NATECLA Scotland Conference 2026
Title: NATECLA Scotland Annual Conference
Date: Saturday 7th November 2026
Time: 10:00 – 16:00
Location: Edinburgh College, Granton Campus
Cost: £35 members / £70 non members
NATECLA Scotland are delighted to invite you to the 2026 Annual Conference. Join us for a day of ESOL presentations, workshops, discussions and networking opportunities. There will also be the time to meet and talk with the different exhibitors.
The programme will include:
Opening Plenary
Parallel workshops led by experienced practitioners
Closing Plenary and raffle
Designated exhibitor space with opportunities to meet and talk with a range of organisations
This in-person event will bring together ESOL professionals from across Scotland and beyond, offering a valuable chance to share practice, gain new insights and connect with colleagues.
Details
Saturday 7th November 2025
10:00 Registration (tea and coffee provided)
10:30 Start – 16:00 finish
10:30 - 11:15 Opening Plenary
11:20 - 12:10 Session A
12:10 - 12:55 Lunch
12:55 - 13:45 Session B
13:50 - 14:40 Session C
14:40 - 15:00 Grab a coffee and start to mingle
15:00 - 16:00 Closing plenary, conference takeaways & raffle
16:00 - Conference close
Conference Sessions
(Schedule TBC)
📚 Story-Listening (not telling!)
Speakers: Calum Paul & Joanna McCulloch
Workshop Description: This workshop introduces story-listening as an engaging and highly accessible approach to ESOL practice, grounded in the principles of comprehensible input. You will explore how carefully structured stories can be compelling and meaningful, even for learners with very low levels of English and emergent literacy competencies. Through demonstration and reflection, the session shows how meaning is built using visuals, repetition, gesture, and simple language, without requiring early reading or spoken output. By prioritising receptive skills over early production, story-listening helps reduce learner anxiety and creates a low-stress learning environment. The workshop concludes by emphasising listening comprehension as a foundational skill for language acquisition and future language development.
You will leave with practical strategies for implementing story-listening in your own ESOL context.
About the speakers: Calum works for North Ayrshire Council as an ESOL Development Worker, supporting the delivery and development of ESOL provision for adult learners, with a particular focus on beginners and learners at very low levels of English. His academic interests centre on second language acquisition, comprehensible input, and the role of listening in early language development, alongside an interest in online language-learning communities. His practice is informed by ongoing experimentation with language learning in his own languages, allowing him to critically reflect on learner experience, anxiety, and progression. This combination of frontline ESOL practice and research-informed experimentation directly underpins the design and focus of the proposed workshop.
Joanna, an ESOL Lecturer at West College Scotland also worked for North Ayrshire Council as a Community Development ESOL Tutor, primarily supporting learners at lower levels up to National 2. Many of the learners she works with arrived in Scotland as refugees or asylum seekers and have experienced disrupted or negative educational backgrounds. Joanna initially used Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling (TPRS) in an online setting, noting strong engagement and reduced anxiety when learners were able to focus on listening rather than active production. Influenced by this experience and by research from Japanese storyteller Beniko Mason, Joanna explored the benefits of Story Listening sessions for learners, alongside Calum Paul.
📚 How to equip ourselves and our classrooms in an AI age.
Speaker: Clare Hayward
Workshop Description: This workshop will explore the concepts, benefits, and limitations of the use of AI in language learning, teaching and assessment. We will evaluate how it impacts our role as language teachers in 2026. In addition, we will collaborate trying some practical activities using Canva AI to gain a better understanding of using it creatively, critically, effectively, efficiently, and ethically.
About the speaker: Clare is a freelance English language teacher + trainer based near Stirling working online with international students often in one to one setting. She has been in EFL / ESOL for over twenty years and is currently working with learners from Senegal, Namibia, Tanzania and DRC. Clare likes to work on language, communication and digital skills (she is Certified Canva Education Trainer) using inclusive materials that she often creates herself using Canva.
📚 Latest ESOL Literacy Development from Citizen Literacy and call for Volunteers
Speakers: Diane Gardner & John Casey
Workshop Description: Interactive demonstration of some new online literacy tools being developed at the request of NATECLA Scotland members and a call for volunteer testers to provide feedback. Volunteers will be provided with free printed and digital resources and support for one year, and free digital access thereafter. Tools include:(1) A new multilingual ESOL literacy app that enables learners to listen to instructions and feedback from virtual Tutors in a range of languages. (2) The new Tutor Hub, with admin tools, learner analytics, authoring tools, phonics dictionary, lesson plans and worksheets and more. (3)The ATLAS project for new tutors. (4) Flash Cards!
