The seminars brought together 42 teachers from secondary schools and state gymnasiums of Liepaja, Aizpute, Grobina, Nica, Daugavpils, Rezekne, Kraslava, Dagda and other municipalities, and were led by SSE Riga Assistant Professor Elina Banzina.

Seminars were designed to introduce high school English teachers to current research on effective oral presentations. SSE Riga Assistant Professor Elina Banzina also explained the most common problems encountered in first-year student writing at the university level. During the seminars, Elina also offered some tips on motivation letter writing, as students might seek their teachers’ assistance when applying for undergraduate studies.

SSE Riga aims not only to help the teachers boost their own oral production, but also increase their students’ performance and confidence as communicators and presenters, which is highly valued in the academic and professional world.

At SSE Riga, Elina Banzina teaches undergraduate courses such as Academic English and Speech and Accent Training, and the foundations of academic writing in the EMBA program. Prior to coming to SSE Riga, she taught academic English, conversational English and American English pronunciation to international students at UIUC, BGSU, the University of Texas, and the Ohio State University.

Elina is passionate about outreach and educational activities, and has been offering speech, accent and academic writing workshops for Latvian in-service English teachers across Latvia.