We are excited to announce the call for expressions of interest in taking part in the PRELIM 2 project in partnership with West London English School. The Project is open to LATE members and non-members alike.

The Project is designed to help build your confidence in using English in the classroom. It will be a language course focused on giving you practice, providing you with an opportunity to use the language and improve your spoken and written communication. The course will run between January and March 2022.

The course will be held online through the Moodle Virtual Learning Environment. Synchronous meetings will be held once a week in the late afternoons/evenings and there will be asynchronous tasks as well. Participants will need to attend all sessions and complete all course work. You will need a reliable and good internet connection to take part in the project.

The course is free for participants.

Please complete this Google form if you would like to be considered for a place on this course.

The deadline for applications is 29th November, so don't delay, act now. The successful applicants will be notified in December.

Please share this information with your colleagues.

We would like to remind you about the HMC project which LATE is involved in. This project provides gifted students with good English the opportunity to win a 2-year scholarship to a UK Boarding school.

This is a fantastic opportunity for students who are no younger than 16 years and no older than 17 years and 6 months on 1st September 2022 and with an average academic attainment of at least 8.0.

UK Boarding schools provide the best secondary education in the world and this is a wonderful opportunity which should not be missed.

There is full information and application forms etc. on LATE's HMC webpage.

Training during the Autumn Holidays

Tuesday October 19th, 2021

Express Publishing Professional Development Day - Essential Skills in ELT

with Steve Lever and Tatiana Ginzburg

9.00 to 11.00

9:00 - 9:15 Introduction. New at Express (Tatiana Ginzburg)

9:15 - 10:15 Where Do We Go from Here? (Steve Lever)

Distance learning forced teachers and learners to use a different set of tools to teach and learn English. The question now, as we (we hope) return to the classroom, is which (if any) of these tools we continue to use and how they can be incorporated into more 'traditional' teaching.

10:20 - 10:55 Presentation Skills for Teachers and Students (Tatiana Ginzburg)

Did you know that the fear of speaking in public tops the list of phobias? At the same time, our students will need to present at university, work and even while they are at school.

We will look at the general guidelines for presenting successfully. We will also consider some specific tips and tricks related to presenting online.

10:55 - 11:00 Closing Remarks (Tatiana Ginzburg)

Registration link here.

Wednesday October 20th, 2021

Pearson Autumn Festival

Time: from 11.00 to 15.15 LATVIAN TIME, THOUGH THE WEBINAR IS HOSTED ON WARSAW TIME.

11.00-11.30 Opening

In the opening part Iveta Vitola will share the information about digital content available, support for teachers and new projects started or will start soon.

11.45-12.45 Agnieszka Cyluk: Meet the modern learner - how to teach and reach the new generation of learners

Modern learners expect learning that is personalised, relevant, and interactive. In this session, we will look at the characteristics of the new generation of students and explore different ways of using technology to teach and reach the modern learners. We will discuss how to adapt your pedagogy to meet the needs of your digital students, help them learn how they learn best and give them voice and choice in their learning process.

13.00-14.00 Magdalena Kania: Lessons that really work: how to make your students flourish

Learning a language is not linear. Learners go through different phases when their learning goes smoothly and moments when they get stuck. What I have noticed throughout my teaching career, learners can get discouraged by the downs. However, with proper tools and well-designed lessons we can help them to overcome the challenges and give them a lot of support in developing as learners. In this session, I will present some universal tools, like an Active Book and other flexible resources that you can use in any teaching contexts, from online to offline or both.

14.15-15.15 Bartek Janiakì: Assessment as part of a learning journey

Learning is a journey, but not an easy one. There are tests, mentors, friends, and foes along the way. All important, all to serve a purpose. All aimed at helping students to progress. Assessment plays a key role in this process, and when introduced appropriately, helps rather than hinders progress. Join us to discover the possibilities of the Pearson assessment portfolio and find the best fit for your teaching reality.

Each participant will receive the certificate of attendance and a digital conference pack.

Registration link here or here.

