BESIG - The Business English Special Interest GroupIATEFL - The International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language

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Welcome to BESIG

BESIG, the Business English Special Interest Group of IATEFL, is a truly professional body representing the interests and serving the needs of the international business English teaching community.

BESIG's members are mainly teachers of Business English and include both native and non-native speakers of English. We have members in over 65 countries in Europe, the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania. BESIG offers you ways to improve your expertise in teaching Business English and a link with other people in the profession. We do this through our annual international BESIG conferences, regional workshops, regular newsletters and reports describing conference papers/workshops in detail.

Please follow the links on the left to read more about BESIG and to find out how to become involved in our events. For information of current interest please see below or follow the links on the right.

button BESIG Webinar: Intercultural communication in business & the classroom

Following the success of BESIG's first ever online event in June (click here to see recordings of that event) we are very happy to announce the second in this series of popular webinars, which this time has been organised to explore and discuss intercultural communication in business and the business English classroom. A team of leading business English and intercultural communication professionals has been invited to share their considerable expertise in this increasingly important, many would argue crucial, aspect of our work. Please click here for further information.

 

button 2010 Annual Conference

The 2010 Annual Conference will be held in Bielefeld, Germany over the weekend 19 - 21 November and registration is now open and takes place via the IATEFL website (see below)

button Further information & Registration

  • Please click here for further conference and registration information

button Sponsorship and Exhibitor Options

We are offering a range of sponsorship opportunities, including, for the first time, a commercial poster space for smaller exhibitors. This is aimed at smaller providers who want to be present but have limited personnel or cannot be there all the time. In addition, we are offering our customary deals on exhibition stands and advertising opportunities. The deadline for IATEFL BESIG to receive your submission is Thursday 30 September 2010.

Click here: Exhibitors' guidelines and click here: Sponsors and exhibitors form

button Call for committee members

BESIG is accepting nominations for two positions on its Executive Committee. The terms for these voluntary positions will run from the AGM at the Annual Conference in 2010 until the AGM at the 2012 conference, renewable by mutual consent for two more years. The positions are:

button Treasurer

button Administration & Development Coordinator

For details concerning the responsibilities attached to these positions and the quailites candidates should have, please click here to download the following document: Call for committee members

To nominate a candidate for the position of Treasurer, please click here to download the following document: Treasurer nominations

To nominate a candidate for the position of Administration & Development Coordinator, please click here to download the following document: A & D Coordinator nominations

button Cert IBET scholarship - 2010 applications now being accepted!

BESIG, Trinity College London, English UK and The Consultants-E are pleased to announce that applications are now being accepted for the joint scholarship for an online course leading to the Certificate in International Business English Training (Cert IBET). For details on the Cert IBET, the course and the scholarship please click here. Please note that the application deadline for the 2010 scholarship is 31 August 2010.

button Pre-Conference Event 2011

As part of the annual IATEFL conference 2011, BESIG are holding a full-day Pre-Conference Event (PCE). The theme for this event is

Professional English Trainers: Where Are We Now? Where Should We Be Tomorrow?

For further preliminary details, please click here: Pre-Conferernce Event 2011

David Riley Award Logobutton David Riley Award

David Riley was a teacher, writer and publisher of Business and ELT materials. He was renowned in the ELT world for his creation of materials for a range of publishers, big and small. David passed away in 2007 leaving a big gap in the ELT world. To remember him and his rare talent, BESIG and Macmillan are honoured to launch a new industry award - ‘The David Riley Award for Innovation in Business English and ESP’. The winner of the David Riley Award for Innovation 2009 was English for Law Enforcement by Charles Boyle and Ileana Chersan (Macmillan). Congratulations to the winners!

Entry details for the 2010 award are available on the David Riley Award page.

button BESIG Facilitators Scholarship

This new scholarship, funded by the IATEFL Business English Special Interest Group, is for a teacher to attend the IATEFL Conference for the first time and to give a presentation on the BESIG Programme Day.  It will be awarded to someone who is also interested in starting up and facilitating local business English events in his or her home area and contributing to BESIG through articles for Business Issues or web-based communication tools. Click here for more details: Scholarship

For links of current interest please follow the links on the right.