British Council Cuba engaged Alan Mackenzie to participate in #InglesparaElDesarrollo, biennial conference Cuba 2021 held virtually November 9-11.

This conference was part of the capacity building actions for teachers and student-teachers of EFL agreed with the ministries of education as part of the collaboration with the British Council and with the participation and support of the teacher associations in Cuba.

A total of 300 EFL teachers proposed by both ministries of education and the teacher’s associations, were trained through the two workshops included in the conference’s program during the afternoon sessions.

With a more inclusive approach, the webinars, presentations, and Q&A sessions during the morning sessions were opened to all the English language teachers in Cuba from any ministry and to all the student-teachers: a total of over 900 attended engaging a wider, younger, and more diverse audience from all the provinces in Cuba.

Alan delivered three separate workshops. These mini-courses or workshops consisted of three pre-recorded video presentations each of around ten minutes in length. Each had accompanying activities and additional reading and viewing materials. All these materials were uploaded to the conference Moodle in a workshop/ mini-course format including interactive activities through Padlet.

For one hour each day, Alan ran interactive chats through text and video on Telegram for the teachers participating in the conference.

Workshop 1: Introduction to CEFR

Vid 1: General description of the framework: A,B,C

Vid 2: Close description of A1, A2

Vid 3: How to distinguish between A1 and A2

Workshop 2: CEFR with a focus on A1 level

Vid 1: Familiarisation with A1

Vid 1: Assessing A1

Vid 3: Structuring learning for A1

Workshop 3: Current trends in English language teaching

Vid 1: Major trends and drivers

• Wider trends including shifts in:
  • theories about language
  • the ways learning is structured
  • how learning content is organised
  •  
• Major Drivers including:
  • Need by employers to have competent English speakers
  • The standards movement
  • English Medium Instruction at tertiary
  • Online teaching and learning
  • Diversity agenda

Vid 2: Technology shifts including:

• New genres
• Pandemic responses
• Mobile learning
• Low resource approaches
• Methodologies on the rise

Vid 3: Approaches to learning

• Post methods
• Re-rise of humanism
• Learner autonomy
• Methodologies in favour:
  • Task-based
  • Flipped
  • Project-based