FINDING MY PROFESSIONAL, ACADEMIC AND PERSONAL SELF (PLENARY)                                       

This talk will look at three important and interconnected aspects of our work as ELT professionals. We have to ensure that we always develop professionally, no matter how experienced we are, or how inexperienced for that matter. Knowing about the skills and techniques and methodologies which are considered to be part of the ELT canon is fundamental. However, we sometimes need to dig a bit deeper to answer certain puzzles which emerge out of our teaching. This is when academic research begins to play an important part in our career. However, as a teacher developer I’ve found that in many occasions teachers become stuck as regards their teaching. In most of these cases this is not related to knowledge about pedagogical practice nor is it related to academic knowledge. It’s related to knowledge of the “self”: of who you are and where you can go and what you are willing to change. It’s when we understand that these three elements are equally important that we find the key to our own growth.                                                                                                                                         

Valéria França  is Head of Teacher Training and Development at Cultura Inglesa Idiomas S.A. and has worked at the same institution for over 25 years. She graduated in Education and History at Homerton College, Cambridge University. She  has a Masters in Comparative Education, Institute of Education , University of London and a Masters and PhD in Applied Linguistics at UFF. Her research interests include teaching young learners and the teaching of languages through artistic expression and an exploration of the teaching/learning spaces. She is one of the founding members of the Visual Arts Circle (https://visualartscircle.com/) and an ex- President of BRAZ-TESOL.