Macmillan IELTS Teacher Training Clinics
May 2004

During late April and early May 2004, Macmillan hosted a series of IELTS teacher training sessions at a number of locations across the UK including London, Manchester, Hove, Eastbourne, Plymouth, Cambridge, Birmingham, Colchester, Bath, Oxford and Bournemouth. At many of the locations Macmillan worked together with the Regional Association to organise and advertise the event.

38th International Annual IATEFL Conference
Liverpool, UK
April 2004

Visitors to the 38th Annual IATEFL Conference were seeing red this month thanks to Macmillan’s prominently placed stand at the main entrance to the event. As expected, the conference played host to a wealth of international delegates and boasted a full programme of presentations from some of the world’s most renowned ELT authors, lexicographers and ELT specialists.

Macmillan’s own authors appeared at the conference to speak about some of the company’s best-selling titles. Authors included Vaughan Jones and Sue Kay (Inside Out), Pete Sharma (Macmillan Essential Dictionary), Simon Mellor-Clark (Campaign, Macmillan’s military English course) and Paul Emmerson (Email English). Academic sessions by Macmillan authors included ‘writing better academic prose’ (Prof. Michael Hoey), ‘the secret language of business’ (Mark Powell) and ‘improving lower level IELTS writing’ (Rachael Roberts, Joanne Gagonka and Andrew Preshous).

Macmillan’s online projects were also represented at this year’s conference. Catherine Whitaker presented the main features of the Macmillan English Campus, Macmillan’s flagship online learning project, to a packed audience. Lindsay Clandfield, one of the contributing writers for onestopenglish.com, spoke about teaching with minimal resources with particular reference to materials available on the onestopenglish site.

Macmillan hosted a party on the second night of the conference and what better theme to choose than The Beatles for a Liverpudlian event. The party was hosted at the famous Cavern club, a regular venue for Beatles gigs in the early 1960s. More than 400 people managed to squeeze into the venue to enjoy the free wine and food not to mention music from The Beatalls, Liverpool’s best Beatles tribute band. ELT delegates packed the dance floor to show off their dance moves and request their favourite Beatles songs. The party was an ideal opportunity to celebrate the success of the Macmillan English Dictionaries range of products at the British Council Innovation Award ceremony in March.

The IATEFL festivities did not end with the Macmillan party. On Thursday evening Prof. Michael Hoey (member of the Campaign for Real Ale, CAMRA) led 60 delegates from the conference on a pub crawl around central Liverpool.

As always the IATEFL conference was a great event and we hope to see you next year in Cardiff!

To find out more about the annual IATEFL conference click here.

Macmillan triumphs at the British Council Innovation Awards
March, 2004

Macmillan Education triumphed at the awards ceremony earlier this month for the British Council Innovation Awards for English language teaching (ELT) products and services - the 'Eltons', which are the Oscars of the ELT world.

The Macmillan English Dictionary range of products and services was one of the three main award winners with the Macmillan English Campus being singled out for a special commendation by the judges. The twelve shortlisted innovations also included Designing Language Teaching Tasks from Palgrave Macmillan.

The British Council Innovation Awards are offered to outstanding new language learning resources which use innovative ideas to help learners of English to achieve their goals. The awards were the first in a series of events marking the 70th anniversary of the British Council.

The panel of judges also highly commended the Macmillan English Campus for being "a genuinely innovative product". At the ceremony, Ian Johnstone, Director of Internet Publishing at Macmillan Education, thanked the judges for the special commendation in recognition that the quality of entries this year was particularly high.

Summed up by one judge as "a really impressive piece of work", the Award is the latest addition to the Macmillan English Dictionary's already crowded mantelpiece - and is a tribute to the inspiration and ongoing commitment of our outstanding Macmillan Dictionaries team. The Macmillan English Dictionary is now available in a wide range of accessible editions including book, CD-ROM, network CD-ROM and online and is supported by an exciting range of online resources and email services.

To find out more about the latest Macmillan English Dictionary competition, launched to celebrate Macmillan's success at the awards, click here.

Scott Thornbury at ETAS AGM
January, 2004

On Sunday 18th January Scott Thornbury, author of Uncovering Grammar, gave a plenary to over 300 teachers at the ETAS AGM in the splendid surroundings of the HEV in Sierre. Scott's plenary, Another way of being a teacher, explored what is involved in becoming a teacher through examples of his own family's roots in teaching. Scott left the audience feeling moved and inspired.

Right: Scott Thornbury on stage at the ETAS AGM

The ELTON Awards 2004
January, 2004



Macmillan is pleased to have received two shortlist nominations for the British Council's Education UK ELT Innovation Awards 2004. The Macmillan English Dictionary range of products (book, CD-ROM, network CD-ROM, Online and website) and the Macmillan English Campus (Macmillan's flagship online learning service) have both been nominated. Award winners will be announced in London during March 2004.

Macmillan Magic!
November, 2003

Mini Magic and Story Magic, two titles in Macmillan Education’s primary list, were both highly commended in the recent Duke of Edinburgh ESU English Language Book Award, 2003.

