Monday 17 April 2023, IATEFL Harrogate

When considering learning materials, it’s easy to focus on the student’s book, and to overlook the fact that materials creation involves a wide variety of other components. In our 2023 PCE, we’re exploring other aspects of our work, including the various elements of a coursebook package, learner reference materials, materials that teachers write for their own classrooms, and resources that learners access through social media. In fact, we’ll be talking about everything but the student’s book!  

These are some of the key questions we are hoping to answer:

• What skills are involved in developing different material types?
• What principles underlie this area of materials creation?
• How do the materials reflect current thinking on teaching and learning?
• How might someone get involved in this type of materials creation?
• What are your top tips for creating these materials?

The day will be packed with talks on the approaches that materials developers take in different contexts. We will cover a range of materials that supplement, extend or even replace the student’s book. There will be plenty of opportunities for networking throughout the day. 

This was our first ever hybrid PCE, with participants joining us in Harrogate and via Zoom.

Thursday 20 April 2023, IATEFL Harrogate

The IATEFL SIG’s Showcase days are a collection of talks related to the SIG. For convenience, the talks are all held in the same room. The MaWSIG Open Forum is a chance for you to: hear a summary of MaWSIG’s activities over the past year, ask questions, and input into the SIG’s activities in the future.

Monday 16 May 2022, IATEFL Belfast

Following on from 2021’s successful PCE, and maintaining its practical approach, the MaWSIG PCE will explore the various stages that materials travel through on their way to the classroom. Does the route involve bridgeable gaps, or dots we can work to join up more effectively? We’ll be discussing some of the key questions and dichotomies that can crop up along the way. For example:

• What shapes ELT materials more: market demand, pedagogical theory, or research?
• What are the obstacles to making materials inclusive?
• What are the constraints that affect the journey of materials from the initial concept to final product? 
• Is it possible to self-publish successfully without the marketing forces of a publishing company behind you?
• Writing materials for our own classroom: how do teachers ensure quality and fit?

Our PCE included both stimulating talks and time for discussion, as well as plenty of opportunities for reflection and networking.

Wednesday 18 May 2022, IATEFL Belfast

The IATEFL SIG’s Showcase days are a collection of talks related to the SIG. For convenience, the talks are all held in the same room. At 14.10 we will hold the MaWSIG Open Forum – a chance for you to: hear a summary of MaWSIG’s activities over the past year, ask questions, and input into the SIG’s activities in the future.

Wednesday 21 September 2023

Presented by Mark Heffernan & David Byrne

Reading activities are commonplace in EFL materials. However, typically many of these activities practise the skills as opposed to developing them. In this talk we will examine how reading is often presented in EFL materials, making the case that practice alone will not lead to perfection.

We will propose an alternative approach, exploring how to write materials that raise learners’ awareness of reading skills, and develop as opposed to practise or test these skills

Wednesday 19 July 2023

Presented by Bethan Stokes

As a teacher, we all create and develop our own materials in some shape or form. But how do we ‘become’ materials writers? I’ve been asking myself this question for a number of years and have finally decided to try and find out. This webinar will give you an insight into my journey of getting started in materials writing and hopefully answer some of your questions about taking the first steps. I’ll also show you how I try to write materials which are fun and get students talking about interesting, current and often controversial topics. We’ll also touch on teacher’s notes (and my love/hate relationship with them.)

Tuesday 30th May 2023

Presented by Defne Akinci Midas

This session focuses on the different features of the materials prepared for teaching and learning in the ELT classroom compared to those for language testing. The presenter will elaborate on how to prepare quality course materials together with the reasons why they cannot be replaced by materials prepared for testing. The session provides insight and practical tips for teachers and anyone involved in creating teaching materials and tests in ELT.

It continues the theme of materials writing beyond the coursebook which we explored in our Pre-Conference Event (PCE) at IATEFL Harrogate 2023.

Tuesday 28th March 2023

Presented by Ana Clara Castilho Ramos

Ana Clara Castilho Ramos

Teaching early years requires a specific set of skills, and materials for this age group should reflect the young learners’ holistic and language needs. Accordingly, there are many benefits to using picture books and story-based materials. This talk aims at presenting a checklist with a blend of practical and theoretical insights into how to develop effective materials based on storybooks. We will explore the principles and beliefs used in the design of the checklist, and how you can use it to produce your own materials for young EFL learners.

