Pedagogy Workshops

Becoming a better teacher

Pedagogy Workshops 2024/2025

We are delighted to announce that we are running our series of pedagogy workshops again this year. Building on the success of the series of workshops in previous years, we are offering ten online workshops over this academic year on Saturday mornings. The workshop nature of these sessions make them ideal for CELTA graduates and practising teachers, those considering taking a Celta course and for all those interested in the English language and how it is learnt and taught in the early 21st century.

The 2-hour online sessions, delivered by our experienced English teachers and trainers, are interactive and hands-on. You will acquire skills and understanding enabling you to develop as a teacher and to deliver dynamic English language lessons for your students to allow for engaging and effective learning to take place.

The workshops cover many areas of English language and its pedagogical application in the modern classroom, with particular focus in many sessions on how AI and technology can enhance and accelerate learning. The sessions also provide a great opportunity to connect with fellow English language practitioners.

Session	Description	Date	Time
Demystifying Generative AI to allow it supercharge your language teaching	What is generative AI? What is prompt engineering? Is it going to make language teachers redundant? You will leave this hands-on interactive workshop with great insights in how to make AI work for you as you put your learners on an accelerated path of learning. You will also have plethora of ready-to-use in class materials which your learners will love.	Saturday, 12 October 2024	11am - 1pm, via Zoom
How to integrate technology effectively in your teaching	There are so many technology resources available. Where to start? How to harness them to make your teaching more effective and fun for your learners. This workshop will present three of best technology - including latest AI resources - at our disposal for teaching English and present a variety of ways to successfully integrate technology into teaching. You will leave with an abundance of ideas and much material ready to use in your teaching.	Saturday, 2 November 2024	11am - 1pm, via Zoom
Grammar pedagogy	Make grammar teaching great again! We will provide you with a variety of ways - including using latest tech and AI - to create dynamic, engaging and effective grammar lessons for your learners. You will leave with a better understanding of all aspects of English grammar and be looking forward to getting back into the classroom to make grammar teaching great again.	Saturday, 16 November 2024	11am - 1pm, via Zoom
Vocabulary analysis and teaching	How to make vocabulary learning engaging, personalised and effective for your students. The workshop will provide you with great methods to create enjoyable and learning-centred vocabulary lessons for your students which will result in successful vocabulary acquisition and more effective strategies for acquiring vocabulary.	Saturday, 7 December 2024	11am - 1pm, via Zoom
Tools and techniques for effective and engaging pronunciation lessons	Let’s take a deep dive into the English language sound system and explore aspects of stress, rhythm, intonation and pronunciation of individual sounds and words, and discover how to help your learners improve their overall pronunciation skills. In a series of fun and engaging classroom activities you will be able to apply with ease in your own teaching. You will be more aware of differences between English and the sound systems other languages, and also learn how latest tech innovations can aid your learners’ accurate pronunciation.	Saturday, 25 January 2025	11am - 1pm, via Zoom
Mediation - creating space for co-construction of meaning and facilitating skills transfer.	In the 21st century our learners are social agents and as such we need to facilitate language learning by focusing on making meaning and/or enabling communication beyond linguistic or cultural barriers. This is achieved by mediation. Learn how to create space for co-construction of meaning and facilitating skills transfer. This workshop will… provide an opportunity for familiarisation with the different mediation types from companion volume to the CEFR and offer the chance to practise some mediation tasks by fostering cooperative skills and shared problem-solving.	Saturday, 8 February 2025	11am - 1pm, via Zoom
Listening - the Cinderella skill	Join this interactive workshop to discover what skills are needed for effective listening development and how we can provide engaging content and tasks for our learners to enable them to establish effective listening skills strategies and progress to becoming proficient language users.	Saturday, 08 March 2025	11am - 1pm, via Zoom
The Storied Classroom	Stories are central to the human experience. We use stories to create social and professional bonds, to tell jokes, to ask for help, to make sense of the world, to explain who we are and how we feel. From the job interview to the watercooler, from the kitchen to the classroom, from the phone call to a loved one to the chance meeting on the street, research suggests that we tell dozens of stories each day. As such, the ability to narrate is one of the most important and beneficial skills that our learners can develop. This session will focus on how storytelling can be utilised as a means of teaching and learning language, and on how narratives can be used to create what Ruth Wajnryb terms “a storied classroom”. This workshop is not to be missed.	Saturday, 15 March 2025	11am - 1pm, via Zoom
Dealing with mixed abilities	No two learners are the same and no two classes are the same. All classes will have students with mixed abilities. This workshop will equip you with better understanding as to how to establish where your individual learners’ strengths are and how to manage the classroom to allow them to reach their learning potential.	Saturday, 5 April 2025	11am - 1pm, via Zoom
Materials evaluation and development	Is your coursebook boring? Can you bring it to life? Do your students relate to it? Do you as teacher relate to it? There is so much authentic material we can adapt for the classroom. But how to do it? This session is hands on and you will leave, not only with so many ideas on how to bring your coursebook to life, but also how to adapt and create authentic and AI-generated materials which meet the real life needs and interests of your students.	Saturday, 3 May 2025	11am - 1pm, via Zoom

The Language Centre can deliver bespoke teacher development workshops to meet the specific needs of your institution. Please email Brendan Ó Sé, our Head of Development on b.ose@ucc.ie for information about this. Workshops, and courses, can be delivered fully online, in person, in your location, or a combination of online and in-person.

To apply please fill out this registration form

You can choose to take the entire series of workshops or just select those which interest you most. Places are limited; early application is advised.

Individual workshops cost €50, with discounts available for UCC CELTA graduates and trainees, and those taking multiple workshops.

A certificate of attendance is provided for all workshops.

Pedagogy Workshops 2024-25

Poster pedagogy workshops 2024-25

poster pedagogy workshops

Language Centre

Lárionad Teanga

Main Office, G36, O'Rahilly Building, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland