Regional Professional Association
ELTABB is a professional association and resource group for teachers of English as a foreign language and other English language practitioners in the Berlin-Brandenburg area. ELTABB is an affiliate of the International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language.
ELTABB in the News:
"Here in Germany there's a teachers' association you don't (strictly) have to be a teacher to join--so even Groucho would have been welcome."
> > > read the article
Membership
The annual membership fee (EURO 40) includes a subscription to the quarterly newsletter, English Teaching Matters, admission to regular ELTABB events and access to our email list, where jobs are frequently posted. Membership runs January to December. New members joining between Oct-Dec automatically receive membership for the following year as well. Please fill out the membership form and send it to Membership Secretary Simone Neumann (membership@eltabb.com).
Events and Workshops
ELTABB workshops and events are held at a variety of locations throughout Berlin and Brandenburg including publishers' information centers, private language schools and the British Council.
Knowledge Forum
ELTABB provides a forum for the exchange of ideas, techniques and knowledge through our Internet list and workshops which take place on a regular basis. In addition we publish a quarterly journal, English Teaching Matters, which contains reviews of events, informative articles, book reviews, practical teaching tips, and calendars of local, national and international events in the field of teaching English as a foreign language.
Monthly Stammtisch
A monthly Stammtisch offers a pleasant social atmosphere as well as an opportunity to use the resource of native speakers from a variety of English-speaking countries. The Stammtisch meets at various restaurants and pubs throughout Berlin on the last Friday of the month, please check the calendar.
Officially Registered
ELTABB is an officially registered professional association. Our members, both native and non-native speakers of English, come from all teaching sectors. View our statutes.
For More Information
For more information about the English Language Teachers' Association Berlin-Brandenburg, write to the Chair, Mo Riddiford (thechair@eltabb.com). Also, here is the expense form if you need one.
| | | Welcome to ELTAB-B!
Upcoming Events:
 | Friday, August 29, 2008 - 7:30 p.m. until late
August Stammtisch
Stammtisch hosts: Sue Herbert and Dorothy Sommer
Location:
Restaurant "Klipper"
Bulgarische Strasse
12435 Berlin-Treptow
Tel: (030) 53216490
S-Plänterwald or take a stroll along the water from S-Treptower Park
Stammtisch rotation system:
2008 is the beginning of a new/ old era at ELTAB-B: we have revived the rotating Stammtisch in order to make it more interesting for old members as well as a way for newcomers to Berlin to get to know different parts of town.
This is how it works:
-Members volunteer to be the host for a particular month, preferably last Friday of the month, well in advance
-Choose your favorite restaurant and make a reservation for a group of approximately ten people for the last Friday of the month and give all the details to the events coordinator
-Be sure to be at the restaurant before 7:30 the evening of Stammtisch
-Enjoy a free dinner (within reason, but pay your own drinks) for organizing the Stammtisch (send your bill for the meal to the ELTAB-B treasurer after having duly downloaded and filled out the expense form)
-Feel the satisfaction of having contributed some of your valuable time to your teacher's association
And you? Contact your events coordinator now at events@eltabb.com
No need to register, just come and enjoy the company of fellow teachers, publishers, freelancers and so on...
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| Saturday, August 30, 2008 - 10:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Topic-based and tailor-made Workshop by Elsbeth Mäder
In this hands-on workshop we will look at ways of using a variety of topics as a starting point for long-term or short-term content-based lesson planning and as a basis for language work (lexis and structures). We will integrate stories, poems, pictures and music as well as develop a number of tasks suitable also for supplementing coursebook based work. Participants will work in groups and get a chance to contribute from their own experience. Handouts with ready-made material will be provided and the workshop should give you a kind of adaptable framework for the balancing act of teacher-directed work versus going with the flow.
Biodata:
Elsbeth Mäder started off as a Swiss primary school teacher, fell in love with England and English and decided to study the language properly (Lic Phil I = MA + Dipl. Für Höheres Lehramt Uni Zürich). The juggling act family / job resulted in starting to teach at home, which has developed into a small school for teaching EFL to adults of ages 18 to 80.
Venue: TBA
Please register for this event with Dorothy Sommer at events@eltabb.com. This event is free for members and 12,-€ for non-members. If you are interested in writing a review of this event for English Teaching Matters, please contact the events coordinator.
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| Saturday, September 20, 2008 - 10:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Why paragraphs don't exist but paragraphing does? Presentation by Michael Hoey
The traditional view that paragraphs have a structure with a topic sentence is hard to shift but there is surprisingly little evidence to support it. Consequently most advice on paragraphing in ELT is irrelevant at best, misleading at worst. Paragraphing is not about producing a string of structured mini-texts, but about signalling the overall direction of the whole text. Paragraphing strategies vary from genre to genre, a fact that further undermines the idea that paragraphs have structure and begin with topic sentences.
In research currently being carried out with four colleagues, we have collected evidence to suggest that paragraph boundaries are not decided by reference to the identfication of suitable topic sentences but by reference to subtle wording decisions. This is why we often fidget with the wording on paragraph boundaries - we are actually introducing phrasing associated with paragraph boundaries. When people think they are identifying topic sentences (and by the way, how is a topic sentence identified?) they are actually identifying this special paragraph-signalling wording. In this talk I shall give evidence for all these positions, drawing on data from newspapers and academic writing, and will suggest ways in which paragraphing might better be taught.
Bio-data:
Michael Hoey is Baines Professor of English Language and Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Liverpool. Between 1993 and 2003 he was Director of the Applied English Language Studies Unit at the University. He is an Academician of the Academy of Social Sciences and a member of Council of the University of Chester. Until 2007 he was the Chair of the English Advisory Committee of the AQA (England's largest examining board) and also chaired a working group that designed a new A level in Critical Thinking. He is the author or co-author of six books, one of which won the Duke of Edinburgh English Speaking Union Award for Applied Linguistics in 1991 and another of which was shortlisted for the BAAL Applied Linguistics prize in 2006. In his spare time (of which he has too little) he edits a magazine on beer called 'Ale & Hearty'.
Venue:
GLS Sprachenzentrum
Kastanienallee 82, Room 206
10435 Berlin
Tel: (030) 78 00 89 0
U-2 Eberswalderstr. or M1 Schwedterstr.
Please register for this event with Dorothy Sommer at events@eltabb.com. This event is free for members and 12,-€ for non-members. If you are interested in writing a review of this event for English Teaching Matters, please contact the events coordinator.
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