About the speakers:
Diane has been teaching adult literacy and ESOL literacy for over 25 years, initially as a volunteer and then in a range of community organisations and further education colleges.
John has a long-standing interest in and experience of using Instructional design and cognitive psychology in relation to the design of digital learning resources.
📚 How policy shapes the ESOL crisis: Towards a vision for ESOL in Scotland
Speaker: Francesca Stella
Workshop Description: This talk is based on the findings of the research project “Evidencing the ESOL crisis: Towards a Vision for ESOL in Scotland”. The project was supported by NATECLA Scotland and Migration Policy Scotland as partner organisations, and investigated the roots of the ESOL crisis in Scotland and its regional dimensions. Findings are based on a Scotland-wide survey and five focus groups organised on a regional basis. The talk examines how both UK and Scotland- level policies shape the current landscape of ESOL demand and provision in Scotland. You will get the opportunity to contribute to conversation about what the ESOL sector can do to lobby for a clear policy articulation and resourcing of a long-term vision for ESOL.
About the speaker: She is a sociologist based at the university of Glasgow who works on migration. She has an interest in language education, in the role that different languages play in migrants’ everyday lives, and the emancipatory potential of ESOL and education more generally in migrants’ lives. She has led several ESOL-related projects: on the ESOL crisis in Scotland (2026); on language learning and migrant integration in Scotland (2023) and on a collaborative project that generated a toolkit to sensitively introduce LGBT lives and topics around gender and sexual diversity to the ESOL classroom.
📚 Decoding Scottish speech in the Scottish English language classroom
Speaker: Gemma Archer
Workshop Description: ‘I understand you teacher, just not anyone outside of the classroom’. For English language teachers in Scotland, this is a common student comment. But where do we start when it comes to supporting our students with local Scottish speech? In this workshop, participants will take part in three interactive audio-visual activities demonstrating how we can provide instruction, create exposure, and most importantly, offer decoding practice to help students gain confidence and become familiar with Scottish speech and its speakers.
About the speaker:
Gemma Archer is a pronunciation specialist, materials writer, and teacher trainer based in the ELT unit at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. She was joint coordinator of IATEFL Pronunciation special interest group (2020-2026) and is co-author of Teaching English Pronunciation for a Global World (OUP, 2024). Her research interests lie in the field of pronunciation pedagogy and accent, and this led to her creation of The Scottish Sound School a resource to help new arrivals to Scotland acclimate to the unfamiliar sounds of Scottish speech.
📚 Beyond Worksheets - Using Readers in the ESOL Literacies Classroom
Speaker(s): Hannah Avison and Kasia Lewieniec
Workshop Description: Fresh from the success of their session at the NATECLA UK conference in Birmingham in June, Hannah and Kasia will re-introduce NATECLA Scotland's library of ESOL Literacies readers and talk about why and how they were created. Together you will explore practical ideas for using readers in your ESOL Literacies classes, taking NATECLA Scotland’s ready-made worksheets as a starting point, and thinking about how you can tailor activities to work for your learners. You will look at examples of readers made in collaboration with learners and will hopefully come away inspired to create your own readers and with the practical knowhow to make it happen!
Workshop attendees will have the opportunity to look at and discuss the readers and the accompanying ready made worksheets and talk about how they could use them in their own teaching practice. They will discuss practical considerations of creating readers with their own ESOL Literacies groups and will think of the topics and themes that could work in their context
About the speakers:
Hannah Avison is an ESOL tutor and Lifelong Learning Development Officer in the ESOL team at the City of Edinburgh Council. She has been teaching ESOL for about 15 years, mainly at Beginner and ESOL Literacies levels. She is one of the ESOL Literacies Co-Ordinators for NATECLA Scotland and was the project lead for their ESOL Literacies readers, which launched in November 2023.
Kasia Lewieniec teaches ESOL at Dundee and Angus college. She has been teaching English for 20 years and she started her adventure with ESOL 4 years ago. She loves teaching literacies and is delighted to have joined the Natecla Scotland ESOL Literacies Readers project.
📚 From Reflection to Action: Embedding Anti-Racist Practice in ESOL
Speaker: Nicola Weston Gokalp
Workshop Description: This workshop explores one practitioner’s journey from personal reflection to influencing change across a college ESOL department and beyond. Participants will discover how individual professional development led to the upskilling of an entire ESOL team in anti-racist practice including recognising and addressing microaggressions, adapting teaching materials and building confidence to challenge racism. The session will also explore how we moved beyond staff training to develop learners’ racial literacy and how we created safe spaces for discussion, empowering learners to talk openly about racism. Attendees will leave with practical ideas to embed anti-racist approaches in their own contexts and with resources for further exploration.
