Editorial

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to another edition of IATEFL’s e-bulletin. Following on from a disastrous May (weather-wise), we hope to provide you with a bit of sunshine and sparkle, and to whet your appetite for what we have in store for you in September! So, sit back and lap up the latest news from Twitter, and our forthcoming Conference in Bydgoszcz; and find out who won our ‘poll of polls’ regarding your favourite all-time Conference speaker.

Venturing into the world of Twitter

In the April edition of the e-bulletin, I announced that I had just entered the world of social networking by joining Twitter, - actually I had previously already joined Facebook, - but Twitter was different as I would represent IATEFL Poland, which is, in fact, my user name. I quickly found that Twitter is somewhat more serious in tone than Facebook, which seems to bring out the silliness in people. Building a network of people I follow (I now have 61 at the last count), my contacts nearly all belong to the ELT Community. Some are major figures well-known to all of you, such as Jeremy Harmer, Simon Greenall, Ken Wilson, and Herbert Puchta. So, it is no surprise that education regularly features in our discussions! However, as Election Day in Britain recently revealed, many of my contacts hold passionate political viewpoints, and virtually all were disappointed by the result!

Within a short space of time, I have got to know several contacts much better, including Polish teachers working abroad. It is also a lovely feeling when someone sends you a message wanting to be one of your followers! A Colombian group of teachers wanted to follow me, and lo and behold, in their list of contacts was none other than Bill Gates! Yes, Twitter allows you to contact the most famous people, wherever they live.

For teachers, the biggest advantage of Twitter is that contacts send tweets regularly pointing out useful websites or articles to read. With one click on the listed reference, there you are – able to read some material which you may well want to use in your classroom. You can also ask for help or useful references. Weronika, in the south of Poland, often does this to find new materials for her Young Learners.

Another important fact about Twitter is that you only have 140 characters to tweet with (= send a message). Precision is the ‘order of the day’, therefore. Some scope there for conducting precision writing with your students!

Overall, I’m pleased with progress on the Twitter front, and have links with a number of groups/organisations, apart from individuals. Direct messages to contacts allow you some privacy when you need it, and Twitter functions well if you treat it like a party. You join in with a conversation, and you soon find the other contacts tweeting back to you. People are generally very kind and polite, and when they know that you are a newcomer from your contacts data, they will be very welcoming. Overcome those initial nerves, and Twitter is a must for you! It’s fun, addictive, informative, and enlightening... join today! www.twitter.com - couldn’t be simpler!

***What was the most popular English word in 2009? Answer: ‘Twitter’.

****Must conclude with a funny, but true Twitter story. Jeremy Harmer was conducting workshops recently in Warsaw, and during the day, he tweeted: “Here I am in Poland, waxing lyrical about PLN”. PLN, I thought, why is he so excited about the Polish złoty? Of course, he wasn’t waxing lyrical about the złoty, he was talking about PLN in relation to Twitter, meaning: Professional Learning Network. That’s what Twitter is, indeed, a Learning Network!

QUICK FUN QUIZ for those who love Twitter

1. If Twakespeare was the greatest Twitterer of all time, what area of the humanities did he contribute to?
2. What do you call all those people who belong to Twitter?
3. Why are messages on Twitter called ‘Tweets’?
4. If someone calls you a ‘twit’ are they being rude or polite?

***Answers to: newsletter@iatefl.org.pl

Conference 2010 - Bydgoszcz

It’s approaching fast! Our forthcoming Annual Conference will be upon us as soon as we realise our summer holidays have ended! If you need some impetus to your teaching, new, fresh materials to use in the classroom, the latest coursebook at a good knockdown discount price, then IATEFL Poland’s Conference at Bydgoszcz is definitely the place for you! It is also the place to forge new social and professional contacts, and renew old ones. A great weekend to help you go out and face the turmoils of the autumn semester with renewed vigour.

The town of Bydgoszcz is a lively, buzzing one, with more to see and do than you might think! For night life, it is very active, indeed. There is an abundance of clubs and pubs and restaurants. The Conference venue, meanwhile, is located close to the river harbour, and may well necessitate the taking of a boat tram to get there. It is an impressive, modern complex, well worthy of hosting an IATEFL Conference, so, we at IATEFL are very excited to be hosting our first-ever Conference there.

Who will be our keynote speakers? In what is virtually an all-male team this year, we are proud to have Herbert Puchta, the President of IATEFL, heading the ‘distinguished cast’.

