The theme of the Symposium was Critical
Approaches to Teaching and Testing. We were very excited to host two excellent speakers on critical language teaching, in addition to our very own George Vassilakis: Dr Sara Hannam, of City College, Thessaloniki, set the scene for the day by exploring what being ‘critical’ means (and doesn’t mean) when applied to English Language Teaching. Well known ELT author and presenter Lindsay Clandfield talked about developing critical thinking skills in the classroom and demonstrate activities that foster critical thinking which participants could begin using with their students right away. George Vassilakis took a critical look at the world of language teaching, discussing issues of test fairness and ethics with relation to both test preparation and the test taking experience.

A number of ELT publishers who have brought out teaching materials that help prepare learners for the City & Guilds exams were also presented. Our staff and associates presented Pecha Kuchas related to test preparation as well as the content and structure of the City & Guilds exams.