Guest post: BESIG Summer Symposium 2012 report

On 16 June 2012 the Besig Summer Symposium took place in Paris. Unfortunately I couldn't be there, so I asked Mieke Kenis and Vicky Loras, two people who were lucky enough to be present, to report back for me. 

I was really looking forward to the symposium for various reasons. It would be my first ever Besig event, David Crystal was going to be the plenary speaker and the programme looked very promising. Furthermore I was taking a colleague of mine, whom I was going to introduce to some Twitter friends. The train journey from Brussels to Paris wasn’t long enough to tell him all about the benefits of a Twitter PLN :-)

Mieke with Sue Annan

But what was most exciting was the prospect of finally meeting Vicky Loras. We had been talking to each other on Twitter for some time when one evening, a few tweets led to our collaboration on some of Vicky’s poems. It was just great I was going to see her live ;-)

Vicky is also a regular contributor to the ELTchat Podcast, for which she interviews ELT people. When James Taylor asked us to write a guest post for his blog about the Besig Symposium I thought it would be a nice idea to reverse the roles this time and ask her a few questions.

Vicky enjoying the Parisian cafe lifestyle!

So Vicky, here we go...

What made you decide to present at the Besig Summer Symposium?

I love teaching Business English, so when I saw the call for papers, I decided to send in my presentation proposal. I was also very excited about the topic of my presentation, as it is an idea I have developed with my adult students and we absolutely love it.

You were a first time Besig speaker. How did you feel about that?

It was a great honour for me to be accepted as a speaker at the BESIG Symposium. I have presented at other conferences as well, but this would be my first where the sole focus was on Business English.

What makes a good conference presentation for you?

I love presentations where the speaker shares practical knowledge, things we can all use in our classes. I love theory too, but a combination with practice is even more beneficial for me!  I also like it when speakers are people who have actually taught and bring with them this enthusiasm of teaching.

You had the last slot of the day. How did you feel about that?

I thought at the beginning that it would prolong the waiting time (and hence being a bit nervous would last longer), but actually I had so much fun learning all day with the other presenters, that when my time came, I felt so comfortable and happy at the same time!

So, how did it go?

I think it went well. I loved the participation from everyone who was there – the atmosphere was very nice and I love it when people want to share their own experiences or comment on an idea. I hope everyone enjoyed it as much as I did! It was truly a great experience for me.

Vicky after her presentation

We sometimes read some tips for conference presenters but what do presenters appreciate most in the audience?

I think an audience that participates is great, because it makes the speaker feel more comfortable and that the presentation can actually give something to everyone.  Even negative comments or disagreements can help. They can make you think!

Vicky, you won the second prize for best first time Besig presenter. How did you feel about that?

I was very very happy about it and that I could share this happiness with all my friends and colleagues there - and really excited to be presented the prize by David Crystal, a linguist that I have admired and read about ever since I was a freshman in university. It was a truly unforgettable moment!

Vicky after receiving her award from David Crystal

What was the highlight of the Symposium for you?

I loved many things about it: the presentations I attended were amazing and each gave me things to learn (I wish I could attend some other ones as well at the same times as the ones I attended). The networking that went on in-between the sessions and after the Symposium was absolutely fantastic, as we could reflect on our own experiences as well and share learning moments. It was also great to see people I had met before in person (people with whom I have connected to on Twitter), but also to meet new people face-to-face – like you!

Many thanks for this interview, Mieke!

Thank you, Vicky, and  thank you, James, for asking us!

Thanks to Vicky and Mieke for this interview.

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IATEFL issues: People

Just a small part of the marvellous PLN at IATEFL this year.

For me, there's no doubt what the highlight of any conference is. Yes, the presentations are great, and yes, it's an opportunity to visit a great city, and yes, the parties are fun, but first and foremost, it's about the people.

