The first  HUPE Split Branch meeting in the school year 2021/22 was held on Wednesday, 9th February 2022, at 5:00 p.m. at Osnovna škola Sućidar, Perivoj Ane Roje 1, Split. 

27 members attended the meeting that lasted three hours.

The agenda included:

1. HUPE news - 29th Conference report
2. Ivana Bokavšek: Targeted vocabulary and grammar units in use
3. Adriana Petra Blažević, Mara Ruža Blažević & Tania Žuvela Blažević: The representations of culture, race and gender in English language textbooks
4. Miranda Barac: Linguistic mediation - activities and assessments

The meeting started with a short report on the 29th Annual International HUPE Conference, which took place in Valamar, Poreč from 12 to 14 November 2021. The participants were also informed about the HUPE news including the professional development in London in April and August.

The workshop, titled Targeted vocabulary and grammar units in use, was held by Ivana Bokavšek who took us through interesting activities that expose our students to the regular and correct use of key vocabulary and grammar parts in the context. After this workshop, the participants were able to apply different techniques and digital tools to encourage students to foster the correct and precise use of vocabulary and grammar in the aimed context.

The second presentation, titled The representations of culture,  race and gender in English language textbookswas held by Adriana Petra Blažević, Mara Ruža Blažević & Tania Žuvela Blažević who discussed the findings of a quantitative analysis of the representations of culture, race and gender in English language textbooks. In the first section of the presentation, Tania discussed the theoretical background of the phenomenon in the light of the importance of English in modern education, frequently associated with various systems of social inequality. Thereafter, the listed and interpreted results of the content analysis of nine English language textbooks for first-year high school students in Croatia were presented and elaborated by Adriana. The quantitative analysis was conducted with the aim of determining the prominence of various social groups in English language textbooks, as well as observing how they interact with one another. Finally, the main conclusions derived from the study were briefly discussed by Mara in order to restate the focal ideas and open the discussion.

After the coffee break, Miranda Barac held the last workshop Linguistic mediation - activities and assessments in which she gave an insight into linguistic mediation and how to teach and assess this new fifth skill in our classes. She showed us how to create effective, engaging tasks and activities for our students to practise this skill, acquire strategies and become more competent mediators. The participants were provided with sample activities, rubrics and checklists for teaching both intra and interlinguistic mediation. In the end, they were asked to create a mediation activity, based on a given input, followed by an assessment tool of their choice.

Thank you all for coming and taking the time for our meeting.  Your support is much appreciated.

I'm looking forward to our future HUPE gatherings.

If you are an English teacher and want to join HUPE Split, feel free to contact me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Miranda Barac
HUPE Split Branch President