The theme chosen for this year´s Congress: “Reflecting upon the Classroom” has been thought of as including two different dimensions : a practical one (strategies, techniques, procedures and methods for concrete classroom practice) as well as a more theoretical one (the consideration of models, paradigms and systems of beliefs for teaching and learning languages).  

All Presenters will deal with both concrete classroom applications and more general reflections on teaching, language and education. 

Within this general framework, presentations that include reports of or proposals for innovative classroom practice or new theories, methodologies or ways of  looking at language and language learning and teaching have been favoured in the selection of speakers.  

Rather than describing or discussing,  the presentations in this Congress will show a technique for teaching or testing. Normally the presenter’s statement of the theory underlying the technique will take no more than ten to fifteen minutes. The rest of the time will be used for showing, rather than telling.

All Presentations will be 60 minutes long (with the exception of the commercial presentations which will be 30 minutes each and featured presentations which will be 90 minutes long).

The Academic Committee will allocate the presentations in such a way as to offer the Congress participants as much variety as possible at any given slot.

Repeats of some presentations will be offered at the discretion of the Academic Committee.

There will be four different kinds of  Academic Presentations: Semi-plenaries, Concurrent Sessions, Forums and Colloquia and Featured Presentations. The official languages of the Congress are English and Spanish. Presentations in languages other than English or Spanish can be submitted for consideration by the Academic Committee. Upon acceptance of proposals in languages different from English or Spanish, the Academic Committee will make provisions for the assistance of a consecutive interpreter.

Semi-plenaries 

60 minutes

Only some of the Guest Speakers will address the Congress in semi-plenary sessions.
Semi-plenaries will be held in a maximum of seven rooms with the following seating capacity:

Auditorium                   850
Room 1                       150
Room 2                       150
Room 3                         40
Room 4                         40
Room 5                         40
Room 6                         40

Workshops and Concurrent Sessions

60 minutes

Guest Speakers as well speakers chosen by the Academic Committee from the "Call for Papers" will conduct the concurrent sessions and workshops.
Concurrent Sessions and Workshops  will be held in a maximum of  16 rooms with the following  seating capacity:

Auditorium                   850
Room 1                       150
Room 2                       150
Room 3                         40
Room 4                         40
Room 5                         40
Room 6                         40
Room 7                         20
Room 8                         20
Room 9                         20
Room 10                       20
Room 11                       20
Room 12                       20
Room 13                       20
Room 14                       20
Room 15                       20

Forums and Round Tables

60 minutes

A forum and a round table provide a place for scholars to discuss current pedagogical, or research issues in ELT.
Ideally (but not necessarily), participants exchange papers in advance and make formal responses to each other’s presentations. In any case, both presentation and discussion, will be part of any one session.
In the case of round tables there will not be formal presentations.
Participation from the audience in the way of written questions to the presenters in a forum or the members of the round table is expected.

Ideal distribution of time in a forum : Presenter A (20 minutes) is  followed by Presenter B (20 minutes). After both  presentations are over there is a 20 minute question and answer or discussion period.

A room with a maximum capacity for 150 people will be allotted to these forums and round tables. 

Featured Presentations

90 minutes

These presentations are sponsored by the participating companies.

The Academic presentation will be in charge of a native speaker of English with permanent residence outside our country (normally an author of the textbooks or instructional or testing materials marketed by the company).
The commercial presentation can be in charge of the same international speaker or a local educational consultant.
At the end of each featured presentation there will be a raffle by the sponsor.
These featured presentations will be held in a room with a seating capacity ranging from 150 to 850 people. Because of the mixed nature of this sort of presentation (academic and commercial), the Academic Committee will make provisions to highlight this special characteristic in the Congress programme.

Commercial Presentations

30 minutes

These presentations will be conveniently distributed in different slots of the Congress Programme and will be focused on the promotion of the products offered by each company. These commercial presentations will be normally in charge of a local educational consultant and can be followed by a raffle.