Thursday October 21st, 2021

Autumn Oxford Professional Development Day Online 2021 together

with Dace Miska

14.00 - 17.00

An online session for primary and secondary teachers in Latvia on the following topics:

• Edition change for Oxford course books in 2022
• Oxford offer for Year 12
• Free online tools for teachers and students
• Expert tips for Learner Agency and Mediation Skills

Registration link here or you may register directly from the OUP site.

Aptauja par padziļinātā kursa programmas izvēli vispārējai vidējai izglītībai Svešvaloda II (angļu valoda)

Update

We would like to inform you that today LATE received an official reply from the Ministry of Education and Science to the letter sent on 30th June about the advanced level curriculum. Please find it here.

We are grateful to the Ministry of Education and Science, National Centre for Education and the project that the communication has started. However, it is a pity that the professionalism of the teachers of English in Latvia is doubted and underestimated, and that the authors of the letter know so little about LATE's conferences, as there have been a lot of seminars and workshops devoted to the use of literature by Express Publishing, OUP, Pearson, US Embassy and our local presenters.

For the third year, in cooperation with Pearson, LATE is working on the Reading Circle project for the 3rd, 6th, 7th and 8th formers, where students have the chance to read 8 books a year at the elementary level and 6 books a year at a primary level, In addition, we are aware that teachers do integrate literature in the English lessons.

Due to the wish expressed by many teachers of English, we are starting work on designing an advanced level curriculum. In September, a smaller work-group will work out the initial draft. We are looking forward to fruitful cooperation with the National Centre for Education and on 15th October we are having a Zoom meeting with Rita Kursite and Pavels Pestovs about the requirements that will have to be completed to be admitted to the higher level examination (see Point 6 in the letter received today).

We do know that there are a lot of professional LATE teachers and, as soon as the initial draft is worked out, we would like to ask for your opinion and to discuss it in your schools, municipalities and give suggestions and recommendations for its development and improvement.

LATE's Annual Conference was held on the 25/26th August 2021. The Conference was entitled 'Setting Goals; Meeting Goals'. This will be an online conference like last year. The Conference was a free event for all LATE Members with a valid membership until August 2022.

You can see information about the presentations etc. on the Conference page.

Latvijas Angļu valodas skolotāju asociācijā ir vērsušie vairāki angļu valodas skolotāji ar ierosinājumu veidot alternatīvu padziļinātā kursa programmu vispārējai vidējai izglītībai Svešvaloda II (angļu valoda).

Lai apzinātu skolotāju programmas izvēli, lūdzu izteikt viedokli aizpildot anketu.

Vēstule skatāma šeit.

Latvijā ir ļoti daudz profesionālu, un kvalitatīvi strādāt gribošu un varošu pedagogu, kas ir par pārdomātām un pamatotām pārmaiņām izglītības sistēmā. Pašreiz daudzi angļu valodas skolotāji ir nobažījušies par to, kā realizēt šo darbu ar padziļinātā kursa programmas paraugu vispārējai vidējai izglītībai Svešvaloda II un kādam eksāmenam skolēnus gatavot.

Latvijas Angļu valodas skolotāju asociācijā (LAVSA) ir griezušies vairāki skolotāji, minot faktu, ka ir mēģinājuši komunicēt par šiem jautājumiem ar projekta “Skola2030” pārstāvjiem. Diemžēl komunikācija nav izdevusies un nevis ved uz risinājumu meklēšanu, bet parasti beidzas ar nepamatotiem argumentiem, skolu un skolotāju profesionalitātes apšaubīšanu.

Latvijas angļu valodas skolotāji ir sagatavojuši ieteikumu vēstuli un lūdz organizēt kopīgu projekta “Skola2030, VISC, IZM un Saeimas Izglītības komisijas pārstāvju tikšanos ar Latvijas Angļu valodas skolotāju asociācijas pārstāvjiem un metodisko apvienību vadītājiem.

Lūgums rūpīgi izlasīt sagatavoto vēstuli un izteikt savu viedokli aizpildot anketu.

