A big THANK YOU to Laura Owens who was our host and principal organizer for this year's World Language Conference, which was an outstanding success. The participants provided overwhelmingly positive feedback on the quality of the content, the practical value, and the professional connections they made.
The conference achieved near-unanimous success, with 71 participants rating their overall experience highly:
Excellent: 84.5 % of attendees
Good: 15.5% of attendees
Over 80% of the participants indicated they are highly likely to recommend the conference to a colleague.
The participants were most enthusiastic about the practical and relevant nature of the conference.
The variety and quality of the workshops were the most-liked aspects, as they were relevant to their professional growth.
There was significant appreciation for receiving concrete, immediately usable ideas and hands-on activities for the classroom.
Connecting and having dialogue with other, passionate, language teachers was highly valued.
The feedback provided clear guidance for future planning, and the participants simply wanted more time:
They requested more sessions focused on practical implementation, particularly mentioning a strong interest in topics like CI (Comprehensible Input) (with specific praise for sessions by Dr. Liam Printer) and the integration of AI tools in language learning. Thank you Joe Dale!
The main suggestion for improvement was the need for more time—whether this was for deeper engagement within a session, more reflection and discussion among colleagues, or an extra day to attend more of the excellent workshops offered.
The breakout rooms provided an ideal space to review and discuss together as peers at the end of each day. The discussions focused on a balanced approach to world language teaching; emphasizing high-impact pedagogical strategies, the integration of new technologies, and a renewed focus on core student goals.
1. High-Impact Pedagogical Strategies
The main takeaways from the workshops highlighted a blend of innovative and proven low-tech methods:
The session emphasized the importance of giving students multiple ways to retrieve information, particularly using retrieval activities to sandwich the lesson (beginning and end).
Improvisation & Theatricals were highly recommended for icebreakers, brain breaks, chunking long lessons, and modeling behavior and storytelling.
Universal Design for Learning (UDL) advocated for using equity instead of traditional differentiation, focusing on planning lessons that naturally meet varied learning needs from the start.
There were practical ideas for scaffolding tasks, such as using text-to-speech for listening and highlighting words to support reading fluency.
A recurring theme was the value of focusing on core activities that truly work and being willing to streamline lesson plans to reduce cognitive load and prevent fatigue.
2. The Strategic Use EdTech
Technology was at the center of many discussions, focusing on how to use it meaningfully while mitigating risks:
AI (MagicSchool, Flint) is seen as an amazing time-saver for teachers to create resources and authentic assessments, and an excellent companion tool.
The consensus was to teach students how to use AI properly to prevent losing critical thinking skills and to avoid plagiarism. Schools are encouraged to discuss and develop clear AI policies. Everyone stressed the need for a variety and balance between digital and non-digital activities, noting that students can suffer from tool fatigue.
Data protection, differing school AI policies, and managing the constant influx of new tools were identified as hurdles.
3. Shared Student Goals and Challenges
The groups affirmed common student-centric goals that drive planning and instruction:
The overarching goal is for students to leave the classroom confident, motivated, and not afraid to make mistakes, seeing errors as a useful part of the learning process.
Teachers agreed on moving away from heavy memorization toward language acquisition, stressing the need to think critically about cognitive load when planning.
Discussions included the student experience of being dyslexic and the importance of using multiple modes (visual, audio, text) and strategies to support all learners. Practical strategies were shared for challenging students, such as offering "box/trays" with extension work and crosswords.
And now here are a few social media posts from our friends who attended the conference...
