Come to the Pilgrims Conference and meet EFL World Leaders

August 16th to 22nd, 2009

Tessa Woodward is perhaps UK's top authority in the area of training teacher trainers and has edited THE TEACHER TRAINING JOURNAL for over 20 years. Her books in this area are full of wisdom, simplicity and practicality. Maybe because of the sharpness of her intellect Tessa has no time for intellectual bla-bla, and works in a down-to-earth, respectful and practical way.

Tessa does not currently do much conference hopping so come to Canterbury and catch her at home. The August Conference is an ideal time to meet her, talk to her and listen to her.

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Mike McCarthy, together with Ron Carter, is the author of the Cambridge Grammar of English which tells you much of what you need to know about the amazing world of ORAL ENGLISH. Here is a rare linguist who has made discoveries that no intelligent language teacher can honourably and safely ignore.

Mike also happens to be a brilliant speaker with a marvellous Celtic sense of humour. If you have already worked with him in Nuk or Timbuctoo I do not need to tell you any more about him. Use the opportunity of an intimate conference to make proper contact with him.

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Alan Maley has towered in the field of EFL methodology since his first appearance on the EFL scene in the late 1970's. His early books with Alan Duff made the idea of calling on the imagination, the intellect and the intuition of the learner normal and acceptable. Alan is warm, broad of mind, an excellent learner of languages, a master teacher and trainer and a man of deep and varied interests.

Alan lives here in Canterbury so come and work with him on his doorstep. Alan will not have had to fly half the way round the world to get to the Pilgrims conference. Come and meet him on his home patch.

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Adrian Underhill has now specialised in the area of leadership and specifically leadership in EFL contexts. In my view he is the most prominent thinker and speaker on this topic in the EFL world.

As many of you know, Adrian for many years led an exceptionally powerful group of trainers at International House in Hastings, a team of people who have made a major contribution to EFL teacher training over the past thirty years. Way before Adrian became President of IATEFL he founded the Teacher Development SIG. My point is that Adrian has been and is a practical leader, as well as theoretical expert on the topic. Don’t miss him!

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I personally look forward to seeing you and welcoming you on our Canterbury Hilltop and to winding up the conference

Mario ( Rinvolucri)