Year: 2012

7th National Multilingual Competition, Blagoevgrad 2012


Written by: Lyubka Stoimenova, Senior Foreign Language Expert, Regional Inspectorate of Education – Blagoevgrad
From 16-17 November 2012, the 7th National Multilingual Competition was held in Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria. The event brought together 136 students from all over Bulgaria. The students visited the Panitza university library at the American University in Blagoevgrad, which is the largest English-language library in Southeast Europe. At the welcome concert, held in the Nikola Vaptsarov Drama Theatre, students from Blagoevgrad schools performed in a variety of languages. They sang songs in French, English, Russian and Korean, with guitar and piano accompaniment, skillfully led by music teachers – true professionals! Even the music teacher from the High School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics (Blagoevgrad), Velizar Balevski was there at the concert, playing the piano and other musical instruments and supporting his students, although the next day was going to be his wedding day! The students also performed scenes from Shakespeare’s Macbeth and La Fontaine’s fables. The concert was truly amazing, also thanks to the emblematic Pirin ensemble (Blagoevgrad), which performed the dances “Bagpipe” and “Logodazhkoto” and closed the concert with the famous song “Zasvirete Muri”.

Download: Report (in Bulgarian) and photos in Adobe.PDF format

E-Newsletter, Issue 3 (November-December 2012)

In the current issue:

  • Editorial (p.3)
  • Applying Wiki Social Software to Motivate the Students and Increase the Quality of Training in Doing English Grammar Tests (p.4)
  • Easy Does It: VOA Special English – A Multimedia Online Power Tool (p.11)
  • English in Deprived Circumstances (p.21)
  • SEETA News (p.29)
  • Report on the 12th National ATECR Conference (p.31)
  • Folk DC Music and Languages (p.33)
  • Upcoming Events / Call for Contributions (p.35)

8th International and 12th National ATECR conference, Hradec Králové 2012

Written by: Zarina Markova, South-West University, Blagoevgrad
The 8th  International and 12thNational ATECR conference took place from 14 to15 September 2012 in the picturesque historic town of Hradec Králové 2012 , in North-Eastern Bohemia, the Czech Republic. It was housed in a convenient place in the centre of the town – the new building of the Pedagogical Faculty, University of Hradec Králové, which seemed to accommodate everybody: conference participants, presenters and organizers, exhibitors and potential customers while offering enough space for coffee breaks and the reception. Everything seemed to work smoothly thanks to the energetic team of student assistants, many of whom are would-be teachers of English initiating themselves into the wider ELT community.
There were over fifty talks and workshops on various aspects of English language teaching and learning, with learning technologies slightly predominating. As the conference title suggests, they were focused on new approaches to the same old areas of interest:  teaching the language skills, culture, literature and intercultural competence, test preparation, using coursebooks, differentiated instruction. A recurrent motif of the sessions was the reappraisal – of teaching practices, materials, attitudes, involvement. The presenters were from different backgrounds: teachers, teacher trainers, materials writers. My first impression was that too much weight was given to presentations on behalf of publishers. However, this seemed to be in tune with the conference participants’ desire to follow the latest trends in English language teaching and publishing.

With Asuman Eray (Turkey), Daria Paro (HUPE Croatia), Molly McCord (MITESOL Michigan, USA) and Snezana Filipovic (ELTA Serbia) in the centre of Hradec Kralove.

The conference was both informative and enjoyable. It proved to be an exciting blend of professional discussions and  informal talks, cross-cultural   communication and entertainment. To me the highlights were the Thursday dinner, a delightful opportunity to get to know Olga, Pavla and Mihal form the ATECR committee and Asuman, Daria, Molly and Snezana from the partners’ associations, and Friday morning, when Jiří Heger took us on an unforgettable tour round Hradec Králové. Many thanks to all the organizers for an inspiring event. Many thanks to BETA for choosing me as their official representative for the 8th International and 12th National ATECR conference.

Call for contributions to the BETA-IATEFL E-Newsletter

Dear Colleagues,
We would love to receive your contributions to the next issues of the E-Newsletter of the Bulgarian English Teachers’ Association, ISSN 1314-6874 ( https://www.beta-iatefl.org/category/blog-enewsletter/ )
Please send us your contributions before:

  • 30 October 2012 for the November – December 2012 Issue on the topic area: “Web-based teaching of languages”;
  • 26 December 2012 for the January – February 2013 Issue on the topic area: “Teaching Young Learners”.