Friday 24th February 2023

Presented by Walton Burns

Self-publishing is an increasingly viable, accessible and affordable option that allows for the creation of ELT materials that have a regional focus, fill a particular niche, or use innovative methods. What’s more, self-publishing lets writers enjoy the greater levels of freedom and control over content, marketing, and sales. Self-publishing often allows authors to earn a greater royalty per book, potentially earning more money. Some prefer to publish in conjunction with their institution or even give the materials away, options that for-profit corporations don’t always allow.

Friday 9 December 2022

Presented by Annie Altimarino

When it comes to creating materials for use in a variety of international contexts, teachers’ books have been discussed far less than the related coursebooks for students.

This webinar will be aimed at explaining why the teacher’s book is as important as the other components of a coursebook pack, what is involved in writing a teacher’s book for use in various international contexts, the challenges we face when writing for such diverse contexts and how to overcome context- / cultural- specific issues.

Friday 25 February 2022

Presented by Ludmila Kozhevnikova and Peter Stepichev

Teaching aids are an excellent resource for teaching and learning. Not only do they make classes more interesting and effective, they also help teachers present material in a creative and engaging way. Moreover, teaching aids help teachers accommodate students’ different learning preferences and individual needs.

In this webinar, we discussed how we can add value to teaching aids by employing the principles of “surprise pedagogy”. We looked at designing teaching aids that both entertain and educate students, thus boosting motivation and encouraging learning. This was illustrated by the tools developed for young learners:  “a grammar mug” and “grammar blocks”.

Saturday 20th February 2021

Presented by Jen Dobson

Materials for early childhood English tend not to contain much text and cap appear deceptively simple; however, in order to develop successful lessons, materials writers need a wealth of classroom experience and an in-depth understanding of how young children develop and learn. In this webinar, I’ll share tips and answer questions about creating engaging classes that not only involve the whole child, but also evoke curiosity and are full of humour and play.

Sunday 23rd February 2020

Panel webinar with Heloisa Duarte, Varinder Unlu and David Valente

The idea that all learners should see themselves and their realities, as well as those of others,  in the materials they use in their English lessons has been brought to the forefront of teachers’ and materials writers’ minds over the past decade by the efforts of committed ELT professionals around the world. MaWSIG hosted this panel webinar to explore what anyone who creates ELT materials can do to better represent diverse population groups and identities. Focusing particularly on older learners, learners who identify as LGBTQ+ and learners who identify as being of colour, Heloisa, David and Varinder each analysed sets of ELT materials to highlight ways of making diverse learners and their realities more visible. We then opened the discussion to audience questions and panel debate on the topic. We hoped to collect concrete ideas and inspiration for developing materials that better reflect the realities of diverse and marginalised groups of English learners.

15th November 2019

Presented by Shelagh Rixon and Wendy Arnold

The ‘ins’ and ‘outs’ of Assessment

Teaching towards some test or exam, e.g. Standardised Attainment Tests (SATs) or using classroom assessment, e.g. designed by teacher’s, to further children’s learning and improve mindsets? These seem to be the two extremes of teachers’  possible activity regarding assessment. In this webinar we critically explored the influence that external examinations have in many contexts and highlighted the advances in teaching and materials that a good examination may promote against the background of the harm that a bad one can do.  However, our main emphasis was on the positive effects that integrating teaching and assessment in class will have. We discussed Assessment for Learning (AfL), as opposed to Assessment of Learning (AoL), and showed practical examples of how this very practical approach can be implemented in class.

17th July 2019

Presented by Sherrise Roehr and Karen Spiller 

We live in an age of many ‘Englishes’! British or American English? Standard or ‘new Englishes’? And what about EFL, ESL and ELF? This webinar looked  at the key characteristics of these labels. It considered how they influence the content and development process of ELT materials and offered examples and tips to help writers and publishers deal with the constraints and embrace the opportunities.

25th November 2018

Presented by Prof. Henning Rossa and Dr Karoline Wirbatz

In this webinar, participants were introduced to the concrete educational context in Germany as an example to illustrate how CLIL is currently implemented and provided as a form of additive, late partial immersion in schools. We discussed existing learning and teaching materials for English as the “CLIL Language”. Following that, the focus was on further adapting these materials, as well as creating new materials. The webinar also touched upon the design of suitable worksheets and reading materials.

