5th International IATEFL Poland ESP SIG & BESIG Conference
IATEFL POLAND ESP SIG and the University of Life Sciences in Lublin have the pleasure of inviting you to the 5th International IATEFL Poland ESP SIG & BESIG Conference – 12th/13th January 2018.
Venue: Lublin, Głęboka 28, CIW Building A (Room 102, 1st Floor and room 233-234, 2nd Floor).
Conference Programme with Abstracts:
Friday, January 12th
12:00 – 13:00 Registration and Welcoming Coffee
13.00 – 14:30 Pre-Conference Event 1 – Geoff Tranter, Technical University, Dortmund – Room 102
‘Dealing with Diversity’ A Practical Approach to ESP/BE
Teaching English for Specific Purposes is becoming a more and more difficult area to teach because of the increasing degree of specialisation on the one hand, and the growing diversity in terms of the students’ background on the other. This producing many new challenges for the teacher in respect of methods and materials. This practical workshop will look at ways to ‘square the circle’ allowing the teacher to meet the needs and interests of all the students in the course.
13.00 – 14:30 Pre-Conference Event 2 – Dr Agnieszka Dzięcioł-Pędich, University of Białystok – Room 233-234
‘Students with Special Educational Needs in Tertiary Language Courses – How much should we know?’
Students have special educational needs (SEN) if they have significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of students of the same age, and special educational provisions have to be made for them. About 1 in 20 people, irrespective of their gender or country of birth, will have dyslexia, dyspraxia or ADHA. A student who is identified as having one of these conditions frequently has traits of others.
The aim of the workshop is to present the main categories of SEN, their common characteristics and ways of teaching to address students with SEN in tertiary language courses.
14.30 – 15.10 Lunch Break
15.15 – 15.30 Official Opening of the Conference and Welcoming Speeches – Room 102
15.30 – 16:10 Keynote Speech 1 – Geoff Tranter, TU Dortmund, BESIG Coordinator for IATEFL Poland – Room 102
‘ESP – EAP – EBP – E4W – ESA – EOP – …… What Next?’
Geoff Tranter is the acting Coordinator for Business English in IATEFL Poland. He regularly attends IATEFL Conferences in Poland and other countries offering a number of workshops and plenaries on a range of topics relating to testing and teaching methodology. He teaches Technical English at the Technical University in Dortmund / Germany taking students of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineers from B2 to C1 to C2. He is also a free-lance consultant for a wide range of educational institutions and ministries including Ministries of Education and the German Federal Civil Aviation Authority.
16.10 – 16.55 – Łukasz Olesiak, Macmillan – Room 102
‘Maximizing Return on Investment in ESP through Task & Content Based Instruction’
English for Specific Purposes and Business English courses should always aim at satisfying learners’ immediate work-specific language needs. However, a successful ESP/BE user does not only know the right vocabulary and grammar, but is rather able to efficiently perform at profession-related tasks, be it closing a sale’s deal, making a pitch, negotiating a contract or planning a procurement strategy. Thus, the real challenge for ESP/BE teachers is to deliver the right ESP/BE language input, and also to provide ample and adequate opportunity for ESP/BE use through practice of profession-related, content-based tasks.
In this session, I intend to show how Content-Based Instruction goes hand in hand with Task-Based Language Learning to guide your learners along the most efficient path to ESP/BE mastery and help them cover it without trespassing on quality. You will find out how the right blend of CBI and TBLL provides a seamless transfer from in-class exercises to relevant profession-related tasks. The session will help you maximize your students’ Return On Investment in your classes by demonstrating that what they learn and do in class directly benefits their professional competency.
16.10 – 16.55 Oksana Hera, Ukraine – Room 233-234
‘Meet Your Clients Halfway’
Working with learners from one industry, the trainer may gain a wealth of insights that give them a competitive advantage. However, the trainer must be alert not to miss the client’s real needs as based on their previous experience and work patterns transferred to a new context.
In this talk, I am going to present the ways of tackling the challenges of working with IT professionals, and share activities aimed at enhancing their everyday workplace communication, both face-to-face and virtually.
17.05 – 17.50 Rob Howard, Business Language Training Institute – Room 102
‘PRESENT PERFECT(ly): Rethinking the Image on the Screen‘
The proper use of words, images and videos is essential in producing engaging classes, presentations and meetings. The overuse and abuse of technology has been causing Sensory Overload resulting in a lack of attention, engagement and learning. Examples, tips and skills to overcome this will be shown during the presentation. We all know that using imagery is an effective tool towards communication and engagement, as well as to elicit production and interest. The mistakes we make though are causing our audience to lose focus and miss the point(s), not only failing their objective, but hindering the outcome.
17.05 – 17.50 Małgorzata Mazurek, Monika Wąsowska-Polak, Military Art Academy – Room 233-234
‘Who is Afraid of Military English?’
Who can teach military English? Who are military English exams for? How do military English courses differ from general or other ESP curricula? In this practical workshop, participants will have a chance to see typical military English tasks and activities, have a look at the speakers’ original teaching materials, learn what the role of the teacher is in such a course, find out if it really is as specialised as it seems, and compare military English exams to other popular ESP tests.
