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Back from Best of BESIG 2

20.June.08

Find out what happened at this month's Best of BESIG 2 conference in Paris.

After attending the Best of BESIG 2 in Paris on 7th June I managed to take a week off but I'm back at my desk now and one of the first things on my 'to do' list is to write a report on the conference.

Things got off to an entertaining and informative start with Andy Hewitson's excellent overview of how EFL teaching has evolved over the past few decades. Listening to him sing and recite poems in French and German made you wonder whether we may have chucked out the baby with the bathwater when rote learning and pronunciation drills fell out of favour. I'm still trying to think of a song that I could meaningfully teach my business English learners.

The next session I attended was by Anna Cowper on Have You Got What it Takes to Get Published? It was very thought-provoking and Anna encouraged us to think about what we, as teachers, like in a coursebook and what makes a book useful and usable? At which point Anna gave us her take from a publisher's perspective. The overall outcome was encouraging to any would-be writers. So if you think you've got an idea for a potential coursebook then send some sample materials along with an outline of the book and your CV to a publisher of your choice. Even if the book itself may not fit into their existing or forthcoming range of publications, there is the possibility they may well invite you to write for another book they already have in the pipeline and your writing career may get started that way.

After that, I attended Ann Claypole's talk on Teaching Business English in a Virtual World. She gave us a very useful overview of Second Life, currently one of the most popular virtual environments. It allows anyone with an internet connection and a reasonably good computer to interact with other people in a simulated three-dimensional environment in which users are represented by avatars. People can text-chat and voice-chat with each other and use the environment for a variety of purposes including educational ones. Ann gave us some examples of how her school uses it to offer blended and online-only courses. It's still early days in the use of Second Life for educational purposes but it looks like there's a lot of potential there.

Then it was time for my talk - my presentation was about the relative strengths of Web 1.0 and 2.0 technologies for teachers. I also gave a range of resources for teachers and learners; the presentation can be downloaded here.

The final talk I attended was Stephen Ferron's on Life After Business English. As I expected, it was informative and also very amusing. Stephen gave a humorous account of his professional life, spanning a career as a professional musician, business English teacher and now a copywriter for a global company. A main point Stephen made that stuck in my mind was the fact that we as teachers shouldn't undervalue ourselves: either financially, or with regards to the skills we use every day. An excellent end to the formal part of the event.

The afternoon closed with a Pecha Kucha. In Pecha Kucha a number of people give a PowerPoint presentation that adheres to strict guidelines: the presentation must have exactly 20 slides and each slide is set to automatically move on after 20 seconds. That means that each presentation has to be short, to the point, exactly 6 minutes 40 seconds long and, as a result, is usually very focused and often funny. The presentations given here were no exception, and the presenters did the format justice.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to stay for the drinks and evening entertainment but from reports I've heard a good time was had by all. The next event on the BESIG horizon now is the November conference in Bonn. The speaker proposal form is now available, so if you'd like to speak at the event, please do fill it in. See you in Bonn, if not before.

All the best

Eric