Event review: Paul Seligson workshops, 14th September 2024
- 18. October 2024
- Posted by: Sarah Plochl
- Category: From our members

Written by Rosie Siemsen
18 HELTA members and friends of HELTA joined together in Hamburg on Saturday afternoon to take part in two workshops delivered by Paul Seligson, a teacher, teacher trainer, and extensive materials writer from the UK. Paul is well known for his lively and highly practical training, and he didn’t disappoint.
The first workshop was entitled “Times have changed, have you?” and dealt with the sometimes-controversial idea that it is not only acceptable to use L1 in the English teaching classroom, but it can also provide a huge advantage for learners. His workshop tried to debunk the notion that it is controversial to use L1. Mentioning that things have changed a lot in the last 20 years (a shocking anecdote from this time described somebody being video monitored while teaching and subsequently sacked for momentarily using the students’ native language), Paul went on to illustrate how the use of L1 can highlight small, helpful details that you might not have noticed otherwise. Separating and teaching target vocabulary which closely resembles the learners’ own language can be hugely motivating. Building on learners’ existing knowledge can also arm them with, quite advanced level language. Being aware of students’ mother tongue is also an excellent way to anticipate potential mistakes. We came away from the workshop with a lot of information and many ideas about how to integrate L1 into the classroom: managing its use rather than prohibiting it. To quote Paul “We should cease worrying about how much L1 is in the classroom, as it’s always in learners’ heads anyway”.
After a short break for a chat and a cuppa, it was time to move onto the second workshop: “The Prolific Power of a Pause”. This hugely interactive workshop gave tips on how to reduce teacher talk time by inserting regular pauses into our teaching. The idea is that a cleverly inserted pause will give learners the opportunity to finish our sentences, creating a dynamism to the lesson which also has the effect of maintaining interest. Paul also highlighted the usefulness of the technique of ‘whispering answers to your partner’ giving learners a safe way to express themselves without having to speak in front of the whole group. This led onto discussing how to democratise the learning environment, opening out the session to all learners, not just the strongest. Throughout the workshop, Paul also ‘drip fed’ us with a quiz which reappeared 3-4 times, illustrating another way of keeping learners interested and motivated. Paul succinctly articulated the idea that while teaching is often systematic, linear and additive, learning is often messy, non-linear and holistic. In response to this we can make our teaching more learner friendly by ‘zig-zagging’ our more linear activities over the course of a lesson.
The feedback from attendees showed that Paul had provided us with a lot of valuable information which can be integrated with ease into our teaching and that we would love to have Paul return to Hamburg for HELTA sometime.