British Council Sudan sponsored Mr. Bakri Matter, Head of Sudan English Language Training Institute – South Darfur branch to travel to the UK and attend the 53rd IATEFL conference. The IATEFL which stands for ‘International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language’ is an annual conference and exhibition and is one of the main events in the English language teaching calendar. Attended by approximately 3,000 ELT professionals from more than 100 countries, it involves a four day programme of around 500 talks, workshops and forums as well as a vibrant social programme. This offers delegates a unique opportunity to meet leading trainers, theorists and writers, and exchange ideas with fellow professionals from all sectors of English language teaching.
This year the conference was held in Liverpool. We asked Mr. Bakri for feedback about his experience at the conference and he said:
‘At first, I couldn’t believe that I was finally at the city of one of the most famous bands of all time – The Beatles! It was amazing seeing this spectrum of people from all parts of the world at the conference, I even met Professor David Crystal (a known British linguist, academic and author) and had my photo taken with him!
The conference covered lively and excellent topics facilitated by the English experts who were very confident and knowledgeable presenters. I found it very useful. My main takeaway from the conference was the skills of giving a proper presentation at international conference.
Looking at the Sudan context, first thing I want to tackle through my institution is provision of education by building schools in poor and remote areas and improving the school environment in terms of food, seating, water access and building health clinics inside of schools.
My favourite session in the conference was ‘How to answer learners’ grammar questions’ presented by Scott Thornbury from Cambridge University Press. Some questions that learners ask can challenge their teacher’s knowledge so we learnt about methods of handling such questions in the classrooms.
Lastly, I would like to thank the British Council for giving me the opportunity to attend this conference.’