The 11th ELT Malta Conference kicked off at 1430hrs on Friday 14th October with a welcome speech by ELT Council Chairperson Dr Daniel Xerri followed by the Minister for Education, Sport, Youth, Research and Innovation Hon Cliffton Grima. 

Following the welcome addresses, conference participants went into the first plenary session delivered by Tyson Seburn who focused his talk on "how some language choices exclude and how a pedagogy of belonging can flourish through others." The first plenary session was, in fact, entitled 'It's not only about pronouns: Our language of ex(in)clusion.'

Held over two days the 11th ELT Malta Conference will welcome English Language teachers and industry stakeholders to two days of professional development and networking. On Friday afternoon the conference was split into two parts. On the one hand, there was Academic training for ELT professionals, which consisted of talks and workshops delivered by some of the industry's greatest names. 

At the same time, while this is going on, School Owners, Heads of Schools, and Senior Managers within the ELT industry were invited to take part in the Business and Management Stream. This was made up of an afternoon of interesting discussions geared more toward the business side of ELT schools. The Business and Management Stream only took place on Friday afternoon and consisted of the first stream delivered by Sarah Mount, who is a founding Director of TransformELT; a talk on Maximising ROI delivered by Intrinsniq, as well as another stream on 'The Future of Engagement' delivered by Katrina Grech, COO at Mdina Partners.

Saturday will be a full day dedicated entirely to teacher training, starting at 0915hrs with the conference's second plenary session given by Aleksandra Popovski who will focus on 'Teachers and the Gatekeepers they face.'

Speaking of the conference, Dr Xerri staid that "the ELT Malta Conference has gone from strength to strength over the past 11 years. This year’s theme reflects the fact that the conference is meant to help language teachers to enrich their professional lives through the learning opportunities that occur at such events. By interacting with the ideas that they’re exposed to during talks, workshops and informal conversations, they have the means to question what they know and broaden their understanding of language teaching and learning."