Herbert, is a well-known author, who used to be a major producer of materials in the world of Young Learners, but he has moved on from that now, and perhaps, would be happier to be associated with his research into the practical application of findings from cognitive psychology to the teaching of English as a foreign language. Professor of English at the Teacher-Training University in Graz, Austria, he is a Master Practitioner in Neuro-Linguistic Programming. He has presented talks and workshops all over the world, including such countries as Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Croatia, Finland, Greece, Spain, Italy, Portugal, and Uruguay. Like most of our other main speakers, he is connected with the British Council, having been involved in many learning projects with them. Herbert has been to Poland before, but this time he comes as IATEFL President, and with his links to the BC, he really is the perfect guest speaker for our Conference in 2010.

Jamie Keddie is best known for founding the visual website TEFLclips.com a site dedicated to the sharing of online video resources in the classroom. Go and have a look for yourselves at what an excellent site it is! Jamie has BC links too, as he received a British Council Innovative Award in 2009. A teacher-trainer and writer, based at NILE (Norwich Institute for Language Education), Jamie is the author of ‘Images’ in the Resource Books for Teachers’ series published by OUP.

Rob Hill has been based in Italy for the last 25 years, and has taught at the Universities of Verona and Milan. He too, has been involved with the BC in teacher-training projects, and has travelled widely around the world, conducting workshops. In the past month, he has been to Barcelona and Moscow. He is now a freelance teacher-trainer, author, and educational editor for Black Cats Publishing, who produce a large series of readers. Robert’s main topic of interest is Literature, and his workshops at this year’s Conference will reflect this, as for instance, he will analyse and show various interpretations of the Balcony Scene in Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’.

I saw Robert delighting his audiences at Harrogate this year, and asked him to come to Poland, to delight audiences here. I’m sure he will!

Paul Maglione is the co-founder of ‘English Attack!’ and brings 25 years of experience in news, television, videogames, the web, and mobiles, to the world of ELT. A dual Italian and American national, Paul, like Herbert, is on my Twitter list of followers, and is very active, indeed on the network. He is yet another of our ‘media savvy’ speakers this year.

Other major speakers include: Professor zw.dr hab. Piotr Cap and Dr. Joanna Nijakowska, both from the University of Łódź.

Apart from our keynote speakers, some of our regulars will be present in Bydgoszcz, too. David A. Hill, (not related to Rob), will come from his base in Budapest, and hopefully, present the beautifully-structured talk he gave in Harrogate, on how film treats the written text, focusing on ‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover’, in particular. Beth Cagnol, TESOL France, will also be present, and is likely to present a workshop on the Performing Arts, whilst Geoff Tranter will travel from Germany to present ‘Humour III’.

On the Saturday of the Conference, there will be a 60-minute performance of ‘The History of England’ from an Educational Theatre Group based in the Czech Republic - the Bear Theatre Group. This will be their first visit to Poland, yet I am pleased to say that I have seen them on a few occasions over the years. They are fun, educational and methodical in approach, - focusing a lot on grammar -and are sure to enchant you! As they aim to plan a future tour of Poland, you will have the chance to book them for your schools.

In terms of other entertainments, there will be a barbeque outside the venue on the Saturday evening (weather permitting), followed by a musical performance from a major, well-known group! I know who they are, but the organisers are keeping their identity a secret for now. Saturday evening does indeed look very special!

As I write this, you will have probably received by now copies of a provisional programme, showing the order of events.

Visit regularly the main website for the latest news from Bydgoszcz, and as you do so, register for the Conference, if you haven’t done so already! The earlier you do that, the cheaper it is! There will be a range of accommodation possible for you to book from cheap to exclusive prices. Harrogate 2010 was a memorable Conference, and we hope to follow in its footsteps. However, that needs you - your attendance, your inspiration, your contributions - to make it a success!

See you in Bydgoszcz!

Best-Ever Conference Speaker Poll

It’s been a really exciting poll, and at the last time of looking, there was a six-way tie! Amongst the leaders is ‘Others’ – so, you clearly had other favourites in mind from the ones listed. Unfortunately, nobody mentioned who they were voting for under this category. I wracked my memory to think of speakers I may have forgotten about, and came up with Mario Rinvolucri, but I couldn’t think of anyone else who should have been listed.

So, in order to get an overall winner, let’s keep the poll open one more month, and those who haven’t voted will hopefully do so. Go to the E-Bulletin archive on the home page of the main website, and click on April’s edition. The poll is to be found near the end of the e-bulletin. Vote for your favourite speaker, and if that speaker comes under the ‘other’ category, please state who you voted for. Those who have voted already, and for an unlisted speaker, please let me know the name of that speaker (newsletter@iatefl.org.pl). I’m really curious to know! The poll will officially close on July the 4th.

