On the initiative of the Language and Translation Center of SSU, the director of the Center Zhala Mammadova and a group of employees of the Department of Foreign Languages participated in the training conference titled "Strategies and Innovations in Teaching English" organized by the US Embassy, the Ministry of Science and Education of Azerbaijan Republic, ADA University and North Carolina State University on June 16-17.

More than 500 Azerbaijani English language teachers participated in the conference. At the opening, Cultural Affairs Adviser Salman Haji, Director of the Institute of Education Rufat Azizov, Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs of ADA University Vafa Kazdal and Vice-Rector for Global Education and Employment of North Carolina State University Michael Bustle welcomed the conference participants and wished them success in their future scientific activities. Then the teachers were free to switch to different training units according to their interests.

The training was conducted by specially trained trainers from the American Embassy. In discussions on interesting and colorful topics, the teachers demonstrated their activity, expressed their satisfaction with the opportunity to support English language programming and emphasized the motivation for these professional development opportunities among the country"s teaching corps. In the training, SSU English language teachers also had the opportunity to gain new experiences and develop methods of building a professional network of peer educators. The teachers demonstrated activity in the discussion of topics such as communicative teaching methods, use of new teaching technologies in the classroom, preparation of educational programs. At the end of the conference, the volunteers conducted individual anonymous surveys with the participants of the training on what actual topics should be conducted in the future, distinguished participants were awarded with certificates and special badges.

It should be noted that in addition to Sumgayit State University, English language teachers of Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy, Baku Engineers University, Azerbaijan Language University, Baku Slavic University, Ganja State University, National Aviation Academy and Azerbaijan State Pedagogical University also participated in the training.