And luckily for me, I'm part of a wonderful professional learning network of like-minded, equally passionate educators who I not only have the honour of knowing online, but occasionally get the privilege of meeting face to face. And while we do have fun together (and we do have fun!), we also talk a lot of shop, sharing reactions, impressions and opinions. We go and support each other when someone is speaking. We share their work and projects and make sure everyone knows how brilliant they are. Meeting in person takes this relationship to another level.

This year I was also recording interviews for the ELTchat podcast, which was a great way to meet some new people (I was particularly delighted to unmask OUPELTGlobal, and what a great guy he was!) and catch up with old friends. Thanks to everyone who spared me 5 minutes at Horton's for an interview.

So to everyone I met at IATEFL, thank you for being part of a wonderful week. Thanks is not enough, but it's the best I can do. And to those of you who weren't there, I hope I see you next year!

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IATEFL Issues: Dogme (or Wandering Naked Through the Dogme Forest...)

So Dogme ELT was one of the big issues of the conference. Big surprise, I hear you say. Well I'm sorry if you're tired hearing about it, but it's not going away. If this conference proved anything, it showed firstly that there are still a lot of teachers who don't know what Dogme ELT is, and secondly that even some of the ones who have heard of it don't really know what it is, even though they think they do. More about that later...

Ever since I have become interested in Dogme, I have heard the same old arguments against unplugged teaching and I'm becoming a little bored of them, to be honest. You know them, the old ‘you hate technology’, the familiar ‘you just make it up as you go along’, the hoary ‘what's so wrong with course books anyway’, and so on. I don't feel the need to go over these now, I think that they've been conclusively disproved or discredited in numerous blogs posts by my PLN and most comprehensively in the Teaching Unplugged book.
It's when you go to a conference like this that you can end up confronting these prejudices face to face. Martin Sketchley (@eltexperiences) gave a session in Glasgow where he presented his Master's thesis on Dogme ELT. He posited the idea that, based on his research, a balanced approach between teaching unplugged and more traditional, possibly course book based activities was the most effective way to teach. It was a measured argument, based on his research and a fair conclusion.

I can't argue for or against Martin because I haven't read his thesis, but I would like to know how he felt about the talk afterwards (and if you're reading this Martin, please let me know in the comments section) because I felt his talk was somewhat hijacked by audience. There's something about Dogme that seems to make the discussion go up a few notches and this discussion was no exception. I thought that it was unfortunate that at times the pitch of the argument became too exaggerated and I felt it made a genuine conversation difficult.

The most telling comment for me was from a teacher who said that before the session she didn't know what Dogme ELT was and now at the end of the discussion she felt she didn't know much more. I'm not blaming Martin for that, in that environment it would have been difficult for him to calmly get that across, but I couldn't help that feel it was a wasted opportunity. What could have been an opportunity for her to learn was instead a chance for her to feel that she had become confused by a heated argument, which can’t be the best way for any of us.

Adam and Emily in action.

There was another comment which I also thought was telling. An older teacher forcefully, and to be frank, rudely made the point that since she'd been teaching like this for 20 or 30 years, she couldn't see what the fuss was about. This is when I refer you back to those tired old anti-Dogme arguments that I mentioned at the beginning. This is another one of those old chestnuts, the classic 'this is nothing new so what's the big deal?' point of view. Adam Beale and Emily Bell's presentation the preceding day provided an excellent counter point to this perspective. Adam has been teaching for only two years and decided to undertake an action research project into teaching unplugged at his school in Santander, Spain. 

What his research and brilliant blog, where he reflects on his classroom experiences, have shown is that Dogme ELT is eminently teachable by an inexperienced teacher. For Adam to have discovered this way of teaching and been on the journey he has, something important and valuable to him not just as a teacher but as a person, Dogme ELT needed to exist, it needed a name, it needed a community, it needed teachers to call themselves Dogmeticians, it needed blog posts, it needed conference talks and workshops, it needed research and reflective practice, and it needed a book. Without these things he wouldn't have found it and we wouldn't have had the great Dogme chats we had in the cafe and pub, important events for both me and him (I hope).

