The Institute of Foreign Languages of the Faculty of Philology of Vilnius University and Lithuanian Language Teachers’ Association continue the series of workshops and seminars for language teachers.

On March 26, 2018, teachers were invited to take part in two engaging seminars delivered by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Liudmila Arcimavičienė and lecturer Lina Marčiulionytė ( both work for the Institute of Foreign Languages of the Faculty of Philology, Vilnius University).

During the „Teaching Grammar in the ESP context“ seminar, L.Marčiulionytė focused on the peculiarities and specific methods of teaching grammar in ESP classes; she demonstrated innovative approaches to setting grammar tasks that encourage involvement and motivation.

The other seminar – „Cognitive Approach to Language Teaching: framing in the mainstream media“ – was aimed at showing how cognitive approach to language teaching can contribute to developing students‘ critical thinking and to raising awareness of media created reality. Assoc. Prof. Dr. L. Arcimavičienė overviewed the key concepts and the basic methodology of analysing media sources in the classroom; she emphasized the importance of the development of critical thinking in the current ICT-governed reality with unlimited access to information. “Critical thinking allows us to view reality not as a gift, but rather as a constantly changing expression of human values, which is influenced by a multitude of personal, social and cultural factors. In other words, to know means to experience, and to constantly raise questions: how and why?”, says L. Arcimavičienė. By implementing cognitive approach in the classroom, both teachers and students can raise their critical awareness of how reality can be construed in the media and become more conscious of how to receive and retrieve information.