British Council Section - Harrogate Snapshots

On Saturday the 22nd of May, the British Council, in conjunction with IATEFL Poland held a Joint-Day Conference called ‘Harrogate Snapshots’. The venue was the imperious Polytechnic in Warsaw. It was, in effect, an event mixing live and recorded presentations, and a worthy effort at closer co-operation between the two organisations.

The introductions gave everyone attending a taste of things to come, as Sylwester Łodej, President of IATEFL Poland, welcomed the joint concept of the day, in person. This was followed by a video link with Tony O’Brien, the Director of the British Council, Poland. Then, the Moderator of the event - yours truly - outlined the schedule of the day’s proceedings.

Rob Lewis, from the British Council, who is due to come to live and work in Poland in September, proved to be an admirable first speaker, with his 30-minute session entitled ‘IATEFL 2010 – Teachers, TV and Twitter’. He gave attendees an idea of the enormity of the online links present at the Harrogate Conference, and whilst approximately 2,000 people attended the Conference, a quarter of a million people were linked to it online at some point over the four days of the Conference! Rob used the Republic of Congo as a case study to show just how much interest was generated worldwide by events in Harrogate.

The vast growth of the technological aspects accompanying such Conferences, affords teachers enormous access to resources and social networks as never before, and Rob felt that we are now entering a ‘brave new world’, as Huxley would say, whereby our audiences are truly global, and not confined to the rooms we are presenting in. I added my observation that at Conferences, we are likely to be increasingly confronted by audience members sitting and using their laptops to tweet on Twitter, as we deliver our talks. This was apparent at Harrogate, and will be disconcerting for presenters, but will become a ‘fact of everyday life’.

Rob followed up his session by showing some video clips from Harrogate, focusing on one, in particular, whereby ideas of how to exploit songs was a clear example of practical advice/tips for teachers, available as an exploitable resource.

The next speaker, Małgorzata Zdybiewska, Culture SIG Co-ordinator for IATEFL Poland, provided a brief but illuminating view of culture as perceived by various speakers at Harrogate 2010, and took a delightful, visual trip through the cultural features of the town itself.

Showing us a range of photographs of key sights in Harrogate, Gosia pointed out that the spa town is located to the south-east of the Yorkshire Dales, and is noted for its flower shows, antique shops, turkish baths, and tea-rooms. ‘Bath of the North’, you could say! It is also famous for its modern, impressive Conference Centre, - venue for Harrogate 2010, of course, - and for the fact that the crime novelist, Agatha Christie, mysteriously disappeared here for a few days back in the 1930’s.

Gosia then outlined some of the speakers’ talks she attended at the Conference in April, and the cultural aspects raised by them. I will mention only a few here, but she clearly made some wise selections! Alan Pulverness presented a talk at a Pre-Conference event, hosted by the Literature, Media, and Cultural Studies SIG, and it was titled: ‘A Raid on the Articulate’. Alan, from the previously-mentioned NILE in the UK, dealt with the subject of film adaptations with references to several films, including Kazuo Ishiguro’s ‘Remains of the Day’ and Alex Garland’s ‘The Beach’. He asked the key question: ‘what is a faithful adaptation?’ – very difficult for anyone to answer!

Memorably, Alan concluded his talk with the following statements:

1. that films should be read as films (visual language);
2. films are not inferior;
3. The novel has 3 tenses, film only one – the ‘now’ of the screen; and
4. many aspects of the novel cannot be replicated by the film.

Masterful stuff! I was lucky enough to be there and enjoy it!

One session at Harrogate that I somehow missed, and have heard great things about, ever since, was the Plenary given by Tessa Woodward, IATEFL President from 2005-2007.

Tessa described the ‘Professional Life Cycles of Teachers’, and analysed the relevant research on it. The basic summary of a teacher’s career read as follows:-

• Years 1 - 3 : ‘Survival’ and ‘Discovery’.
• 4 - 6 : ‘Stabilization’.
• 7 - 18 : ‘Activism’/ ‘Self-Doubts’.
• 19 - 30 : ‘Serenity’/ ’Conservatism’.
• 31 - 40 : ‘Disengagement: ‘Serene’ or ‘Bitter’.

Scary! Personally-speaking, I think there is too much of a readiness to judge others, especially via their age...and this certainly applies to the ELT industry.

Gosia went on to mention Adrian Pilbeam, an author of the successful ‘Market Leader’, who gave a presentation on ‘Understanding the Role of Culture in International Business’. Stating that many things were either assumed or hidden in life and business, Adrian raised the spectre of the ‘iceberg of culture’. He gave an apology in Japan as an example of this, because it is not an acknowledgement of guilt.