So if you're not a Dogmetician and you find yourself wondering why us teachers with an interest in teaching unplugged are banging on about it again, remember these things. We still have to face the same accusations and defend ourselves against them. No less than Jim Scrivener accused Dogme teachers as being "unprepared" and most memorably as "wandering naked though the Dogme forest" in his otherwise excellent talk in which he otherwise gave one of the most compelling arguments in favour of Teaching Unplugged I've ever heard. If he can misunderstand what Dogme is all about, then we've still got a long way to go.


Update: Martin has kindly replied to my post on his own blog:

http://www.eltexperiences.com/2012/04/reflecting-on-criticisms-of-dogme-elt.html

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IATEFL Issues: Work

The first of my reflections on the IATEFL conference...

One thing is for sure: teaching is hard work. It is time consuming and should probably pay more. But for me one of the questions that came out of the IATEFL conference this year was do we do enough of the right kind of it and furthermore, do our students?

The matter of student work was plainly laid out by Jim Scrivener in his talk "Demand High Teaching" (read more here). He posited that we have become too touchy-feely and too nice to our students. In his observations, based on watching classes all around the world and his discussions with Adrian Underhill, he has come to the conclusion that we need to demand more of our students. We have become facilitators, not teachers, setting our students up to do activities with unclear aims when we should be more involved in working with our students so they can actually discover and learn things about the language and how to use it.

JIm Scrivener introduces Demand High Teaching

Another talk along similar lines, Anthony Gaughan's "The Seven Deadly Sins of ELT", suggested that there are several techniques that are now considered outmoded but perhaps should be reconsidered. The sins that Anthony talked about (drilling, reading aloud, translation, use of dictionaries, teacher explanations, telling students they are wrong, teacher talk time) are pretty widely dismissed in modern ELT thinking, so it was fascinating to watch him present them in a new light. For me, this wasn't really a talk just about those particular techniques, but a wider question regarding the work that teachers do. I thought what he was really asking was for us to consider our decisions more carefully and to think more deeply about why we do the things we do, and as importantly in this case, why we don't do the things we don't.

In this sense, this was also about work. Not work in the sense of hours spent in front of a computer but rather in terms of time spent thinking deeply about what we do and not accepting things at face value. Many of us try to develop critical skills in our learners, and perhaps we need to spend a little time developing our own.

A different slant on this them was provided by Willy Cardoso, who spoke about teacher training and cultural baggage. He asked teacher trainers to allow space for trainees to reflect both on their teaching and their previous learning experiences. In his view, the value of these factors is underestimated by trainers. As a result, they unconsciously dismiss what can be learned from the trainees own cultural background which results in the domination of a western view of education. Trainers need to work at making the most of their trainees background.

Dave Willis makes the audience do some work

Dave Willis spoke about how the grammatical rules we teach our students do not reflect the reality of the English language as it is spoken. He drew attention to how coursebooks and subsequently teachers often teach written grammar as if it was spoken, when research shows they are quite different. As an example he showed how different verb tenses can be used to express quite different things (e.g. past tenses can be used to talk about the past, to talk about hypotheses, and to be polite). You are unlikely to find these in a coursebook, a grammar book or in our lessons.

The lesson we can learn from this is that we have to be more questioning and less accepting when it comes to the language as it is presented to us by figures of authority, normally in the published form. We need to have the confidence to question these rules if we are not satisfied with what they say. We, as teachers, are high level users of the language and we should believe
in our own judgements. Of course, this confidence doesn’t come overnight, it’s something we have to work at.

And going back to the idea of getting students to work, Luke Meddings and Lindsay Clandfield presented their new self-published resource book 52. The book contains an activity for every week of the year designed to encourage critical thinking in students (see here for an example). The activities they have created are specifically designed to challenge students, and also teachers, to think more and to consider issues of greater import than what you find in the normal ELT classroom. In simple terms, they need to work harder.