About the speaker:
She has worked in English Language Teaching for 36 years and has been with Dundee and Angus College for the past 20 years. Since 2019, she has led the College’s English Language Teaching and Training Department, championing inclusive and equitable practice for learners from diverse backgrounds. She was instrumental in establishing Scotland’s first College of Sanctuary in 2024 and has led initiatives to strengthen staff understanding of supporting sanctuary seeking students, trauma-informed practice in English language classrooms and, most recently, anti-racism. After undertaking professional learning in 24-25, she has driven the department’s anti-racism agenda, delivering comprehensive staff training in 2025–26 and in 26-27 will build on this work by supporting the rollout of anti-racist approaches across the wider college, helping to embed these principles in practice, processes and culture.
📚 Assessing the impact of ESOL for Work programmes
Speaker: Sarah Donno
Workshop Description: This workshop will explore the impact of Edinburgh College’s ESOL for Work programmes on individual learners, the communities we serve, and the wider regional economy. It will highlight key factors that contribute to successful English for Work provision, drawing on practical experience and outcomes. Participants will consider how these elements can inform and strengthen future delivery. The session will also provide an opportunity to reflect on current practice, ask questions, and share ideas. Through discussion, we aim to identify actionable recommendations to enhance ESOL for Work programmes and better support learner progression, employability, and long-term integration into the workforce and society.
About the speaker:
She works at Edinburgh College and, for the past 15 years, has led the college-based ESOL programme. In this role, she has overseen the delivery of ESOL and work-focused ESOL courses to approximately 1,500 students annually, ranging from beginner to advanced levels, including those with literacy needs. She has a strong commitment to teacher training and professional development, supporting high-quality learning experiences. Passionate about learner progression, she advocates for integrating ESOL with vocational skills and qualifications, enabling students to build confidence, develop employability, and successfully access and sustain opportunities within the workforce and wider community.
ESOL is your CLD Superpower
Speakers: Vikki Carpenter and Graham MacLellan
Workshop Description: "ESOL is your CLD SuperPower" shines a spotlight on the CLD skills, values and approaches already embedded in community based ESOL practice. Through discussion and reflection, participants will explore how their work contributes across the CLD landscape and identify the often-unseen skills they use every day. The workshop will introduce CLD Standards Council resources, including the Competences Framework, Values and Ethics, as practical tools to strengthen and articulate practice. Participants will leave with greater confidence in recognising, celebrating and communicating the impact of ESOL as CLD in action.
About the speakers:
Vikki Carpenter is a Development Officer (Policy) with the CLD Standards Council. She works with practitioners and organisations across the CLD sector to support professional standards, policy development and reflective practice. Vikki is particularly interested in helping people recognise the strengths and skills they already bring to their work and in making professional frameworks practical and relevant. Through her work with CLD practitioners across a range of settings, she has seen the significant contribution ESOL practitioners make to communities. Her previous remit as a CLD practitioner with Aberdeenshire Council saw her supporting and overseeing the delivery of ESOL, specifically with New Scots.
Graham is a CLD Lead for Adult Learning and Literacies with Inverclyde Council, and supports ESOL delivery within the region, as well as developing training. This workshop draws on their vast experience to explore ESOL as a powerful example of CLD in action and to create space for discussion, reflection and shared learning.
📚 A Phonics-Led Approach to ESOL Literacies Teaching
Speaker: Vikki Rowland
Workshop Description: This workshop explores how phonics instruction - the method used to teach reading and writing in primary schools - can be embedded into literacies/pre-entry ESOL classes for adults. You’ll see how a structured phonics system, properly adapted for adult learning, supports decoding, learner autonomy and confidence. It also aims to reduce planning time and create predictable, supportive routines for learners who often have interrupted educational experiences. Through practical examples, curriculum ideas and take-home materials, the session demonstrates how phonics can sit alongside spoken language and other skills work, to build confidence and enjoyment in the classroom - without overwhelming anyone involved!
About the speaker:
Vikki has been teaching English for over 15 years with 4 years’ experience dedicated specifically to ESOL - yet she says she still feels 'new' to all there is to learn about ESOL learners and supporting their skills development. During TELTA at Dundee & Angus College, Vikki had her eyes opened to the fascinating world of teaching ESOL literacies to adults. Through her support of literacy learners in community classes and her love of materials and curricula design, Vikki came to produce the 'Foundations for ESOL' series she is presenting at the conference, which can be used for integrating phonics into classes for adults.
Sponsor and exhibitor opportunities
Organisations interested in exhibiting at the conference are invited to complete this form to register their interest. The event provides an opportunity to connect with an engaged audience of ESOL teachers and practitioners.
Main Sponsor – £500
Exhibitor fees:
Standard organisation: £250
Small organisation: £120