Event Date: 15th April 2023

Abstract:

The place of research as a source of professional knowledge for the teacher has been controversial. At one extreme, there are those who would claim that it is basic and essential; at the other are those who see it as relatively useless. My position is that the knowledge-base of effective teaching is essentially experience and reflection, and that research-based insights are a relatively minor, though significant, supplementary resource. Given this reservation, I will make some suggestions as to how the research can contribute to teachers’ professional expertise, and how it can be made accessible to busy practitioners.

About the Speaker:

Penny Ur was educated at Oxford, Cambridge (PGCE) and Reading (MA TEFL) universities. She has thirty years’ experience as an English teacher in elementary, middle and high schools in Israel.

Now retired, she has taught BA and MA courses at Oranim Academic College of Education and Haifa University. She is primarily interested in practical aspects of effective English language teaching, and has presented papers on related topics at TESOL, IATEFL and other English teachers’ conferences worldwide.

Her books are published by Cambridge University Press, and include Grammar Practice Activities (2nd Edition) (2009), Vocabulary Activities (2012), A course in English Language Teaching (2012), Discussions and more (2014), Penny Ur’s 100 Teaching Tips (2016).