Lūgums maksimāli dalīties ar šo informāciju, jo lielāka daļa skolotāju pašreiz jau ir atvaļinājumā, lai varam apzināt skolotāju viedokli.

Paldies jau iepriekš un lai mums visiem izdodas!

Read it here.

LATE/OUP Online Teacher Training Event

LATE and OUP ran a joint Teacher Professional Development Day on 17 th May 2021 entitled 'Developing Engagement in a Period of Change: Visible Thinking and Building Core Vocabulary'. You can read the programme here.

18th International Scientific Conference

LANGUAGE ACQUISITION: PROBLEMS AND PERSPECTIVE

May 14, 2021

Liepaja University in cooperation with Latvian Language and Literature Teachers’ Association, The Latvian Association of Teachers of English, Speech Therapists’ Association of Latvia, Latvian Association of Applied Linguistics, British Council Latvia, Goethe-Institut Riga and Liepaja Department of Education. More information here.

LATE held an online Teacher Training event entitled "Developing Engagement in a Period of Change: Elaborating Writing and Reading Skills" on Thursday, 21st January 2021 from 15:00 – 18:00. The workshops were conducted by our well-known trainers Tatjana Kunda and Anna Beļska. Click here for the programme of the event. Participants received a Teacher Professional Development certificate (4 hours).

This was be a free training event for LATE members.

29th December 2020

LATE held an online Training Day entitled "Developing Engagement in a Period of Change" on Tuesday the 29th December 2020.

You can read about the day here.

This was be a free training event for LATE members.

HMC Projects is a charitable organisation which organises two scholarship programmes for very bright and able 16/17 year-olds in 14 countries in Central and Eastern Europe. Successful applicants are offered a 2 year scholarship at a top private boarding school in the UK. Please look at the information on our HMC page and share it with young talented learners who you think meet the requirements and would be interested in applying. The deadline for applications is the 4th December.

LATE ran the postponed “Supporting Multilingual Classes” 16 hours TPD course on 29-30th September 2020. You can read more about this event on this page.

We are glad to announce that LATE in cooperation with Pearson is continuing the work on the project “Reading Circle”. The main aim of the project is to create a classroom culture that fosters motivation to read and promotes students’ reading skills.

This year there will be 2 groups: “Reading Circle 1 – 2020” - a new group for 6th formers; and “Reading Circle 2 – 2020” for 7th formers, where the work will be coordinated by the teachers who participated in the project last year.

The participation in the project can last for 3 years from 6th – 8th grade. The project is sponsored by Pearson and LATE, and is free of charge for the participants.

Deadline for the registration is 18th September – 1pm. If you teach 6th formers and would like to apply for this project, please complete the application form which includes a short letter of motivation.

Click here to download the latest Baltic-Nordic Region Newsletter No. 2 of the International Federation of Language Teacher Associations.

Due to the current continuing uncertainty LATE held a one-day online Conference on Friday 21st August.

More information about the Conference can be found on the Conference page.

Click here to download a free 'Rough and Ready Guide to Teaching English Online in a Time of Coronavirus'. The Guide looks at key terms and concepts, considers what kinds of things we can do online, and discusses three sample lessons based on Solutions Pre-Intermediate.

Click here to download the latest Baltic-Nordic Region Newsletter No. 1 (March 2020) of the International Federation of Language Teacher Associations.

The Supporting Multilingual Classrooms Project has been postponed, perhaps to September...

Unfortunately the Drama Express ’20 Festival has had to be cancelled.

LATE is proud to have participated in the organization of a workshop for foreign language teachers in cooperation with the European Centre for Modern Languages (Graz, Austria) on the 19-21st February at the University of Latvia Library (Kalpaka bulvāris 4, Riga, Latvia).

The workshop was entitled ‘Exploring ways to test mediation and pluricultural/plurilingual skills in the classroom’ and was conducted by two ECML experts – José Noijons (the Netherlands) and Gábor Szábo (University of Pécs, Hungary).

You can read more about the project here.

