What we did in 2017, and what’s coming in 2018…

Happy 2018!

You may have noticed that 2017 was a very busy year for us, with various side projects that meant less time for blogging! Here are just a couple of highlights…

ELFpron’s other projects in 2017

My English Voice was an ELTons Awards finalist

My English Voice, the website Katy created to provide opportunities for learners to find their own voice in English, focusing on effective communication in international contexts, was shortlisted as a finalist in the category ‘Innovation in Learner Resources‘ at the 2017 British Council ELTons Awards.

Two co-authored chapters were published

Two books containing chapters co-authored by Laura were published in the second half of 2017:

• Dewey, M. & L. Patsko (2017). ELF and Teacher Education [Chapter 35]. In Jenkins, J., Baker, W., & Dewey, M. (Eds.). Handbook of English as a Lingua Franca. Routledge.
• Patsko, L. & R. Walker (2017). Teaching the pronunciation of English as a Lingua Franca. In Murphy, J. (Ed.) Teaching the Pronunciation of English: Focus on Whole Courses. University of Michigan Press.

So what’s coming in 2018?

• To kick off the new year: if you attended the International House Academic Managers & Trainers (IHAMT) conference in January 2018, you may have seen Laura’s plenary talk about creating an ELF-aware school. If you missed it, don’t worry… there might be another version (live or written) in 2018. Watch this space!

• In the meantime, if you’re interested in learning more about creating an ELF-aware classroom, we hope you’re enrolled on Katy’s iTDi course this month… This online teacher development course lasts 4 weeks, and starts tomorrow!

• A few short weeks after Katy’s iTDi course, this year’s IATEFL conference will feature two presentations by Laura: a workshop in the MaWSIG Pre-Conference event (9 April 2018) that looks at creating pronunciation materials for effective international communication; and a talk in the main conference (12 April 2018), co-presented with Ben Goldstein and focusing on the use of ‘near-peers’ as role models for L2 learners.

• For some time now, we’ve been working away on a new ebook which is due to be published in 2018 by ELT Teacher 2 Writer: How to Write Pronunciation Activities. We’ll post again when it’s out!

• And finally, Laura is on the organising committee for the 11th annual conference of English as a Lingua Franca, which will be hosted by King’s College London in London, UK on 4-7 July 2018. The first day is dedicated specifically to teachers, looking at what teachers do in their classrooms to apply ELF research findings to their practice.

We’re very much looking forward to these and other potential projects this year. And we hope to cross paths with ELFpron readers at some of the events!