Luke Meddings subverts the classroom

As it goes, I’m very enthusiastic in my support of critical thinking activities. I’m not shy of rolling up my sleeves and working either. I can’t help but agree that we all need to do more work. The students need to become more industrious and not so spoilt, the teachers need to question themselves and the accepted teaching ideas of the time, and the trainers need to work on using their trainees culture to their advantage and give them more to reflect. It is to everyone’s advantage not to increase our workload, but to start to work better.


I’m indebted to Chia Suan Chong, Jemma Gardner, Sandy Millin and Laura Patsko for their wonderful and diligent blogging and tweeting of the IATEFL conference, including the talks mentioned above. Head over to their blogs to get a more detailed summary of each talk.

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A Weekend in Zug

Beautiful Zug

On September 17th I was fortunate enough to attend the English Teachers Association of Switzerland Special Interest Groups Day in gorgeous Zug, just a short train journey from Zurich. Among the many fascinating attendees were Mike Harrison, Ania Musielak and local resident Vicky Loras. As a way of reflecting on our weekend at the conference, we asked each other two questions to answer on our blogs. You can read Mike's answers here, Vicky's here, and my and Ania’s below.

First up, my answers...

Mike’s questions

Did anything surprise you about the conference? What and why/why not?

There were no surprises for me, but since they are not always a good thing, I was pleased about that. I expected a well run, enjoyable conference with great presenters and that’s what I got. The venue was perfect (apart from the lack of wifi!) and the whole event was very well put together.

Tell us one interesting thing you learnt about teaching.

Only one? I really enjoyed Anthony Gaughan’s demonstration of a simple and effective dogme class. There are a lot of misunderstandings and misrepresentations of what dogme is and how it works, so it was great to see such an excellent example in action. Anthony is an excellent presenter and I would encourage anyone who gets the chance to go and see him.

Despite appearances, Anthony's talk was well attended!

Vicky’s questions

Who did you meet for the first time there?

This was only my third ELT conference, and my second with a PLN, so it was a chance to catch up with some friends I’d met at IATEFL (Ania, Vladka Michalkova) and spend time with people I’d only met briefly (Mike, Ken Wilson, Mike Hogan). It was also great to meet some people for the first time. Vicky is well known to everyone on Twitter and the PLN for her energy and enthusiasm, so it was fantastic to find out she’s just like that in real life! Chuck Sandy’s appearance was also a pleasant surprise as I didn’t know he was going to be there until I saw his Facebook status update that morning. I look forward to seeing him in Paris in November.

What did you like the most about Zug?

It wasn’t the weather! From what I saw of it, Zug is a lovely small town. I just wished I could have stayed there longer, and that the weather had been kinder on the Sunday morning when I had some free time. I’ll have to make up for it next year.

Ania and Vicky enjoying Zug's nightlife

Ania’s questions

Which idea taken from the conference have you already used with your students (or are planning to use)?

It’s tough to choose just one. I’ve been very influenced by Ken’s suggestion that we need to choose more thought provoking and engaging materials for our students to read (see this blog post to learn more). I also really liked some of your (Ania’s) practical suggestions for positive feedback and reinforcement. Using the coloured blocks as a way for the students to subtly express how they’re feeling about the activity is a great idea, and the demonstration of sandwich feedback was very effective. And Mike Hogan showed us that we can use business with beginners, which is something I'll be looking at more closely.

Did you have enough time for networking and meeting friends?

There’s never enough time, is there? But since we got to meet up from Friday night to Sunday morning, I can’t complain! I find that the opportunities to meet up with everyone, which have been facilitated first by Twitter, then by blogs and Facebook, mean that the social aspect of a conference is just as important as the presentations. It all adds to a really rewarding weekend. 

Now it’s Ania’s turn...

Mike’s questions

Did anything surprise you about the conference? What and why/why not?

I was surprised by how friendly and open everybody was. And not at all afraid or shy to participate in the workshops (well, some needed a push, like a bag of candy as a reward, yes James, I’m talking about you ;) ). I also felt very comfortable when it comes to finding my way around the venue – IATEFL Brighton was a huge event and I often got lost!