20th May 2015

Presented by Paul Sweeney

The development of online courses is increasingly common where ‘online course’ is taken to mean a set of online materials made available to students or teachers of English as a substantial component of a learning programme. From very different starting points, publishers exploring online content development and institutions exploring course delivery online often end up meeting in the middle. What principles of good practice are available to inform this work? This talk is based on a range of shared development experiences from seasoned e-learning practitioners. They reported on courses developed for different audience types (students and teachers of English), varied subject matter (linguistic content as well as teacher training) and factors such as audience age and project size.  My talk will take the audience through key lessons derived from the survey. The talk will reference some principles of online learning design but the main emphasis is on the practical, project-based lessons across areas including course design, authoring tools, delivery platforms, the quality and type of content and the role of content within the overall course. The talk will consider the influence of factors such as  evolving online behaviours and user expectations, emerging course models e.g. MOOCs, the shift to desktop to tablets and smartphones and changing technical and learning design standards. Finally, what, if anything, is to be done about new pedagogical considerations such as adaptive learning, learning analytics and gamification?

Friday 26th November 2021

Presented by Prof. Zakia Sarwar & Dr. Ganga Ram Gautam

In this webinar, teachers from two organizations, Society Of Pakistan English Language Teachers (SPELT) and Nepal English Language Teachers Association (NELTA), will share their successfully used materials and activities in large classes with limited resources. These materials acknowledge the fact that in most developing countries, digital learning facilities are either scarce or erratic.  The materials are designed to encourage autonomy and self-esteem in learners as well as relating these fun learning materials and activities to their own educational contexts.  This results in nurturing a positive “can do” attitude in learners, as they are exposed to meaningful language learning activities, even without a multitude of resources.

Friday 15th January 2021

Presented by Kath Bilsborough and Ceri Jones

Innovation doesn’t have to mean throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Sometimes a tried-and-tested classroom activity can be transformed into a more meaningful experience with just a tweak – in this case a green tweak. We’ll start this webinar with a short lesson using familiar tasks with an environmental twist. Then learners and observers will discuss the lesson, identify pros and cons, and share their views on being expected to teach green issues in the English classroom. We’ll end by drawing conclusions and discussing questions from the audience.

25th January 2020

Presented by Linda Ruas and Margarita Kosior

Both Linda and Margarita have been involved in projects teaching English learners and training teachers or making materials for use in areas with limited resources, be it financial or technological, and will share with us in this webinar ideas for creating learning materials under these constraints. Linda has led Global Issues SIG projects working with untrained volunteer teachers in refugee camps, and is now working with secondary English teachers in Guinea Bissau. She presented some of the simple lesson sequences and materials she has helped teachers create, as well as other ideas for teaching English such as WhatsApp groups and CoPs (Communities of Practice) for teachers to write short texts and lesson plans together about various local and global issues in West Africa eg. FGM, teen pregnancy, the cashew nut harvest and gender equality.  Margarita is the author of a recent IATEFL GISIG publication 12 Months of Social Issues: ELT Calendar of Special Days. It is a compilation of lessons, one per month, focusing on a different special day (mostly UN and UNESCO) each time. In this way, this volume consists of twelve complete sessions, many which can be used in limited-resource classrooms. The publication aims not only to develop learners’ linguistic competence, but also to raise their awareness of important issues and encourage them to take action, reach out to the wider community, and make a difference. During her session, Margarita talked about the rationale behind the creation of these materials and also presented specific examples of activities and tasks, explained how they could be used in the English language classroom and gave tips on how we can create similar materials.

11th October 2019

Presented by Ilá Coimbra and James Taylor

Raise Up! is a charitable project that was created with a simple aim – what would a mainstream English language coursebook look like if it represented a wider range of people? We feel that significant improvements need to be made in how various groups in society are included in the most popular international coursebooks, and in this webinar we described how the first edition of Raise Up! came to be. Ilá began by summarising the current situation regarding representation in coursebooks. She described the groups that are currently unseen, hard to see or misrepresented, and explained why diversity benefits everyone: learners and teachers. In the second part, James went into the process behind the creation of Raise Up! and the principles that underpin it. He explained how the lessons were written and designed, and then spoke about the future of the project and how MAWSIG and TDSIG members can help out.

12th January 2018

Presented by Elaine Hodgson

For many, teacher’s guides are the first door to be opened in publishing. Although they are not the big stars in any course book series, writing a high quality guide that will prove useful to teachers requires varied skills and a great deal of flexibility. In this webinar, we explored the main reasons why teacher’s guides are still considered important ancillary materials, what should be taken into consideration when writing one, as well as making some suggestions on how to develop guides that will be used effectively by teachers.