If you would like to submit materials on a different topic, please do! They will be considered for publication even if they do not correspond to the general topic of the issue.
Please send your articles, notice of events, news, reviews, and other ELT-related material to the following e-mail address: beta.iateflbg@gmail.com
With many best wishes,
The E-Newsletter Editorial Team

БАПА обявява ЩАСТЛИВ ДЕН

УВАЖАЕМИ ПРЕПОДАВАТЕЛИ ПО АНГЛИЙСКИ ЕЗИК,


Тази година, по примера на нашите сродни асоциации,Българската асоциация на преподавателите по английски обявява ЩАСТЛИВ ДЕН и го посвещава на 1 ноември – Деня на народните будители. Тези от Вас, които изпратят формуляр за членство (виж https://www.beta-iatefl.org/join-us/) на beta.iateflbg@gmail.com точно на 01.11.2012 г., ще подновят членството си или ще станат членове на нашата асоциация с „щастливата такса” от 20 лв. вместо редовната от 30 лв. (редуцираната членска такса следва да се заплати не по-късно от 11.11.2012). Членството, подновено или заявено на 01.11.2012 г., ще бъде валидно до 31.12.2013 г.

Чрез присъединяването си към БАПА, Вие получавате:

  • възможност за активно участие в обществото на преподавателите по английски език в България;
  • редовна информация за събития, свързани с чуждоезиковото обучение на всички нива в България, региона и по света;
  • подкрепа (вкл. финансова) за участие в национални и международни професионални събития. Придобивате право да се кандидатирате за официален представител на БАПА на конференция, организирана от нашите партньори или за подпомагане, включващо транспортни разходи и/или такса правоучастие;
  • безплатно електронното периодично издание на асоциацията;
  • възможност да се присъедините и да станете индивидуален член на Международната асоциация на преподавателите по английски език (IATEFL) с редуцирана такса (WMS или Basic Membership);
  • възможност да участвате в годишната межународна конференция на БАПА и на партньорските асоциации (ELTAM Macedonia, ELTA Serbia, ATECR the Czech Republic, TESOL Macedonia-Thrace, Northern Greece) с редуцирана такса за членове на тези асоциации;
  • по-добра възможност да бъдете РАЗЛИЧЕН учител по английски език.

БАПА Ви приканва да разпространите информацията сред заинтересувани колеги.

С ПОЖЕЛАНИЯ ЗА УСПЕШНА УЧЕБНА ГОДИНА,

ЖИВКА ИЛИЕВА,
Секретар на БАПА
Обява в .PDF формат
Обява в WORD-документ

E-Newsletter, Issue 2 (September-October 2012)

In the current issue:

  • Editorial (p.3)
  • From the BETA-IATEFL President (p.4)
  • BETA-IATEFL 2012 Key Speaker: Adrian Underhill (p.6)
  • Reading Encouragement Conference (p.9)
  • Teacher Training Opportunities (p.12)
  • European Day of Languages  (p.15)
  • Forthcoming Events in the World of ELT (p.16)
  • Feature Article: Beauty in Suggestopedic Language Teaching and Learning, by Vanina Bodurova (p.20)
  • Writing for the E-Newsletter (p.27)
  • Notes for contributors (p.28)
  • Topics of the next E-Newsletter (p.29)

E-Newsletter, Issue 1 (July-August 2012)


In the current issue:

  • Welcome (p. 2)
  • 21st BETA-IATEFL Conference in a snapshot (p.3)
  • Interview with the plenary speakers of the 21st BETA-IATEFL Conference (p.7)
  • 22nd BETA-IATEFL Annual International Conference, Varna 2013 (p. 10)
  • Belgarde, Here I Come!, by Tsvetelena Taralova (p.11)
  • Bulgarian National Spelling Bee Competitition, by Tsvetelena Taralova (p.14)
  • Generations Hand in Hand, by Tsvetelena Taralova (p.16)
  • Contribute to the e-Newsletter (p.21)
  • Forthcoming Events in the World of ELT (p.18)

New online courses from the British Council

Since October 2011 over 170 teachers of English had enrolled for the online courses and those who were successful received certificates from the British Council.
The British Council expands the range of the courses with one for teachers who teach subjects in English:

  • CLIL Essentials (Content and Language Integrated Learning)

The course is for primary and secondary school teachers who teach curricular subjects in English. Participants are expected to have a minimum Council of Europe Framework (CEF) B1 level of English proficiency (IELTS 4.0).
The course helps teachers develop practical skills to introduce functional language, evaluate language challenges and adapt classroom tasks and forms of assessment. This will help their students understand the topics in a second language

The British Council continues to offer:

  • TeachingEnglish TKT Essentials Module 1 Optional F2F 1 day workshop

  • TeachingEnglish TKT Essentials Module 2&3 Optional F2F 1 day workshop

  • TeachingEnglish Learning Technologies Essentials Optional F2F 1 day workshop

  • TeachingEnglish Primary Essentials Optional F2F 1 day workshop


The new deadline and more information about the courses you can find at the British Council web site
http://www.britishcouncil.org/bulgaria-teacher-training.htm