18.00 – 18.45 Agnieszka Burda, Maciej Maciejowski, Polish Air Force Academy, Dęblin – Room 102
‘English in Aeronautical Communication, Simple is not Always Easy’
One of the most important applications of English in aviation, crucial to flight safety, is radiotelephony communication between pilots and air traffic controllers frequently coming from multiple and varied ethnic, linguistic and cultural backgrounds. In order to minimize miscommunication-related safety hazards, standard aviation English phraseology was introduced as a coded language deliberately simplified on a lexical and grammatical level. Is that equal, however, to its being easy? The aim of the presentation will be to discuss several case studies (videos) showing the importance of using standard phraseology, as well as to present the significance of using plain English in non-routine situations, and discuss the skills to be taught to aviation personnel in order to prepare them for taking professional certification examinations.
18.00 – 18.45 Lucyna Wiercioch-Samburska, Accent for Professionals – Room 233-234
‘BE or ESP – What to Teach Corporate Students?’
This talk is based on over 10 years of experience of cooperating and teaching at corporations in Kraków and also Tricity, Katowice, etc. To give it a bit more academic perspective, selected data from the research Accent for Professionals conducted in 2017 will be presented. This talk will show the status quo of the language courses we run, and address the situation from the methodological approach. An attempt to define what BE means for our clients and our students and to answer the question whether there is a future for ESP in the service sector in Krakow, is my goal here. A discussion with the participants on their views and experiences is an indispensable element here.
18.45 – 19.00 Prof. dr hab. inż. Krzysztof Gołacki, University of Life Sciences in Lublin, Joanna Rączkiewicz ESP SIG Coordinator, IATEFL Poland – Room 233-234
‘Implementing a Project-Based Learning Approach into Technical Courses in English‘
Project-Based Learning is an effective strategy implemented in engineering courses. In such an approach, instruction starts with specifics instead of beginning with general principles . Our presentation exemplifies this approach with a complex real-world problem, i.e. Failure Modes and Effects Analysis applied to a simplified reactor with an emergency cooling system.
The feedback from this experiment is presented from the point of view of the students, the language teacher and a specialist in this field.
19.30 – 22.00 Dinner/Evening Entertainment
Saturday, January 14th
09.00 – 09.45 Marjorie Rosenberg, Pearson – Room 102
‘Working with Business Students on the Threshold of their Careers’
University students studying business in today’s globalized world need specialized preparation to provide a smooth transition at the beginning of their careers. This can be a challenge for language instructors who need to provide business skills along with the necessary language needed to enter the world of work. For this reason, a partner who can support teachers with background information and topics their students can relate to can help to fill the gap. This talk will look at ways to help teachers who need realistic, engaging and supportive materials.
09.00 – 09.45 Anna Lipińska, Sylwia Wiśniewska-Leśków, K. Marcinkowski Medical University – Room 233-234
‘Teaching Grammar via Language Functions. An Example of English for Medical Purposes.’
Language is a means of communication in a variety of social situations. The structure of a language is a unique combination of expressive words, of which each is ascribed to a certain function. In other words, functions can be easily identified through structures. Thus teaching functions means training students how to communicate in different conversational contexts and letting them do so right from the very first moment of language instruction. It is also true for ESP, especially in the area of medicine.
10.00 – 11.00 Plenary Speech – Ian Badger, Bristol, UK – Room 102
‘The Joy of Authentic Listening!’
Authentic listening materials are a rich and demanding resource for developing our learners’ language and intercultural skills. By using such materials, learners gain sensitivity to the different accents, cultures and diversity of language usage they encounter in their working lives. They also learn to improve their active listening and clear speaking skills. In this plenary, Ian Badger will discuss how the use of authentic listening materials should be fundamental to many ESP and business English teaching situations. To illustrate this, he will draw from his experience of using authentic listening materials in the medical and business English sectors, where listening materials are often the backbone of his training programmes.
Biodata
Ian Badger is a partner in Business and Medical English Services (BMES). He is based in Bristol, UK but travels widely to deliver multicultural communication training to companies in Europe. A specialty is helping international supply chains to become more efficient by overcoming communication barriers. Ian is the award-winning author of Collins English for Business: Listening and the B1 and B2 levels of Collins English for Life: Listening. He has also published with NGL/Cengage, Pearson and Macmillan. His most recent titles are Flash on English for Business Conversations (Eli Publishing) and Business English Phrases with Polish translations (BMES Books).
11.00 – 11.30 Coffee Break
11.30 – 12.15 Kamil Petryk, Pearson – Room 102
‘Can a GP Treat Appendicitis? What Specific Skills a Business English Teacher Needs’
Would you expect your GP to treat your appendicitis? They might be of some help but most probably you would prefer a surgeon to take care of it – a surgeon who has specialised knowledge, skills and expertise to keep you alive.