Lindsay Clanfield’s session on ‘Content, culture, and critical thinking in an era of global English’, was designed to be a challenging workshop. He certainly proceeded to ask some pertinent questions, and, of course, provided the answers. ‘Can you teach language without culture?’ No, was his definitive answer, as language is a social practice and culture becomes the very core of language teaching. ‘Is there a sub-text in the culture of our coursebooks?’ His reply was equally assertive, referring to a ‘hidden curriculum’, if coursebooks communicate sets of social and cultural values, directly or indirectly. The most provocative question and related answer arose when he asked: ‘what values do we transmit via the content of our lessons?’ Lindsay declared that: “materialistic sets of values in which international travel, not being bored, being entertained, having leisure, and above all, spending money, are the norm”.

Lindsay’s claim that Macmillan’s new course, ‘Global’ is a departure from all of the above, and is not celebrity-driven, bland, or Anglocentric, is a brave one. Let us know if it is a correct one!

Gosia ended her talk with a mention of a special trip to nearby Haworth, home of the famous Bronte sisters, Emily, Charlotte, and Anne. So, Harrogate 2010 for her was, indeed, a very happy occasion.

Following Gosia’s most enjoyable presentation, we had a short break in proceedings. Participants could partake of available discounts (20%) for a wide range of books from Akademika Ksiegarnia, or escape to the nearby bistro bar for a snack.

The late afternoon session began with another speaker from the British Council, Jeremy Day. He spoke about ‘Results-focused ESP’, but in reality, homed in on one particular ESP area - that of Nursing. He interestingly told his audience about the processes involved in compiling a specific coursebook for an ESP group of people, such as nurses. What was important in this process? As an Editor for Cambridge University Press, he was able to enlighten us.

Jeremy proudly declared that one chapter in the book about nursing and social care was devoted to ‘death’. It is a taboo subject, but he and his team justified its inclusion. This was the highlight of his talk, I felt, as it touched on a delicate issue for publishers. I reminded him that Mario Rinvolucri once stated at an IATEFL Conference, that it was the biggest taboo of all, and he could never envisage seeing it covered in a coursebook. So, I duly encouraged Jeremy to inform Mario that he was wrong!

Monika Łodej, another IATEFL speaker, focused her workshop talk on a specific group of people, too: those who are dyslexic. Her eye-catching title of ‘Dyslexia: Obesity not measles’remains a baffling one, but she involved her audience in a practical way from the outset with a range of activities she uses with dyslexic students, using colourful slips of paper and chants to special effect. So, her workshop was somewhat different from the others, and especially engaging as a result.

Monika’s demonstration of techniques used to teach dyslexic students may not have intended to inspire people to change their teaching careers, or at least the groups they work with, but it gave us a fuller picture of the needs of dyslexic students, and how we can help them when we come across them in our work.

Finally, the day was brought to a close by Rob Lewis, in his second appearance. Taking up the mantle from Tessa Woodward’s Harrogate presentation, Rob wanted to outline the BC’s CPD (Continuing Professional Development) Framework for Teachers of English, and show what professsional develoment activities could be helpful for their professional careers, and what the BC could do for them! Ironically, Rob’s audience was a fairly experienced one, and such a topic for them was particularly poignant. I raised the issue of the underlying problem in ELT, in terms of careers - that being a lack of promotional opportunities. Is there a heap of talented, frustrated teachers stuck on a certain advanced rung of the career ladder, as a result? Rob agreed with my sentiments, but felt that teachers did need to be alert to what possibilities do exist out there - in the industry, and recognise their own specific talents.

The last acts of the event were to hold a prize draw for all those who filled in their feedback forms, and distribute certificates of attendance. Prizes were generously donated by the publishers, OUP, and several teachers were happy recipients. As Moderator for the day, I duly thanked all the speakers, and in particular, the organisers of the event. IATEFL’s Dorota Chromińska and Danusia Sołtyska helped acquire the splendid venue for the event, whilst most of the technical duties and display work was carried out by Monika Knapkiewicz and her British Council team. Monika was clearing up long after everyone else had gone home, and sometimes, we do not appreciate fully just how much background work is conducted effectively ‘behind the scenes’. Monika’s technical expertise, in particular, ‘saved the day’, when the video equipment was being ‘unco-operative’. A lovely event, and we hope that Bydgoszcz 2010 can in part be online, so there could be ‘snapshots’of that event, too!

*** Peter Whiley