Tell us one interesting thing you learnt about teaching.

I would have to say that Ken Wilson’s workshop on drama gave me a lot of new ideas.  As I use drama in my classes, I always look for some activities, especially for elementary students, that can help them open up. And Ken proved again that even the most basic conversations (like “What time is it?”) can be delivered with flare and passion. He made us use two (very old) mobile phones and have this exchange in an angry mood, which we later switched to a calm one.

Ania in action.

James’ questions

Apart from giving your own presentations, why did you want to go to the conference?

I love attending conferences as they provide me with so many ideas that I can use in my classes. Observing other teachers motivates me to be a better educator. Conferences are also a wonderful opportunity to talk to friends and share our thoughts about teaching (well, not only teaching ;) ). But I guess I would have never come if it hadn’t been for Vicky and her encouragement and huge help.

Apart from your own presentations , who were you most looking forward to seeing present?

As Vicky Loras, Mike Harrison and Vladka Michalkova were presenting at the same time as me, I couldn’t attend their sessions. But I was really looking forward to seeing Ken’s plenary and his drama workshop (which was amazing, but that is not surprising as he’s the Drama King ;) ). I was also very happy that I managed to attend Anthony Gaughan’s session on recycling vocabulary which showed how to use the language that occurs on the lessons.

Vicky’s questions

Who did you meet for the first time there?

Oh, so many people…But I loved meeting Chuck Sandy and Andreas Grundtvig face to face.

What did you like the most about Zug?

It’s such a wonderful city, I love the lake, the open-air restaurants and the castle in the Old Town. I also liked the chocolate and delicious cakes served in cafes – the apfelstrudel was yummy. Next time I’m going to try the Kirschntorte which is strongly spiked.

Ania, James, Mike and some swans. 

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IATEFL 2011 - A Summary in Springtime.

I wrote most of this post last Wednesday but I needed a week to sit on it, just to dwell on it a bit longer...

It's a funny state, feeling tired and energised at the same time. It's how I feel now, writing this on the Eurostar, winding its way from London to my current hometown of Brussels. I'm actually in the tunnel right now, and it's not half as interesting as I expected. Exactly what I was expecting is another matter of course, especially since it isn't made from glass and the view isn't much to write home about.

Anyway, I'm feeling this way because I am returning from my first IATEFL conference in my lovely original hometown of Brighton. I'm tired, because frankly, it's intense. Three and a half days of sessions until six o'clock. Every aspect of English language teaching available for discussion. Dozens of people to meet, from the lowly, everyday teacher (I can say that because I am one) to the high and mighty or, as they are otherwise known, the published authors. And then it's off to the pub until late, when we go our own ways and reconvene for the morning plenary at 9am. Who wouldn't be tired after a weekend or so of that?

And I feel energised, for exactly the same reasons. All those sessions and all that fascinating and useful information and experience to draw upon. New research and opinion to challenge our beliefs. A reminder that sometimes the old ways were not too bad, and that sometimes things need to be ripped up and you have to start again. And the people, all those wonderful people, who, for a Tweeter like myself, are suddenly avatars come to life. Their kindness, intelligence and enthusiasm for their profession is reason enough to go.

Now I'm not much of a note taker, I prefer what I call 'the cream rises to the top' approach. My theory is that if I take reams of notes, when I return home, I'll take my carefully crafted notebook and place it gently on a shelf, where I'll never look at it again. I prefer to think that those ideas that are really profound and worth remembering are going to pop into my head just when I need them. So far this technique has been pretty successful for me, but the sands of time affect us all, so I'm naturally concerned that at some point my ability to recall those nuggets just when I need them will diminish, and I'll have nothing to fall back onto. So this, the day after the conference has finished, is my halfway house solution, a summary of what I saw, plucked from my still reliable brain.

I started with Peter Grundy's plenary and a reminder of how the importance of the complex context that 'known' words and phrases can present themselves in.

