Session 2A
Title: Wake up your students! Warmers and energisers for Academic English

Abstract:
In a short Academic English or IELTS prep course, time is precious. There are fixed outcomes that need to be met and the materials are often very prescriptive. However, using materials which follow the same structure each day can often be tedious for both teachers and students, particularly teenagers. Added to this, the topics and skills for Academic English, whilst absolutely necessary to teach, do not always seem immediately engaging to students.

Warmers and energisers can not only energise and motivate students but can add variety to a fixed curriculum. This workshop will be run as a ‘sharing session,’ to discuss ways to use warmers, energisers and coolers in the context of Academic English courses. At the beginning of the session, I will model activities I have successfully used with my EAP students, all of which take less than 15 minutes and focus on a skill or concept in Academic English. After that, time will be given for small groups to discuss activities they have used in their own classrooms and to present them to the whole group. At the end of the session, a list of activities will be distributed for future use.

Meredith MacAulay has taught a wide range of English courses to international students including Cambridge and IELTS preparation courses and EAP. She currently teaches at UNSW Institute of Languages.