odd moments in ELT history

One of the more unusual efforts to promote the learning of EFL appeared in Tainan City, Taiwan about 8 years ago. The city's mayor had the idea that getting the garbage trucks to blare out phrases such as "HOW ARE YOU?" at top volume was a fantastic way to help the Taiwanese develop their English. You can read more about this revolutionary new teaching method here:

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2002/09/07/167223

more free stuff

Hotch Potch English is giving away copies of Seeds of Confidence, a recent book of activities for language teaching published by Helbling Languages. All you need to do is enter a comment. Follow the link here:

http://reviews.hotchpotchenglish.com

no show at Harrogate

Yup, it's true, I couldn't make the legendary 2010 IATEFL conference in Harrogate, although I've caught a few glimpses of what I missed here and there on the web.

One presentation in particular interested me was about teaching creative skills in EFL. Marisa Constantinides put the abstract, summary, notes and power point for her presentation titled "Embedding Creating Thinking Skills Training into our EFL Practice" up on her blog. Some good background on creativity, as well as a lot of practical ideas for teaching.

What about you? If you attended, which presentations would have impressed me the most?