13th October 2018

Presented by Vicky Saumell

Nowadays, many teachers try to use digital materials to supplement language materials. However, ready-made digital materials do not always suit students’ needs nor meet teachers’ aims. In this talk, Vicky explored ways of creating digital materials for language learning in meaningful and creative ways by presenting the contextual and pedagogical realisation of the materials, the principles behind the writing process and by sharing activity samples as part of technology-enhanced lesson plans.

18th February 2017

On Saturday 18 February 2017 at 4 pm, MaWSIG hosted an online panel discussion event using Adobe’s webinar platform. Four panellists joined us and shared their views on a range of questions that had been submitted in advance via social media. The panellists were Vanessa Reis-Esteves (young learners author), Sarah Milligan (commissioning editor for Onestopenglish), Julie Pratten (founder of Heart ELT Publishing) and Lyn Strutt (freelance ELT content editor, copyeditor and proof reader). 

While the event was unfolding, in addition to being behind the scenes on the webinar platform, MaWSIG Committee member Lizzie Pinard took notes. Here is Lizzie’s write-up of the session, adapted with permission from her own blog.

Question 1: Are there any agreed-upon principles about materials writing?

There’s a lot of advice out there now that wasn’t available a few years ago. There are principles, but it depends on who you are writing for; not every publisher has exactly the same rules. Vanessa reports that in Portugal, rules are less strict and more dependent on the context of writing – when writing for young learners, you’d be allowed to do certain things that would not be possible if you were writing for older learners. General questions to ask include: Is it going to be clear? Is it going to make sense? Is it going to achieve its aim? Lyn suggested the following useful links:

• The MaWSIG Blog
• Blog post: Rules for rookie writers
• Blog post: Getting started
• Blog post: The voice of the teachers notes
• Blog post: How not to write really rotten materials
• Rachael Roberts’ blog: Materials development category
• John Hughes’ website
• ELT Teacher2Writer
• The No-Nonsense Guide to Writing

 Question 2: What design principles do you use when planning layout, colours, fonts and image and text incorporation?

For young learners everything needs to be visual in order to guide the learners. In the past, we might have used colour to make the pages appealing and to attract attention, but nowadays it is important to consider students with special learning needs/requirements. How can the design of a page make learning easier? Every image has a purpose, which is to help students master and take control of learning.

Materials today are much more visual and magazine-like than in the past. Lots of powerful images are used; these are not always directly connected to a specific task but are used as lead-ins to topics. For commercially published materials, the in-house designers at the publisher will work with a design agency, which will plan the design for the book. The design will be influenced by the market and by other books by the same publisher. For a major coursebook series, the author will be involved in the discussion and will be allowed to have input but will not be in control. The author and editor may fine-tune it later on, but the overall structure and key colours will be selected by the design team at an early stage. If you are self-publishing, look at successful books and books you think work in the classroom and use those as a guide; they have been designed by people who know what they are doing. The EMC Design blog may be of interest.

 Question 3: How important is the inclusion of cultural content in instructional materials design?

Julie said this is becoming more and more important. This is, however, a tricky issue. It is not easy to create intercultural content in a book intended for general markets, yet teachers expect books to be accessible to different cultures. Vanessa said that in the past, coursebook culture was predominantly Anglo-American; now, education ministries recognise the need to prepare young learners to work with people from other cultures. They increasingly require school books to teach children to value differences rather than to judge or stereotype people from other cultures. This is an exciting time – there is a move away from Anglocentrism and towards something more global, which can only be a good thing.

Question 4: With so much free content online, both for students and teachers, what can paid content offer?

Sarah works for Onestopenglish, a subscription website offering paid content. In her view, free content is fantastic in many ways, but paid content has been through a rigorous publishing cycle. The material has had not just one pair of eyes on it but rather several – writer, designer, editor – so it can offer higher quality in terms of the way its presented and the way that it reaches the teacher.

Question 5: Is there a market for self-published materials?

Julie’s opinion was that there is still a stigma attached to self-publishing because of its association with vanity publishing. Often, self-published material has gone through an editorial process – but not always. Lyn emphasized that the role of the editor is still important in self-publishing; you may have a great idea, but you need an editor to work on it – not just to check for typos, but to provide input that will make your material better. The more input you have, the better the material will be. Perhaps publishers could take on materials that have been self-published and do something with them? The main difficulty with self-publishing is actually selling the materials.

Question 6: Although in academia the native speaker vs. non-native speaker dichotomy seems to be history, what are the real chances of non-native speakers writing ELT material for international markets?

