NELTA: Association profile
NELTA - The Nish English Language Teachers' Association - is an independent, professional, non-governmental regional association of English language teachers. It was founded in 1997 primarily for the purpose of professional development and exchange of teaching experience. Being the first association of this kind in the country, it gathered professionals from all levels of English language teaching: primary and secondary state school teachers, higher education and university professors, and a few private school teachers.
In compliance with the association programme, the range of our interests and activities includes: organizing ELT workshops, seminars, conferences and other professional and scientific meetings, obtaining professional training and qualifications to carry out ELT and scientific research projects, as well as cooperation with the university and other professional associations and organizations at home and abroad. We have also been engaged in making a collection of ELT methodology reference books, translating professional and scientific works in the field of ELT methodology, literature, art and general culture.
We always look forward to welcoming all our colleagues who are interested in further professional and personal development and sharing experiences.
Projects
As our association members are primarily interested in professional ELT development, in the past six years our focus has been on organizing regular monthly sessions and self-education workshops where the members can share their knowledge and exchange ideas on their practical teaching experience, present or try out some new teaching activities, approaches, techniques or methods which they have come across either by reading methodology reference books or attending some teacher training courses or ELT seminars.
In all these years, our association has had a long-term cooperation with the English Language Department at the Faculty of Philosophy, the University of Nish, and very successful cooperation and support of the Fund for an Open Society in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. Within the FOS project "Methodology for the 21st Century", members of our association have attended and organized a number of seminars and courses at home and abroad.
Realized projects, conference/seminar participation:
NELTA - The Nish English Language Teachers' Association - is an independent, professional, non-governmental regional association of English language teachers. It was founded in 1997 primarily for the purpose of professional development and exchange of teaching experience. Being the first association of this kind in the country, it gathered professionals from all levels of English language teaching: primary and secondary state school teachers, higher education and university professors, and a few private school teachers.
In compliance with the association programme, the range of our interests and activities includes: organizing ELT workshops, seminars, conferences and other professional and scientific meetings, obtaining professional training and qualifications to carry out ELT and scientific research projects, as well as cooperation with the university and other professional associations and organizations at home and abroad. We have also been engaged in making a collection of ELT methodology reference books, translating professional and scientific works in the field of ELT methodology, literature, art and general culture.
We always look forward to welcoming all our colleagues who are interested in further professional and personal development and sharing experiences.
Projects
As our association members are primarily interested in professional ELT development, in the past six years our focus has been on organizing regular monthly sessions and self-education workshops where the members can share their knowledge and exchange ideas on their practical teaching experience, present or try out some new teaching activities, approaches, techniques or methods which they have come across either by reading methodology reference books or attending some teacher training courses or ELT seminars.
In all these years, our association has had a long-term cooperation with the English Language Department at the Faculty of Philosophy, the University of Nish, and very successful cooperation and support of the Fund for an Open Society in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. Within the FOS project "Methodology for the 21st Century", members of our association have attended and organized a number of seminars and courses at home and abroad.
Realized projects, conference/seminar participation:
- In July 1997, thirty of our members attended a two-week ELT seminar at the English Department, the Faculty of Philosophy, the University of Nish, on the topic of "Task-Based Learning", which was facilitated by John Rogers and Philip Glover.
- In October 1997, four of our members attended an IATEFL Conference in Budapest, Hungary.
- In July 1998, forty of our members participated in the ELT seminar on "Integrated Skills", which was facilitated by Kathy Koop (Fulbright Scholar).
- In January 1999, thirty of our members attended the ELT seminar "Reading and Communication", facilitated by Trevor Shanklin, and the basic "Computing Course", both of which were held in Nish.
- In November 1998, in January 1999, and January 2000, ten members of our association took part in a series of mini-seminars on "Basic Computing Skills: WORD, E-mail and Internet" at the Scientific Research Centre in Petnica, Valjevo, Yugoslavia. The last of these seminars, facilitated by Trevor Shanklin, included methodological input and practice in "Using computers and Internet sources in the English language classroom".
- In July 2000, four of our members attended a week's course on the topic "Teacher Training vs. Teacher Development", which was held in Iasi, Romania.
