and we’ll discuss methods we use daily to push our products and services forward, and to ensure they’ll succeed and stand out.
What will you get out of this session? Learn about why designing a good user experience can help students have a more engaging and fun education. See how design methods and processes can help create this experience and to find ways to iterate and constantly improve.

Lesson activities using augmented-reality (AR) smartphone apps develop learner engagement, awareness and interaction with other students. AR gives learners control accessing audio-visual content overlaid on still images, and a way to share their own work. This reframes the familiar and generates new activities, promoting movement, aural processing and peer support: more fun, less affect. Come to see, try and make AR activities in open-access app "HP Reveal" —set it up on your device for the talk.
What will you get out of this session? AR activities offer learners more control, variety and involvement in content, promoting movement, interaction and deeper learning. See how to innovate, redefine coursebook tasks, keep smartphones busy and nurture language learners’ inner resources.

I decided to conduct my own action research into the possible pedagogical benefits of laughter in the adult classroom. Can laughter reduce the affective filter? Do students appreciate humour in their lessons? Do we know what our students find amusing? Does this have any effect at all on students' learning or their perception of their learning? The results made me laugh...
What will you get out of this session? Attendees will leave with a clearer appreciation of both learners' perceptions of humour and its function in the classroom, how to incorporate humour into lessons and how to make the most of the learning opportunities afforded by laughter.

When we work with learners for just one academic year, it can hide the fact that the goals many are working towards will take years, even decades to reach. Despite what marketers would have us belief, language learning is very much a marathon, not a sprint. And even if the marathon is punctuated with moments of fun and joy (hangman, anyone?!), it’s still a marathon. In this talk, Nick will explore ways we can help learners build the resilience they need to get to the finish line.
What will you get out of this session? Insights into the psychology of resilience and practical tools to help keep learners engaged and motivated in the long-term endeavour of language learning.

The better we understand what our learners are trying to achieve, the better we can design solutions that meet their needs. In this talk we will take a look at the Jobs To Be Done approach to product development and explore ways in which it might be applied to the context of ELT. We will ask what problems learners are 'hiring' English to solve, and how we can use that insight to craft engaging and effective learner experiences.
What will you get out of this session? Attendees will get an introduction to the Jobs To Be Done approach to product innovation, as well as suggestions for how it could be applied to language learning experiences.