Sarah said the chances are 100%; she was surprised and saddened that the question was being asked. If a writer is turned away for being a NNS, then that’s discrimination – just as it is with NNS teachers. Publishers should choose their writers according to the quality of the materials they write. Julie’s concern as a publisher is that the ideas are good, the content is good and there is a need for the material; she has several NNS authors on her books at the moment. NNS writers report feeling ignored, but if you look at what’s available on the market, the writers are no longer all English or American. Vanessa added that NNS writers will know their context better in terms of difficulties those students might have, so they should be seen as an asset. It’s more about the contribution you are bringing to the material rather than the language or country on your passport.

Question 7: What is THE qualification you need to get into writing?

Vanessa said that a writer needs to be a teacher at heart. You need to understand how learning happens. You also need to be objective enough to assess whether something would work with most teachers/students, not just with your own. You need a very big ‘teacher heart’ and a lot of resilience and taking on board of other people’s ideas. Julie agreed that you need to love teaching, but she suggested that you also need a creative spark. We will always need innovation; that’s what publishers are looking for. Sarah and Julie both emphasized the value of collaboration – if a creative teacher works together with a strong writer, the outcome could be very powerful.

Question 8: I know plenty of people who’ve sent book proposals to publishers but who have not heard anything back. On the other hand, some established names have been involved in book after book. Is this because the book proposals were not good enough or because editors prefer writers they know?

For Sarah, it’s becoming rarer for publishers to accept proposals because publishers work with publishing plans that are based on extensive research. They have looked at markets and identified their needs; they have specific projects in mind. Publishers do accept new authors, but when they have a writer they love working with, why would they not use that person? However, they do take on new writers when their regular writers are unavailable. If you want to submit something, you can submit a proposal, but a CV showing your experience and expertise is more useful as publishers can see if it matches up with what they are trying to do.

What worked for Vanessa was giving lots of talks. Make sure you have something to say and that what you have to say is of interest. So, go to IATEFL, join a SIG (and be an active member) and collaborate with others. If you do it enough, then somebody will notice you. It’s about being in the right place at the right time. You need to network. IATEFL is a great place to start networking, as are local organisations and conferences. Sometimes people get into writing by having a great blog and that blog being noticed. If you have an audience, people will notice you sooner or later.

Lyn emphasised that she knows several authors who were spotted at IATEFL and who have plenty of work because of that. A blog is a very good way of proving you can write. If you give away some of your ideas (e.g. teaching tips and lesson plans), then people may buy your further ideas. If you can show that you are able to produce material, that’s what’s going to make publishers look at you and think you can do something bigger. Then, it’s important to be reliable – always deliver on time.

Julie raised the issue of all the people who cannot go to IATEFL because it’s expensive, or because they don’t live nearby. She thinks publishers could do more to help new blood get into books. With Heart ELT, Julie put out a call for writers to donate chapters. These were allocated on a first-come, first-served basis, and she ended up with a mix of well-known names and unknown writers, all of whom sent in good, well-structured material.

Sarah agreed that the big publishers could definitely give people a few more chances and go to more local conferences. Publishers and commissioning editors do go to local conferences to find people who can’t afford to go IATEFL in the UK. Also, it is worth entering writing competitions. She agrees that editors do look at people who have self-published and done workshops. It’s all about putting yourself out there.

At this point, we ran out of time! A huge thank you to all the panellists (and if you read this and think I have misquoted you, please let me know!) and to everybody who attended the event. 

Thursday 15 December 2022

The MaWSIG team invites fellow ELT teachers, materials writers, editors and publishers to our end-of-year get-together. ‘Zoom’ in from wherever you are to catch up with friends and colleagues old and new for quizzes, networking and a chat at this informal social event. Bring your own drinks and snacks!

Friday 11 November 2022

Fifteen members and non-members, all based north of the border, met up in the Antiquary pub in Edinburgh for an evening of catching up and sharing ideas. The gathering brought together materials writers, teachers, and one translator. We enjoyed introducing friends and colleagues old and new to the group, and finding out and sharing ‘one thing not many people know’ about each other. Fun and food was had by all.

Friday 11 November 2022

Fifteen members and non-members, all based north of the border, met up in the Antiquary pub in Edinburgh for an evening of catching up and sharing ideas. The gathering brought together materials writers, teachers, and one translator. We enjoyed introducing friends and colleagues old and new to the group, and finding out and sharing ‘one thing not many people know’ about each other. Fun and food was had by all.

Thursday 16th December 2021

Our annual get-together took place online, and was a great chance to network with members of MaWSIG.