That’s exactly the same way with General English teachers. They might be of some help when you want to run a Business English course, but wouldn’t you expect some specialised knowledge, skills and expertise?
This short workshop is going to highlight the specificity of Business English teaching. We will discuss the skills and knowledge necessary in this “business”. We will also look at some tools that might be useful for those who want to enhance or embark on their Business English adventure.
11.30 – 12.15 Magdalena Kożuch, Lublin University of Technology – Room 233-234
‘Activities for Students of Architecture’
This workshop will focus on different tried-and-tested activities for students of architecture. The activities are meant to appeal to your students’ visual needs and get them involved in the lesson. I hope you will leave the session with some practical ideas that you can incorporate into your teaching.
12.25 – 13.10 Grzegorz Fidala, Oxford University Press – Room 102
‘To Teach or Not to Teach (Grammar in ESP). That is the Question’
ESP courses, unlike “traditional” General English courses are usually topic – driven and based much more on vocabulary than grammar syllabi. Yet it is vital for students to cultivate their grammar competence in order to facilitate the process of learning. In this presentation we will look at different approaches and strategies when teaching grammar in ESP, and also show some practical examples of applying them in the classroom, including paper and online sources.
12.25 – 13.10 Peter Gee, Warsaw University of Technology – Room 233-234
‘ESAP Materials to Support the Development of Historical Literacy of International Relations Undergraduates’
International Relations (IR) is comprised of competing paradigms’ interpretation of historical events. It is therefore important that students develop historical literacy. This presentation presents practical ways for achieving this aim. I developed materials from A/AS level textbooks and short YouTube films to “teach” history. I also developed materials from a popular IR course book to develop the students’ awareness of IR specific vocabulary. Having established an understanding of the key chronology of historical events and IR lexis, I used an approach based on systemic functional linguistics and Bernstein’s Sociology to analyse extracts from
13.10 – 13.50 Lunch Break
13.50 – 14.35 Dr Agnieszka Dzięcioł-Pędich, University of Białystok – Room 102
‘Communicating with Students with Special Educational Needs in the Language Classroom’
According to Grant (2017), five percent of the population will be dyslexic, dyspraxic or have ADHD. This means that almost every language teacher will teach at least one learner with special educational needs in most groups. The aim of the workshop is to present teaching techniques, ways of adapting materials, and the use of selected IT tools that enable students with special educational needs to participate in language lessons as fully as possible.
Grant, D. (2017). That’s the Way I Think. Dyslexia, dyspraxia, ADHD and dyscalculia explained. London: Routledge.
13.50 – 14.35 Syed Adnan Zafar, University of Maria Curie-Skłodowska, Lublin – Room 233-234
‘An Exploratory Study to Analyze the Impact of Social Network Sites on EAP, Second Language Learners’ Academic Writing Competencies’
The key purpose of this research is to offer an insight into a varied range of elements pertaining to EAP, adult learners and social technologies within the context of language acquisition via SNSs. This research aims to examine and exhibit a study executed to explore whether Polish undergraduate ESP learners’ writing competencies can be developed and or enhanced after the one academic year of instruction through the use of SNSs as supplementary tools for instruction.
The study entails the comprehensive of the design of the research including a battery of tests, interviews, questionnaires, class observations and the examination of the writing performances of learners. The outcomes of the study and its related pedagogical influence on EAP writing are summarised, and the proposals for additional research are also discussed.
14.45 – 15.30 Konrad Dejko, Konrad Dejko School of English – Room 102
‘Do Scientists Need Specialist English Coursebooks or will General Materials Do?’
The presentation aims to juxtapose the pros and cons of using specialist and general English materials utilised to improve Polish scientists’ English language competence. Writing and speaking skills are prioritised as these will be necessary to present and publish scientists’ work and achievements.
The presentation will be based on examples and case studies of local scientists’ scholarships at the Natural History Museum in London, papers I helped them publish in English-language periodicals, my experience as the language editor of Polish Gerontology, and my experience as a reviewer of new editions of Pearson’s Speakout series and Roadmap (a new course by Pearson).
14.45 – 15.15 Renata Łukiewcz-Kostro, University of Maria Curie-Skłodowska, Lublin – Room 233-234
‘Can we let it go a bit more? On Empowering ESP Students’
WHAT do we really need in language ESP education in the constantly changing social reality and the GLOBAL labour market? Teaching, instruction, development, guidance, coaching, knowing cultures, or empowering and more freedom? Maybe a bit of everything? Some very practical reflections from an English teacher, academic trainer, coach, innovator, course designer, etc.
I would like to re-consider and reflect upon my own EXPERIENCE on all possible levels of language education, recently mostly ESP – after nearly 40 years on the job! Just a few months with retirement ahead and… starting a NEW LIFE! Also professional.
15.30 – 15.45 Closing Ceremony – Drinks and snacks – Room 102
The Conference is sponsored by
THE UNIVERSITY OF LIFE SCIENCES IN LUBLIN, OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS and PEARSON.
The Conference will be streamed thanks to the University of Life Sciences in Lublin.