What the judges said:

“It is material for the very young… right on target”

“There is a confidence and freshness about the material that is most engaging”

“A fun, well graded beginners book for young children with a very comprehensive script for teachers”

“Well illustrated, clearly laid out”

“These entries are breaking new ground in a new area of need in a younger age-group”

Sarah Meadows, Commissioning Editor at Macmillan Education and the series authors (Susan House, Katharine Scott, Vicent Roig and Pilar Perez Esteve) were presented with a certificate of commendation by HRH Duke of Edinburgh at a ceremony at Buckingham Palace on 12th November 2003.

Mini Magic and Story Magic have enchanted both teachers and pupils in many countries around the world. These courses aim to make English accessible, enjoyable and fun, and to motivate children in their language learning.

Further information about the titles:

Mini Magic is a new two-level story-based course for young learners starting English for the first time. Both levels consist of six lively stories which are presented through a cartoon strip, a Big Book, and Posters with re-usable stickers. Pupils also get the chance to re-tell the stories with their own mini-poster and character cut-outs. In Mini Magic, reading and writing is introduced within a graded syllabus for the first time.

Story Magic is a new four-level primary course which uses a story-based approach to language learning, supported by large full-colour story cards. In Story Magic 1 & 2 pupils share stories and learn with Max the Wizard. In Story Magic 3 & 4 pupils follow the adventures of a gang of young detectives as they solve mysteries and go on exciting adventures together.

In Company Roadshow
Germany and Austria
May 2003

Mark Powell and Simon Clarke, authors of In Company, led inspiring and practical workshops in the hugely successful In Company Roadshow. Hundreds of EFL professionals attended the workshops which were held in no less than 14 cities: Munich, Nürnberg, Mannheim, Stuttgart, Vienna, Berlin, Leipzig, Hannover, Bremen, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Dortmund, Köln and Düsseldorf.  Also giving an engaging workshop on the tour were Katie Ayres and Jemma Harrison, both from Macmillan Education.  

Delegates came away with a wealth of practical ideas and many have contacted Macmillan since to express their thanks. Here is just one of the many testimonials received:

'Thanks for organising and inviting me to this unbelievably lively workshop with Mark Powell... I'd like to see him 'performing' again!!' 
Dorothea Heinz

The Macmillan Business English Club was launched at the events and every participant was presented with a unique membership pack. 

Mark Powell, author of In Company Intermediate and the forthcoming In Company Upper Intermediate

Simon Clarke, author of In Company Pre-Intermediate

37th International Annual IATEFL Conference 
Brighton, UK
22 - 26 April 2003

This year's IATEFL conference attracted a whole host of prominent Macmillan authors, lexicographers and ELT specialists. It was a truly international event attended by ELT professionals from all around the world.

A highlight for many at the conference was the 'Paint the Town Red' party hosted by Macmillan to celebrate the launch of the Macmillan Essential Dictionary. Held in the beautiful Brighton Museum & Art Gallery, everyone was treated to live jazz, plenty of wine and canapés and a great atmosphere, not forgetting a free Essential to take home with them. Several of Macmillan's key dictionary specialists attended and gave presentations at IATEFL to packed rooms, including Gwyneth Fox (with Joanne Greig), Michael Hoey and Michael Rundell. 

Other Macmillan authors speaking were Vaughan Jones and Sue Kay, authors of Inside Out, Sam McCarter, co-author of IELTS Testbuilder and Adrian Underhill, author of Sound Foundations and editor of the Teacher Development Series. Adrian Underhill was on the panel of a fascinating debate entitled 'Where is joy in our learning and teaching?' together with Katie Head, Scott Thornbury and Alan Maley.

Internet-supported teaching was also a topic of great interest for the many teachers who came to see onestopenglish.com at the Macmillan stand and browse the hundreds of free online resources Macmillan offers. Myrna Noorbergen gave a talk on using the Internet effectively in ELT which prompted a wealth of interesting questions and discussions.

The Macmillan stand gave delegates the opportunity to ask questions and browse the new Essential 

The Macmillan stand - a sea of red

Launch of  issue 2 of i-teach
March 2003

i-teach is Macmillan’s initiative to support teachers using the Internet as a teaching resource. Issue 1 was a big success and we are pleased to announce that  issue 2 is now available to download free from www.onestopenglish.com. 

i-teach aims to help teachers and inspire them to get online. It contains lots of practical tips on how teachers can make the most of the Internet to help them save time, prepare for lessons and create motivating Web-based lessons.

Download issue 2 of i-teach

Duke of Edinburgh English-Speaking Union English Language Book Award 2002
Award Ceremony, Buckingham Palace
December 2002

The Macmillan Dictionary for Advanced Learners, published by Macmillan, was chosen as the winner from 22 entries in this year’s Duke of Edinburgh ESU Award. Winners, guests and sponsors gathered together in the elegant surroundings of the Cinema at Buckingham Palace to mark the achievement of award winners.

The Macmillan Dictionary for Advanced Learners was recognised for its innovation, modernity, creativity, presentation and practicality. Comments Faye Carney, lexicographer, "The dictionary has been well received in traditional markets such as Europe, and we are encouraged by the exceptional success it is receiving in Asia, especially China and Japan, where they see learning English as a way to economic success."

Winners of the Duke of Edinburgh’s ESU English Language Book Award 
with HRH The Duke of Edinburgh, L-R Faye Carney, Bloomsbury,
Mike Mayor, Bloomsbury and Katalin Sule, Macmillan