KATE Welcomes NATE Umbrella

In November 2009 Kaliningrad Association of Teachers of English (KATE) was fortunate to hold the Umbrella NATE conference 2009 “Strategizing and managing change in ELT in Russia”. The urge for development of effective strategies and methods of ELT brought together in Kaliningrad the participants who were distinguished not only by the diversity of their professional interests and topics of their presentations but also by geographical diversity. Nevertheless, the general atmosphere of the conference was that of cooperation and mutual acknowledgement of each other’s ELT perspective development.

With respect for the great merit of all the participants and their immense contribution to the success of the conference I’d like to single out and emphasize the presentation given by Svetlana Suchkova (Samara State Aerospace University, TESOL member) “Ten Ways to Make Students Hate Writing”. It was brilliant, informative and full of great practical value. Svetlana presented the set of exercises which were skillfully designed to help students make their written output more productive, writing in English confidently. The problem of long-standing gaps in access to valid educational resources still exists but thanks to Svetlana’s efforts now we may hope to get her book “Learn to write with us: a process-based writing textbook”.

Speaking about the organizational part of the conference the special tribute should be paid to the President of KATE Lyudmila Lipilina and Vice-President Natalia Milyavskaya who did an excellent job which had a lasting impact on the whole ELT community in Kaliningrad.

In conclusion I’d like to cite Dr. Maria Verbitskaya (NATE Vice-President) who, appealing to the conference participants, said: “Your mind is like an umbrella. It works only when it is opened”. This powerful conceptual metaphor has crucial symbolic meaning and following this meaning we’re looking forward to further cooperation and interactions as Kaliningrad Association of Teachers of English is ready to meet ambitious goals in ELT that were established during the NATE conference in Kaliningrad.