Cambridge Weeks to facilitate English teaching

More than 3,000 English teachers in China were invited to training sessions in nine cities to improve their teaching method, find solutions to problems they encounter in daily teaching and better cope with the on-going education reform.

Cambridge Weeks, jointly held by Cambridge University Press and Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, offered training sessions in Hong Kong, Beijing, Guangzhou, Shijiazhuang, Xingtai, Zhengzhou, Chongqing, Chengdu and Jinan for English teachers, principals and instructors on strategies in an English language teaching (ELT) classroom.

"Language learning isn't just about language - it's about how the brain stores information, content that appeals to students and, ultimately, helping learners to feel that they can succeed," Dr Herbert Puchta, former chairman of the International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language (IATEFL) and one of the main presenters at the session, said during his presentation.

During the sessions, Dr Herbert talked about "10 powerful ways to step up students' learning outcomes", "the power of emotional engagement in teaching teenagers", and ways of "revision, recycling and revisiting text" that can make revision easier and more efficient.

Cai Jianfeng, president of the Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, said that training sessions like this one and similar events in the future are expected to closely connect English teaching in China with the world trend, and to create a pleasant and quality environment for Chinese learners to acquire language ability.

Cambridge University Press has been in cooperation with Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press for a long time. In the past 15 years, English course books, such as Interchange and Kid's Box, have been published through their joint efforts.