The Third January Training Day was held on the 3rd of January 2020 at Riga Secondary School No. 34.

We were delighted to have three speakers.

Tatjana Kunda (VISC) talked about how to prepare students for the written part of exams. 

Thomas Springer (U.S. Attorney-At-Law, England & Wales Solicitor, Registered Legal Consultant, Russian Federation, Ventspils University) spoke about Challenges Encountered by Latvian Learners of English as a Second Language.

Robert Buckmaster spoke on Time and on using maps in teaching.

This was a free event for LATE Members.

You can find out more about this event on this page.

Pearson/LATE “Reading Circle” Project

Pearson Publishers and LATE are engaged in an exciting new project this year.

The Reading Circle project is meant for elementary students: Pearson Readers Level 2 (600 headwords).

Teachers from eight schools from all over Latvia are participating in the project. The project is sponsored by Pearson and LATE and is free of charge for the participants.

Each school receives a set of (15+1 books of one title) and will be able to read them for a month. The teacher in each school organizes the reading process. After a month the set of books is posted to the next school in the Reading Circle and so on.

You can read more about the Project here.

The LATE Liepaja Conference 2019 “Changes and Challenges: English Language Teaching and 21st Century Skills”was held on Wednesday, 23rd October 2019.  You can find out more about it here.

LATE is proud to announce that it is supporting HMC Projects, a charitable organisation which helps gifted children to study at private boarding schools in the UK. You can read more about the scheme and how your students can apply here.

A new board was elected at LATE's Annual Conference and you can read about the board here.

LATE held its 27th Annual Conference on the 22-23rd August at Riga Teika Secondary School, Aizkraukles iela 14, Riga, Latvia.

The conference was entitled: Competence Based Teaching and learning: Challenges and Opportunities.

This was the next event in our series 'Educating Today's Learners for the 21st Century World: Competence-based Teaching and Learning'.

More information about conference can be found on our Conference page.

LATE held the second January Seminar in our series 'Innovative Teaching Methods to Promote a Contemporary Learning Process' at Riga Teika Secondary School on Friday 4th January.

The highlights of the programme were:

• Džefrijs Grinvalds looked at Public speaking- training your students and yourself to be a
  persuasive public speaker
• Tatjana Kunda discussed Assessment as Learning
• M. Lee Alexander talked on Rhyme and Reason: Using Poetry to Teach Expository Writing and Speaking Skills
• Robert Buckmaster talked about Speaking and Speaking Skills, and Listening Skills.

This was a special free event for LATE Members. For more information visit this page: Webinars etc.

Ina Andina, LATE Vidzeme region coordinator reports:

Latvia and Estonia joint seminar in Valka
 
Friday, November 2, was a significant day for Vidzeme region teachers from Valka, Strenči, Valmiera, Smiltene (Latvia)  and Valga Municipality teachers (Estonia) as there was a fantastic opportunity for the teachers of English to take part in a joint seminar organized by Pearson Latvia, Pearson Estonia and LATE in Valka Janis Cimze Gymnasium. 

Pearson Estonia representative Ursula Erik dealt with the 21st century teaching skills based on the course book "Wider World". The title of the session was called "It’s All about Communication: Authenticity in the Language Classroom". We tried to distinguish between the spoken practice and communication and investigate ways in which we can bring them closer together. We  looked at what the important elements of communication are in terms of linguistic and communicative competencies and shared some activities and ideas to take away and try out in class with your teenage students.

Pearson Latvia representative Iveta Vītola in her session "A Competence Based Approach to Teaching and Learning English" looked at the language learning materials that engage students, increasing their confidence and equipping students with knowledge and skills required to succeed in their education and in their lives in general via the latest books by Pearson publishing house. It was exciting to do the group works and get acquainted with the colleagues from the neighbouring country and share common teaching ideas. There was a bookstall prepared by Pearson, Estonia.

