31st BETA Annual International Conference and 2nd Regional Central and Eastern European FIPLV Congress

Right after the IATEFL Poland conference, I traveled to Bulgaria where I took part in the 31st BETA Annual International Conference and 2nd Regional Central and Eastern European FIPLV Congress. Day one took place at the University of Shumen where Terry Lamb from FIPLV discussed “Developing and Promoting Plural Lingual and Intercultural Education for Democratic Culture”. This was followed by several other speakers from the US Embassy in Belgrade and other university speakers from the area and abroad. On day two, we switched to a secondary school across town where we were treated to an opening plenary on “AI and Language Teaching” by Olivia Chirobocca-Tudor from the Ovidius University of Constanta, Romania. This was followed by several other talks from representatives from ELTA Serbia, LAKMA Lithuania, HUPE, me and several other teachers from surrounding countries in Central and Eastern Europe. Day three followed with more talks and the day ended early with the tour of Shumen and some of the area’s tourist attractions. After three exhausting days of IATEFL Poland with 650 people and speakers from around the world, it was nice to relax a little and just be a delegate once again at this smaller, more intimate conference where I got to see some old friends and make many new connections.