Then Ceri Jones unleashed the power of images, and showed us that there is so much potential when using pictures in the classroom. I loved the ways she used the shadows, imagined what was outside the frame, got students to record and present their own images and encouraged exploration, debate and used their full power for dynamic and effective classes.

Philida Schellekens presented recent research that suggests that the reading sub-skills (skimming, scanning, meaning from context etc) are not as effective as previously considered. It may be more effective to teach them at a later date. Asking them to skim and scan before reading in detail is artificial and possibly irritating for the students, as they just want to get on with reading it 'properly'. I loved having my beliefs questioned in this way. 

Jamie Keddie led us in The Authenticity Trap. Has the march towards authentic materials had a cost? For publishers, maybe. The wealth of genuine materials not created for an ELT setting is too great nowadays to ignore. The trap is feeling that they cannot somehow be adapted and that they are sacrosanct. Jamie effectively showed how this is not the case, and how even difficult cultural concepts can be explained by the teacher and then engaged with by the students.

Karenne Sylvester, Tara Benwell, Peter Ryley and Berni Wall presented The Blogging Symposium. They showed us how the opportunity for teachers to blog is great, and the networks that it can provide offer support and inspiration that can be difficult to find in other situations. This was amply demonstrated by Eva Büyüksimkeşyan's testimony. Furthermore, the chance for students to blog provides them with a way of interacting with English language culture and each other in an equally beneficial arrangement.

On Sunday, Sue Palmers's plenary created a fascinating portrait of our contemporary society and the potential damage it does to children. However her criticism of screen based media could have mentioned content (surely different types of content have different effects, and therefore differing levels of damage?). 



As always Russell Stannard gave us some great ideas for how to integrate technology into our classroom. Russell always manages to find technologies that embellish our teaching experience, and I'm grateful to him for the work he does in sharing these great resources. He was followed by Ken Wilson, who is surely one of the most entertaining speakers on the ELT circuit. He told us about 10 things he thinks he knows about teaching and learning and it's hard to disagree with such an engaging and experienced speaker. His thoughts about translation in class (a little doesn't hurt) were food for thought.

I followed this by attending Raymond Sangabau's account of his teaching EAP in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It was amazing to hear someone who has only been teaching for one year and who has 300 to 350 students at a time. A real reality check, it reminded me of how most of us are in a privileged position to the majority of teachers around the world. Janet Bianchini then gave us some fun ideas of how to tackle that often thorny subject of idioms. That Sunday ended with Pecha Kucha evening and it's hard to summarise how enjoyable this evening was. The presentations by Bethany Cagnol, Petra Pointer and host Jeremy Harmer in particular will stay with me for a long time. A great evening and a great format.

Monday began with a plenary by Tom Farrell who reminded us of the importance of reflective practice, something that all teachers and schools need to take more seriously.



He was followed by Jim Scrivener's warning about the dangers of modern reading and how technology has changed our reading habits. Gavin Dudeney continued on the hot topic of technology in the classroom by talking about how mobile devices could be used in various ways to add to our classes. This afternoon concluded with the much anticipated Dogme symposium. With all the main players in attendance, it was a fascinating and insightful discussion and there were too many issues for me to deal with here. This is something I will definitely be returning to in a future post.

On Tuesday, Ingrid Wisniewska gave us some great ideas of how to develop our one-to-one lessons, continuing on from her excellent book for Cambridge on the same subject. Carla Arena presented on how she has created a social network of sharing and development within her school in Brasilia. An inspiring and remarkable piece of work, I was impressed by the way she looked outside ELT to deal with her particular problem. 

It was appropriate that the final presentation was also on the subject of technology and this was presented by Sue Lyon-Jones on her plan B and how to deal with technology when things go wrong. It was useful and sage practical advice from someone who knows. All of this it was all wrapped up by Brian Patten in his plenary session with some wonderful poems which displayed a great mixture of nonsense and romance -  a great way to end.

And in case you're wondering the picture refers to another happy memory - beating English teachers at Scrabble. Priceless...

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