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BESIG comes to Berlin

15.Nov.07

This week Eric looks forward to the BESIG conference in Berlin.

This weekend is the 20th anniversary conference of BESIG, the Business English Special Interest Group. It's taking place in Berlin and promises to be excellent. At the time of writing over 520 people have registered and there'll be 120 talks by such big names as David Graddol (who will be giving the opening plenary), Guy Brook-Hart, Steve Flinders, Matthew Firth, Pamela Rogerson-Revell as well as yours truly. It's taking place from 16th to 18th November and you can read more about it by clicking on the link at the end of this blog.

I'll be at the Cambridge University Press stand from time to time so if you're there why not say hello. We'll also be making recordings of some of the speakers and delegates for our next few podcasts so you may well find yourself on tape!

As always, the BESIG conference is an excellent opportunity to find out about new trends in business English teaching, new books, CD-ROMs and web-based products. There is also the chance to catch up with old colleagues, make new contacts, and just generally feel like part of a community and not just a lone individual, teaching away on your own. There are a number of talks I'm particularly looking forward to this year, too many to mention really, but I'll pick out a few. I'm looking forward to hearing what David Graddol has to say. He's written a lot of the material for an OU course I'm currently tutoring, Exploring the English Language, so meeting him is very timely.

I'm also very much looking forward to meeting Azra Ahmed and Faiza Saleem from the Aga Khan University in Karachi, Pakistan; I first spoke to them when I gave a talk via Skype to a conference they hosted in Karachi in June but haven't met them in person yet. It'll be nice to do so.

I also like the title of Byron Russell's talk; Blended Learning - a tasty smoothie or just a mess? I agree that blended learning can be misused, and if done badly can be a real mess. Wonder whether there'll be a dairy-based drink for all of us at the end?

There are also quite a few talks this year on globalisation and the impact this has had on language training such as Anne Dwyer's Communication Skills: Training and preparing for a globalised world. I think I'll join a few of these sessions as we'll be focusing on this subject on Professional English Online in a few weeks' time. It'll be interesting to hear what people are saying.

It'll also be nice to see Vicki Hollett again. I'll see if she can teach me some ''merican'. She's been in the US for a few years now and her talk this year is about the differences in structuring of discourse between British and American English. She argues that this difference goes much deeper than just vocabulary which sounds very intriguing.

The panel discussion in the final slot also looks like it should be a good one to attend with Evan Frendo chairing a discussion on What's my beef? Three experienced BE practitioners will put forth their 'grievances' with the world of BE teaching, what needs to be improved, what needs to be changed and so on. The audience will then be encouraged to come up with solutions to these problems (if indeed they are problems). Should be good. I think most of us would agree that there's definitely room for improvement in various aspects of BE training.

I'd better leave it there. Apologies to all the other interesting talks I haven't had space to mention here this time round but I'll report back on these and a few more, no doubt, when I get back.

A few parting shots before I pack my bags and head for Berlin: there's a new online course that has just been announced by the Consultants-E, called Teaching Business English. It launches on 20th November and is for both new and more experienced business English teachers. More on this when I get back.

And finally, Jane and Dave Willis have launched their own website. Both Jane and Dave are well-known in the field of ELT, in particular for their publishing in the field of task-based learning. We'll be looking at task-based learning and business English in the near future but, in the meantime, why not have a look at their site?

And that's all the news for now. Drop me a line if you've come across anything you'd like to share with other readers or if you have any comments on this week's blog.

All the best

Eric