Innovate ELT Conference 2025: Crafting an ELT Toolkit for the Future

Innovate ELT Conference 2025: Crafting an ELT Toolkit for the Future

In the continuously changing world of ELT, it is essential to stay abreast of developments and to continually develop your professional skills so they are adapted to a world filled with AI, online teaching platforms, and a flood of information supplied by our devices.

With these factors and many more shaping our lives and our teaching styles, this year’s conference at Oxford TEFL was focused on utilising and getting the most out of the resources available to and subsequently named ‘The ELT Toolkit’.

Many of the talks at the Innovate ELT Conference 2025 were based around applicable practical tasks, digital content and gamification of the classroom. 

While much of ELT is still reeling from the last few years of ubiquitous use of AI, it played a smaller role this year but was still prominent, particularly on Saturday, as yet another tool available to us among others.

It featured in workshops and talks about how AI can be integrated with pronunciation, exam assessments, prep and many other areas. It’s safe to say it is now an accepted tool in many professionals’ repertoire and will continue to evolve with us in the future!

Not only did the workshops and talks at the Innovate ELT Conference 2025 encourage us to upgrade, but also fundamentally redefine the essential resources, cutting-edge techniques, and forward-thinking techniques that English teachers empower themselves with today.

From groundbreaking social media strategies to invaluable pedagogical insights, the event offered a deep dive into building a truly comprehensive toolkit for the modern ELT classroom.

With attendees from more than two dozen countries, from Canada to Palestine, and many more in between, this conference offered an international perspective on many of the challenges English teachers face.

These challenges for English teachers may include student motivation, effective storytelling or creating classes while juggling a busy schedule.

Here’s a look at the key takeaways and transformative ideas which were presented this year:

Building A Toolkit – Saturday

The need to keep the human touch in the classroom

The day kicked off with a rousing speech by Oxford TEFL’s founder, Duncan Foord. He emphasised the need to keep the human touch in the classroom and to consider ELT a craft, rather than a science.

Author and teacher trainer, Lindsay Clandfield followed this introduction with an amusing and eye-opening demonstration of 6 objects that can be used to excite any classroom. 

One of the hot topics which was also mentioned in the plenary was the ‘Apagon’ (Power cut) that happened on the 28th of April and affected all of Spain and Portugal. All schools, businesses and homes suffered a total power and data loss for most of the day from around 12:33pm.

This event put the precarity of our modern systems in sharp focus and has led to an increase in people preparing alternative systems and resources in case it happens again. 

For Lindsay this meant going back to methods we may have forgotten after doing so many Kahoot and Bamboozle quizzes.

For example, a fly swatter can be used by students to gesture towards an answer on the board and does not fail if the power goes out! Likewise, a furry toy can be passed around to share answers and does not stop working if you forget your password or USB stick. 

Stories, the original teaching tools

The first workshop was a fascinating session on story telling by Jamie Keddie, founder of LessonStream. In his session, Jamie showed us the role of stories in teaching and learning.

He demonstrated this importance by telling a story himself, and breaking down how many different functions a well-told story can have in the English classroom.

He encouraged participants to exploit videos for their maximum potential in class and got lots of discussion happening between participants.

I, robot? Using AI to make pronunciation more interactive

Meanwhile, Sumati Sharma was demonstrating the power of AI tools to test students’ pronunciation alongside useful prompts and guidance from a teacher in an outstanding demo lesson.

A thought-provoking lesson that shows how AI can be integrated into enhancing classroom dynamics instead of acting as a replacement for a language coach. 

Making classrooms more accessible and dynamic

Later on, there was a class by Anna Guiteras talking about making classes more suitable for neurodivergent learners, adapting games and even using more easy-to-read fonts in order to maintain student motivation and energy.

Duncan Foord also gave a talk in the garden about keeping the human touch in teaching and how to prevent students from keeping their attention on a device and rather increasing meaningful interaction with each other.

Keep the old, in with the new

After this, some sessions related to AI took place such as potential tools for building lesson plans, resources and worksheets while allowing teachers to spend more time focussing on interaction and how to get the most out of their communication with students while reducing preparation time.

Mah Para Akbar gave an absorbing talk about dynamic activities she used to maintain student motivation and showed some examples of her own classroom in the Gulf region which gave a window into ELT around the world.

Lindsay Clandfield gave a stimulating talk about applying classic board game mechanics such as pictionary to classroom activities. It was about the little details, like using cards to pair students up and keep engagement high.