Thursday 17th December 2020

15th December 2016

MaWSIG welcomed in the festive season with fellow ELT editors, authors and publishers at the MaWSIG Christmas Party on Thursday 15th December in Oxford. Everyone had to pit their wits against the best brains in ELT in a Christmas quiz! It was also a chance to catch up with friends and network with colleagues old and new.

Wednesday 11th December 2019, The Wig and Pen, Oxford, UK

14th December 2017

23rd September 2015

This MaWSIG Meetup, in conjunction with ELT Teacher 2 Writer, was held at The Slug And Lettuce, Oxford.

22–23 June 2018

Our main themes were getting started with materials writing, the exciting new directions ELT materials may take in the future, and innovative ways to tackle challenges that can occur in the materials creation process.

MaWSIG and Oxford Brookes Joint Conference Programme June 2018 (pdf)

30th September 2017

Although many teachers in Macedonia write their own materials to use with their students, they have little or no formal training in materials writing. That is why ELTAM, the English Language Teachers’ Association of the Republic of Macedonia, teamed up with MaWSIG to bring experienced materials writers to Skopje for a one-day conference. This event gave participants the opportunity to learn more about materials writing and to find out what it takes to write and publish their own ELT materials. The event was held at Ss. Cyril and Methodius University, Faculty of Philology Blaze Koneski, Department of English Language and Literature,  Skopje and was supported by the Faculty of Philology Blaze Koneski, Department of English Language and Literature,  Skopje. You can find out more about ELTAM here.

14th December 2014

The MaWSIG Online Materials Writing Festival was a free, one-day, online-only event held on 14 December  2014. The day featured a mix of online Q&As, a Twitter hashtag chat and a Facebook panel discussion.

The line up included:

• Online Q&A with Liz Soars, co-author of Headway
• Twitter hashtag chat: #askedit with Karen White and Lyn Strutt
• Online Q&A with Nick Sheard (Head of Adult Publishing, ELT Division, Oxford University Press)
• Facebook panel chat with Mila Rendle (Head of Consumer Publishing, Cambridge University Press), Katie Nielson (Chief Education Officer, Voxy) and Lindsay Clandfield (Co-founder, The Round)
• Online Q&A with Sam Missingham, Head of Events at Harper Collins UK

Did you miss our first MaWFest? Check out a blog report here.

9th-11th March 2018

MaWSIG are happy to have collborated with TESOL Spain on their annual convention event in Madrid in March 2018, hosting a special one-day MaWSIG strand. We are grateful to our speakers for sharing their ideas and knowledge in interesting talks and workshops, where we learnt about creating effective tasks, encouraging critical thinking, engaging primary learners, and how insights from research can inform materials and teaching in ELT. Thank you to everyone who came along to hear them and to find out more about MaWSIG!

MaWSIG sessions

Every primary classroom has its own unique culture, composed of a variety of children with different strengths and abilities so Kath Bilsborough offered a ‘DIY guide to producing excellent tailor-made primary materials’. Classroom materials play an important role in nurturing a positive, inclusive environment where every child achieves success. In this workshop, Kath looked at some key considerations in crafting appropriate materials, and you will design some tailor-made resources for your own learners.

Jen Dobson and Michelle Worgan talked about ‘Becoming an independent ELT writer’. They shared their experiences, both good and bad. They gave practical advice on the type of work you can expect to find and how, fundamentals about freelancing in Spain, and the qualities you need to succeed whether going independent, or supplementing your existing income.

Amanda McLoughlin talked about ‘Creating critical thinking activities for the English classroom’. This session asked what critical creativity is in the language classroom and looked at activity types which encourage critical creativity in our learners.

Jo Tomlinson and Fiona Aish’s workshop ‘The Art of Task Construction’ explored how to create good tasks which engage students and fulfil learning outcomes successfully.

The MaWSIG keynote speaker, Clare Maas of Trier University (Germany), asked ‘How can research inform our ELT materials writing?’ Clare’s talk translated her insights into accessible advice for anyone writing ELT resources. She showed you how you can engage with, and engage in, relevant research when creating materials for your own classrooms or publication, and also considered implications for integrating cultural elements.

20th February 2016

New ways of working for new ways of learning started by looking holistically at how digital platforms have had an impact on our work–life balance, and the first sessions focussed on how to achieve a better balance. Delegates went on to look at how digital materials are being used in classrooms today, and how this affects the way in which we create materials for these new learning environments. Macmillan very generously sponsored the entire event, hosted at their conference centre near Kings Cross. The conference ended with an evening drinks reception and networking.

The full programme is available here.