Author and materials writer, Hugh Dellar, visited all of us here at emc this week to give us an ELT workshop. The idea of the workshop was for emc folk to gain more of an insight into the materials that we work on and to help us understand more about how they are used in the classroom context.

As part of the workshop, Hugh gave us an ELT lesson,  based on OUTCOMES Upper-Intermediate, a course we are currently working on for Cengage Learning. This involved a discussion of the order and purpose of activities, the flow of a page and the way the page leads towards particular objectives and how these are achieved. It was interesting to learn why certain decisions are made from a pedagogical point of view. As well as what the teachers need from the material to help them with delivering a lesson.

In addition to the ELT lesson, we learnt what teachers do or don’t do with the materials in the classroom, as well as finding out what teachers who reject materials in general do and why. Hugh also spoke about using and adapting real-world texts for different levels, with a discussion of grading, assumed global / cultural knowledge. And also the role and use of the CEFR: how it can be implemented and how it seems to have been coopted on occasion to fit previously existing models.

It was a great afternoon and we all definitely learnt a lot. Thanks to Hugh for coming and taking the time to talk to us about the materials we work on.