There were also sessions about engaging young learners effectively and creating interesting reading lessons before a pica-pica in the garden and chats to share all the wisdom we had just taken in.

Making Use of our Tools – Sunday

Teacher tools: a trainer’s view 

In her plenary, Andréia Zakime shared a story about a group of CELTA trainees. She described how one of them managed to notice a casual remark made by one of the students and transform it into the highlight of their lesson.

There was some reflection on how important it is to listen and be attentive to the students’ needs, going beyond the use of standard analytical tools, such as a needs’ analysis. This demonstrated the continuing need for a teacher to always be listening and adaptable to what their learners require, even if it means breaking away from the prepared lesson plan!

Handing over the keys: helping students create their own learning toolkit 

During a fascinating session, Rubens Heredia discussed some key factors in promoting learner autonomy.

He facilitated some hands-on activities where participants could brainstorm classroom actions and techniques that might help learners become more autonomous and have a more active role in their learning.

In this workshop, Rubens was showing us that even in the age of Large Language Models, students still need to rely on themselves to make the best and most satisfying progress in their English speaking journey. 

Reinventing the tools we already have 

Teresa Bestwick’s workshop had attendees revisit the big staples of ELT (drilling, practice, error correction, classroom management) and consider what the challenges and advantages are in this day and age.

Teresa also shared some nice tips on how to use these techniques more effectively while still taking advantage of the tools we have at our disposal to maximise their potential beyond what people could have imagined 30 or 40 years ago.

Promoting authentic communication

In addition, Andreia Zakime talked about the difference between real-life tasks and pedagogical tasks as described by American linguist David Nunan.

The focus of the workshop was to transform coursebook activities into more realistic, genuine tasks.

There were some interactive activities where participants were invited to assess published activities and suggest tweaks to make them more relevant to learners.

The impact of this session was showing that coursebook materials can be modified and moulded to what a teacher requires for their students and that any suggested coursebook material is ripe for dissecting and rearranging if necessary

Founding your own business

In the afternoon, Andrew David Miles, founder of English for Business Spain, gave his talk about how to start a corporate training business for teachers who have never done so before.

He talked about how to find clients, how to specalise, and how to make it into a sustainable business.

A key takeaway was that in-person classes are not a thing of the past yet and provide a valuable insight into observing learners in their real context as well as building connections that may be stronger compared to online classes.

Another engaging workshop with Erin O’Byrne discussed activities beyond a simple gap-fill and received extremely positive feedback. Participants even came away with tasks ready to use in their classes the following Monday! 

The afternoon continued with sessions about sustainability, classroom management and materials design.

There was something for everyone and Sunday ended with final speeches in the garden and a reflection on everything that had been learned over the last 2 days.

Enthusiastic feedback from the Innovate ELT Conference 2025

The enthusiasm on display was obvious and was commented on afterwards by many attendees.

Unnati Ved posted in linkedIn that they were “walking away inspired by so many brilliant sessions, meaningful conversations, and the sheer passion for language teaching that filled every room.”

Erin O’Byrne: “When I got there, everyone was so kind and friendly…. I attended some great talks, the highlight being Jamie Keddie‘s session on a story-based approach to video. It’s my kind of session – promoting communication but in a natural way, allowing for lots of emergent language to flow.” (Read the full post in LinkedIn)

Kirstie Wilms, a new attendee, said: “I had a superb time at #InnovateELT this weekend, meeting and learning from so many supportive and knowledgeable professionals. I was a first-time delegate but it will be by no means the last time!”

Conclusion – Back to the future?

All in all, this year’s conference seemed to be a strong indicator of the role that AI and modern technology may play in classrooms of the future. After a couple years in which existential questions were posed about teachers’ roles in the classroom with the advent of Big AI, a middle ground appeared to have been found.

There was a healthy balance between old-school techniques and modern tech but also awareness of the adaptations that teachers need to make to optimise engagement and learning in their classrooms while developing themselves to be the best teacher they can be.

Many workshops talked about nostalgic tools and techniques, but reimagined for 2025 and onwards in a tech-dominated landscape.

The effects of the Apagon and Big AI are still being felt, but also being assimilated into developing even more interesting activities, classroom approaches and reliable techniques to be ready in any situation you may find yourself in.

Will these modern factors play an even bigger role next year? Will we spurn AI for analog tech? Will students need something that we do not even have any idea about yet? We’ll find out in Innovate ELT Conference 2026! 

See you next year!