- In July 2000, a member of our association Gordana Ignjatovic attended a month's International House Certificate Teacher Training Course "Learning Teaching - the Interactive Approach" in Timisoara, Romania, which was mentored/facilitated by Jim Scrivener and based on his methodology book "Learning Teaching"
- In August 2000, two members of our association (Gordana Ignjatovic i Radmila Miltenovic) facilitated a three-day seminar at the Petnica Research Centre on "Learning Teaching : The Interactive Classroom, Classroom Management and Lesson Planning", as a combination of methodological input and practical workshops activities.
- In April 2001, three members of our association (Gordana Ignjatovic, Radmila Miltenovic and Sanja Kolarevic), facilitated a three-day seminar at the Research Centre in Petnica, Valjevo, which was based on methodological input from the previous one and offered the participants practical classroom activities and techniques in dealing with "The Subject Matter of English Language Teaching: Language Systems (Vocabulary, Grammar, Phonology, Functions) and Language Skills (Speaking, Listening, Reading and Writing)".
- In June 2001, in association with Longman ELT and YELTA - The Yugoslav English Language Teachers' Association (which was founded in Belgrade in 2001 and whose foundation we actively participated in), NELTA organized a seminar "Self Observation/ Task-Based Teaching and Learning" which was held by Douglas Allan.
- In July 2001, a member of our association Marija Stojkovic-Grujic attended a week's Mentor Course which was held in Samara, Russia.
- In August 2001, Radmila Miltenovic attended a one-month TOT - Trainer of Trainers Apprenticeship Course, and Gordana Ignjatovic attended the UCLES CELTA/SIT TESOL Co-validated Certificate Course, both of which were held in Vilnius, Lithuania.
- NELTA organized and held a series of one-day seminars/workshops on "Teaching Grammar, Pronunciation and Integrated Skills" in Nish and some neighbouring towns of this region (Leskovac, Pirot, Prokuplje).
- In November 2001, in association with the English Department at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Nis, we hosted Diana Larsen Freeman , a reknowned methodologist from the School for International Training, Battleboro, Vermont, who had a lecture on " Chaos/Complexity Theory and Language Acquisition"
- In January 2002, a member of our association, Marija Kostic- Trivunac, was a facilitator of the workshop "Motivating young learners" at the Longman seminar held in Belgrade, Yugoslavia.
- On 15th and 16th February 2002, in cooperation with the American Embassy in Belgrade, NELTA organized a two-day ESP (English for Specific Purposes) seminar, facilitated by Kathryn Koop, which covered the following topics: 1. Processing and Presenting the Topics for ESP, and 2. Some Practical Advice for the Textbook Creation
- In February/March 2002, twenty members of our association attended the in-service The Mentor Development Workshops, jointly organized by NELTA and the Methodology Department at the Faculty of Philosophy, the University of Nis , which were facilitated by Slobodanka Kitic, Ph.D, and Mollie Heckel, SPELT Teacher trainer, OSI.
- In March/April/ May 2002, we worked on two new NELTA projects. The first project , NELTA Teacher Training Workshops, was facilitated by Mollie Heckel - a lector at the English language department at the Faculty of Philosophy, the University of Nish. The topics included: EFL teaching without resourses, Communicative activities, Adapting textbooks. The second project, NELTA Workshops: Experiences from TOT/TESOL/CELTA Teacher Training Courses, was facilitated by our members who attended these courses in August 2001.
- From 1st to 5th July 2002, three members of our association - Radmila Miltenovic, Marija Kostic- Trivunac and Marija Stojkovic - Grujic took part in the seminar "Teachers Mentoring Teachers: Exploring and Experiencing Essential Teaching Skills", which was held in Dubrovnik, Croatia.
- In August 2002, three members of our association - Makedonka Kostadinova, Sladjana Bogojevic and Dragana Mancic completed the Co-validated TESOL/CELTA Teacher Training Course and Ljiljana Stankovic completed the TESOL Teacher Training Course, both of which were simultaneously held in Iasi, Romania.
- From 25th to 30th August 2002.godine, three members of our association - Mirjana Uljarević, Biljana Tosić i Milica Veljković - attended a five-day summer seminar organized by YELTA in Novi Becej.
