The latest FEELTA seminar,held in October in Vladivostok was very exciting. Firstly, because there we got acquainted with such outstanding American specialists as J. D. Brown and Michael Krauss and met our faithful American friend Judy Elliott. Secondly, it was really beneficial for us to attend the presentations made by Maria Verbitskaya, Lyudmila Kozhevnikova and Slava Shvaiko.

M. Krauss’s lectures and workshops were devoted to computer assisted language learning. They were really overwhelming for us. Many of us came to the conclusion that the opportunities of Internet technologies are really huge.

There’s no denying that testing is a burning issue at the moment, primarily because we have got a new format of school-leaving examinations: the Unified State Examination. Naturally we should be fully armed with a new form of testing to avoid heavy losses concerning the requirements, the format and the technique of performing different exam tasks. J. D. Brown covered the topics of the purposes of language tests, the effects of language testing and the constraints on language testing. He also drew our attention to different points of view on testing taken by administrators, teachers and students. Maria Verbitskaya added some helpful ideas to this issue at our round-table talk. Her plenary and workshops were very interesting, especially for school teachers. I managed to clarify all the questions I had in face-to-face talks. I also liked Ludmila Kozhevnikova’s workshop dealing with building students’ learning styles and strategies. Maria and Lyudmila turned out to be not only splendid specialists but also very charming ladies.

But what was even more exciting for us, teachers, was a seminar in, where we had a unique chance to talk to all these great experts face to face from morning to night, as well as discuss in small groups problems that are important for us. It was really great! We are very grateful to Bridget Gersten for financial support for the seminar.

As you see, the seminar was full of beneficial and exciting events. The weather contributed to our pleasure, too. It was sunny and warm.

I think I will remember the seminar for a long time, using all the information I got there.

Vera Sazhina,
secondary school ELT organizer of
Komsomolsk-na-Amure