Presentation
APAC Convention 25th to 27th February, 2010
Skills for Life: ELT and Education
The importance of English in the future of young and
not so young Europeans has been central in all discussions on basic skills and
competencies and has been one of the main issues in the debate to raise
Europe’s productivity, competitiveness and employment.
School curricula have finally incorporated the work
done by the OCDE and other international organisations in the identification of
key competencies, and teaching programmes are now more cross-curricular than
ever. It seems only logical that the teaching of English should try to
transcend its language boundaries to the wider field of education with a
capital E.
Teachers of English have always been highly
specialised, with agendas full of hot topics. A look at the mottos of APAC Conventions
is sufficient to see what has been worrying us: ICT, Communication, Tasks,
Projects, Motivation, CLIL, Classroom diversity, always closely linked to how
language is learnt and how it can best be taught. As teachers of English we have been able to use resources that
open windows of imagination for our students, and have an influence on students
that teachers of other subjects can seldom have. If English is central in the
debate for the future of our young people, our challenge as teachers of English
at present is whether we will be able to use that influence and opportunity to
go beyond our language niche(s) and consciously contribute to the Education of
our students.
APAC’s convention this coming February 2010 includes
the confirmed participation of speakers who have not visited us for some time
now, such as Mary Slattery, Barbara Seidlhofer, Henry Widdowson, John McRae or
Scott Thornbury, and we are about to confirm the participation of regular
visitors, local and international. We look forward to listening to interesting
sessions and to the usual opportunity for rich exchanges at the Universitat
Pompeu Fabra .
See you in February!
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