Attendees of Masterclass – 1 & 2

On June 8-9, on the request from the Union of Young Teachers of Foreign Languages, “Imperial English Azerbaijan” organized a free two-day seminar for young English teachers from all secondary schools in Azerbaijan on the topic “The Best Ways to Motivate Students to Listen and Speak English (“Best methods to motivate students to speak English” and "Best ways to improve English listening skills") ”.

The training was specially designed for teachers who teach foreign languages in secondary schools with the aim to further develop the listening and speaking skills in English in high school students, taking into account the use of new innovative methods, approaches, pedagogy and assessment.

Mr. Govind Desai, Director of Imperial English United Kingdom, Professor at the University of Leicester, who opened the training with an introductory speech, expressed his satisfaction with the meeting with young Azerbaijani English teachers and gave extensive information about the history and activities of “Imperial English United Kingdom”. Emphasizing that this model is a model of education focused on the future in our time, when traditional education is being replaced by digital education, the professor noted that in Azerbaijan, as well as in countries such as China, Myanmar, Brazil, Egypt, Qatar, Kuwait , Saudi Arabia, English teachers are interested in improving their English language skills and teaching skills, and in this regard, he expressed his willingness to provide the necessary support. 
In his turn, Rafael Salguero, Head of Education at Imperial English United Kingdom, Deputy Director of Birmingham College, spoke about the importance of English as a means of communication at the international level in our time, about the advantages of the language in establishing contacts between teachers of foreign languages from different countries, and shared teaching experience, emphasizing the importance for young English teachers to pay particular attention to intonation and stress, as well as to using a large number of phrasal verbs and idioms in their conversations. Mr. Rafael Salguero expressed his sincere admiration for Azerbaijan, its history and culture.

On the first day of the training, its main moderator Daniella Mundy, an international instructor at Imperial English United Kingdom, delivered an interesting interactive seminar on the topic “Best Methods for Motivating Students to Speak English”, presented various recreational activities and technologies in terms of promoting the language experience in the classroom and beyond, and shared the illustrative examples of methods with Azerbaijani teachers, such as “Bingoo”, “Jambord”, “Jam box”, “Number box”, “Freeze frame”, “Padlet”, “Vocaroo”, “Trigger”, “Information Gap” , “Cheese rolling”, “Brilliant”, “Filling gaps”, “Unscrabled words”. On the second day of the training, the instructor presented her next seminar on "The Best Ways to Improve Listening Skills in English", shared various methods and technologies for comprehensive listening outside the classroom, listening with different accents, creating a strong lexical range for understanding and facilitating listening, increasing student independence and improving listening skills, emphasized the importance of paying attention to authentic and non-authentic materials while listening, as well as the use of music and associations.

In general, the training was attended by more than 500 English language teachers from general education schools in Azerbaijan and students who study at various courses of the Faculty of Foreign Language (English) in higher educational institutions. Participants who successfully completed the training program were awarded an official certificate from the head office of Imperial English UK and an official cover letter from the Union of Young Teachers of Foreign Languages and “Imperial English Azerbaijan”.

It should be noted that Imperial English Azerbaijan (IEAZ) is the only official representative of Imperial English United Kingdom (IEUK) in Azerbaijan, accredited by the British Council”, “OFQUAL - Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation” and “IATEFL - International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language", and support state organizations (Ministry of Education, etc.), academic organizations (lyceums, colleges, schools, universities, language centers, etc.), institutions (governmental and non-governmental companies, industrial enterprises, NGOs, etc.) in the improvement of teachers and teaching English by sharing its experiences.