Are you an ESOL educator eager to deepen your practice and empower your learners? English for Action (EFA) is offering two dynamic training sessions this summer that blend participatory pedagogy with creative, community-driven approaches. These workshops are designed to help you build inclusive, action-oriented classrooms where learners are not just students but co-creators of their own learning journeys.
The first workshop will be on Friday June 13th 2025 (10am – 4pm) at King’s College London (SE1 9NH).
This 1-day workshop provides a practical and theoretical introduction to participatory ESOL pedagogy.
During this workshop, we will explore the key concepts and ideas that have influenced participatory ESOL, including the popular education pedagogy of Brazilian educator Paulo Freire, adult literacy work in the US led by Elsa Auerbach, and Action Aid’s Reflect ESOL project, along with contemporary theoretical work in applied and sociolinguistics. You will get hands-on experience using participatory methods, tools and techniques that you can take directly back to your own contexts and you will be introduced to the EFA emerging curriculum framework- Making Meaning; ‘Going Deeper’ and ‘Broadening Out’, which guide you to plan and structure courses on participatory lines, providing an alternative to target language models of course planning.
Incorporated into the activities will be time for discussion, exchange of experience and ideas so we can all learn from each other. This workshop is aimed at teachers who recognise the need to combine ESOL with the social and political effects of injustice towards migrants in the UK. Migrants’ rights campaigners will also benefit from this workshop and are very welcome.
The second workshop will be on Friday July 4th 2025 (10am – 4pm) at King’s College London (SE1 9NH).
In this workshop you will get a full introduction to working with people’s theatre traditions in the ESOL classroom. It is aimed at ESOL teachers and volunteers but it is also for migrants’ rights activists working with migrants learning English.
EFA have been developing their theatre work for more than 10 years, learning from some amazing theatre directors and practitioners at Serpentine Galleries, and Giolli Coop to adapt Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed methods, legislative theatre and newspaper theatre. In our experience this works brilliantly and can really transform ESOL classrooms, providing rich opportunities for meaningful language learning. Using these approaches can make the ESOL classroom a space of critical understanding, challenge and transformation.
In this workshop you will get hands- on experience of using these methods as well as the chance to explore the theory behind them.
You will:
- Build a repertoire of theatre games to build trust and encourage risk taking.
- Use body image to communicate experiences without words.
- Learn the essential components for forum theatre. This involves building a performance using real stories of struggle and developing this by trying out different roles, different dialogues and different perspectives, to explore or rehearse a range of possible endings.
Book your ticket now and get a discount if you book both sessions!
We hope to see you there!
If you would like to see our full list of training we provide please see EFA’s Training Brochure