After the seminar the educational board of Valga Municipality  added a surprise to the programme of the day with one more lecture led by Louis John Wierenga MA (Political Science) Junior Research Fellow in Comparative Politics, University of Tartu. Mr Louis John Wierenga was very interested in cooperation with the Latvian teachers alongside with the Estonians. It was interesting to listen to the native English speaker comparing the Canadian - Estonian cultures. 

The Valga Municipality educational board representative Lay Ivi expressed a wish to continue our co-operation and collaboration in the future with paying a visit to the schools in Valga, there was an offer for Latvian students to participate in Valga Municipality English Language Olympiad in spring.

1. Annual LATGALE Teachers' Conference

The 18th Latgale English Teachers' Methodology Conference "Competence-based Teaching and Learning – Gateway to Learner’s Success” in Daugavpils, on the 23rd of October.

2. Pearson-LATE Professional Development Course in Liepaja

"A Competence Based Approach to Teaching and Learning English" at Liepaja State Gymnasium No. 1 on the 24-25th October.

British Council/LATE Summer School "Coping with Competences"

LATE, in co-operation with the British Council organised a residential summer school entitled "Coping with Competences", for English teachers, from 15 - 18 August at Priekuli Technical School. 

Chris Thorn from the UK and local lecturers shared their expertise and worked with 54 teachers to develop ideas and resources to use in their classrooms. You can find more information about the Summer School here.

LATE's Annual Conference was held on the 23rd and 24th August 2018 at Riga State Gymnasium No 1, Raina Bulvaris 8.

The Conference Title was: Educating Today's Learners for the 21st Century World: Competence-based Teaching and Learning.

You can find more information about it on the Conference page.

Article

James Egerton, our webinar and seminar presenter this year, published an article in IATEFL Voices (March-April 2018) entitled 'Inculcating a Growth Mindset' and kindly agreed to share it with us.

The text of the article can be found here.

Accompanying videos and PDF copies of the materials for each stage can be found on this blog post.

Nordic-Baltic Region Newsletter 1 2018

Teaching and Learning Languages in the 21st Century: Linguistic, Educational and Cultural Aspects

Click here for more information.

• Language Teacher Training and Development of Language Teachers Competencies
• Language Teaching and Learning for New Generation Students
• Teaching and Learning Less Widely Taught Languages
• Multilingualism and Intercultural Communication
• Linguistic Research

The US Embassy in Latvia announces its annual video competition for high school students with a major prize for a four-week trip through the United States. This year's theme is "Media Literacy". We are waiting for young people in English about how they think about using media nowadays, how to think about who to believe, what not to, how to keep up with the topical issues of Latvia and the world, why it is so important, and so on. Videos should be submitted by February 22, 2018. There is more information about the competition in the attached poster.

Study of the United States Institutes are intensive post-graduate level academic programs with integrated study tours whose purpose is to provide foreign university faculty, other scholars, and secondary educators (classroom teachers, teacher trainers, curriculum developers, textbook writers, ministry of educations officials, etc.) the opportunity to deepen their understanding of American society, culture, and institutions. The ultimate goal is to strengthen curricula and to improve the quality of teaching about the United States in academic institutions abroad.

The institutes will take place at various colleges and universities throughout the United States over the course of 5-6 weeks beginning in May/June 2018.

More information here [a Word document].

About LATE

LATE has been represent-ing teachers of English in Latvia since it was found-ed in 1992.

LATE is an Associate Member of IATEFL.

Membership Fees per annum

New members: 25 Euros

Renewing members: 20 Euros

Students: 10 Euros

LATE organizes an Annual Conference in August in Riga, a Training Day in January, occasional webinars and takes part in special projects such as British Council Summer Schools.

Association Statutes

Membership Benefits

As a member of LATE you can attend the Annual Conference at a reduced rate and take part in LATE projects, training events and special promotions.

In the 2020/21 academic year we had a training day in January for members as well as the two day Annual Conference in August: see here and here for more details.

Join LATE

Click here to join LATE. Complete the form and then pay the appropriate membership fee. See below for bank details. Once you have made the payment you will be contacted to confirm your membership. This might take up to 2 weeks.

For bank details please click here.

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