We’re delighted to announce that our 2023 Language Teachers’ Conference will be held on Friday 29 and Saturday 30 September at St Anne’s College. We very much look forward to once again welcoming teachers to Oxford!
2023 Programme
We are pleased to be holding the conference at St Anne’s College once again this year. St Anne’s was established in 1879 as a hall for women, who were barred from the university at the time, and throughout its history has retained its original aim of allowing students of any financial background to study at Oxford. Today, St Anne’s marries modern architecture with a proud emphasis on inclusivity and academic excellence.
This year, we have altered the programme slightly in order to focus in on the ever-growing issues facing the teaching and learning of languages, and to dedicate more time to the ways in which we might overcome these challenges. For instance, after a welcome lunch on the Friday afternoon, we will hold our annual ‘Building Bridges’ session which involves a roundtable discussion with a panel of academics, students and teachers, as well as contributions from the floor. This will focus on a slate of issues of current interest and concern within language learning from Key Stage 3 to degree level. We would be delighted to hear your views on this topic and look forward to bettering our understanding of collaborative approaches to improving language learning at all stages.
Other highlights of this year’s programme include spotlights on the increasing accessibility of beginners’ languages degrees at university, the wonderful and varied career opportunities experienced by languages graduates, and the exciting new and existing languages-focused outreach projects currently occurring across Oxford. We will also be treated to a taster lecture from an academic in the Faculty – a hard act to follow after Prof. Helen Swift’s entertaining lecture on Medieval French last year – before we enjoy a drinks reception and sit down for dinner. This will all be followed by a chance to socialise and network with fellow MFL Teachers and colleagues from the Faculty in the College bar!
On the Saturday, we will open with a literary session on ‘The Language of the Text’, where scholars in French, German and Spanish will discuss the ways in which an area of language teaching can be used as a starting point for textual analysis in a selection of texts on the A Level syllabus. While not all A Level texts can be represented in the talk, we hope that the material covered will be transferable to alternative texts, and will therefore be of use to colleagues teaching literature with different exam boards and qualifications.
After a coffee break, we will run our annual admissions session. There will be an introduction to the Oxford application process followed by a mock interview with a current student. Finally, we will finish with a Q&A discussion with Oxford tutors about applying for and studying Modern Languages at Oxford, including picking up beginners’ languages and studying languages in combination with other subjects.
The full event programme can be found here.
Delegate rates and booking
Please find the various conference rates in the table below.
| State school rate | Independent school rate | |
| Full conference, including accommodation and breakfast | £180 | £280 |
| Full conference, excluding accommodation | £110 | £200 |
| Friday only | £80 | £120 |
| Saturday only | £50 | £90 |
Please visit our online booking webpage to book your place. You will need to create an account (or log in if you’ve used our website before) and select the right rate for your school type and length of attendance. Bookings close on 13th September.
If you have any questions or concerns, don’t hesitate to contact Nicola at schools.liaison@mod-langs.ox.ac.uk.
We look forward to seeing you in September!