- In the period from 1st September 2002 to 30th July 2003, NELTA organized a series of workshops with David Read, a lector at the English Department at the Faculty of Philosophy, the University of Nis, focusing on the following topics: Warm-up activities, Presenting Grammar, Communicative grammar activities; Classroom problems; The lexical Approach to Grammar; Teaching Vocabulary: word combinations and collocations; Pronunciation; Revision and recycling activities; Teaching Listening; Dictation; Teaching mixed ability classes; Writing, etc. ( Team-teaching with David Read)
- 28.9 2002. Presenting Grammar, Dealing with Classroom Solving Problems in the Classroom
- 26. 10. 2002 The Lexical Approach; Collocations; Teaching Vocabulary Activities
- 23. 11. 2002. Teaching Reading
- 14. 12. 2002 Teaching ; Recycling and Revision
- 25. 01. 2002. Teacher's Survival Kit : tools and activities ( Radmila Miltenovic)
- 22. 02. 2003. Situational Presentation: Teaching Grammar; Using Rods (Gordana Ignjatovic)
- 15. 03. 2003. Teaching Listening
- 12. 04. 2003 Benefits and challenges of teaching mixed ability classes
- 24. 05. 2003. (Marija Kostic Trivunac- Workshops & Topics from Dubrovnik)
- In the period from 17th - 21st October 2002 / 12th - 15th December 2002/ 31st March - 3rd April 2003, five members of our association attended the Teacher Training course "Training of ELT Trainers", organized by the Ministry of Education, the Republic of Serbia, and the British Council, which were facilitated by Sue Leather, the Excel Trainer, David A. Hill, and Simon Smith. In the periods from 17th - 21st October 2002 / 12th - 15th December 2002/ 31st March - 3rd April 2003, Slobodanka Kitic, Dusica Mladenovic and Gordana Ignjatovic attended the Secondary School Teacher Trainer Course. And participated in preparing the Teacher Training Manual (published by the British Council Belgrade). In the period from October 2002- March 2003, Marija Kostic- Trivunac and Marije Stojkovic- Grujic attended the primary School Teacher Trainer Course.
- In April 2003, in association with YELTA, NELTA hosted Thomas Santos, from SIT, Battleboro, Vermont, who had three-day workshops on the issues of "The Theatre Techniques in language Classroom", "Communicative Grammar Activities", and "Academic Writing and Communicative Classroom"
- On 25th May 2003, five members of our association (Marija Kostic -Trivunac, Makedonka Kostadinova, Ljiljana Stankovic, Dragana Mancic, and Gordana Ignjatovic) and the British lector David Read attended the ELTAB Conference in Belgrade. (English Language Teachers' Association - Belgrade)
- On 30th/31st May 2003, Gordana Ignjatovic attended the regional seminar on "Common European Framework", organized in Belgrade by the Council of Europe, the British Council, and YALS (Yugoslav Association of Private language schools).
- In June 2003, within the ministry of Education project "The Reform of the educational system", Radmila Miltenovic attended training sessions and co-facilitated a number of workshops for secondary school teachers in the region, whereas Marija Kostic and Marija Stojkovic had their teacher training workshops for the primary English teachers in Nis and Prokuplje.
- ELTA Conference , Belgrade, May 2004 (the National English Language Teachers’Association)
- In the period from October 2004 to June 2005, Phillip Buckley (Senior EL Fellow; J.D; MA in Education) held a series of workshops with NELTA members (once a month) on the premises of the private English language school “Spell”)
- In the period from 2005 to 2011, NELTA members regularly attended the annual ELTA Conferences in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011, as well as a large number of one-day workshops organized by British and American publishing houses (Oxford, Longman, Cambridge, English Book, Educational Centre) and held by their trainers, facilitators and visiting lecturers.
- Third International IATEFL ELTA Conference (The World of Classroom: Creativity and Culture”), 6- 8 May 2005, Belgrade
- January-February 2006, Marija Kostic – Trivunac and Dragana Mancic held a series of workshops in regional towns on “Teaching Young Learners”
- Fourth International IATEFL ELTA Conference (When Knowledge Wins: Strategy for the 21st Century”) , 12-14 May 2006, Belgrade
- Fifth International IATEFL ELTA Conference (“Interactive classroom: Have we got what it takes ?) , 18-20 May 2007, Belgrade
- Sixth International IATEFL ELTA Conference (“The Classroom that Beats the Odds), 30 May-1 June 2008, Belgrade
- Seventh International IATEFL ELTA Conference (Writing: Devise, wit:; write ,pen… and gather the harvest of knowledge), 22-24 May 2009, Novi Sad.
- Eighth International IATEFL ELTA Conference (“Technology- mediated Education), Belgrade, 7-9 May 2010.
- Ninth International IATEFL ELTA Conference (“Learning-Teaching-Assessing: Strentheening the Links) , Novi Sad, 7-8 Aprila 2011.