Workshop descriptions

Saturday

A01 - A01 - Mary Petersen: Writing Resumes / CVs in English

Type: Workshop Audience Size: any size Audience Type: mixed Length: 60 minutes

Summary: How many times in your professional life as a business trainer have you been asked, “Can you help me write a CV in English?” or “Can you translate my CV into English?” or “I’ve just been made redundant – I should write a CV in English”. The first question I ask when confronted with this question is “American or European?” Do you need a CV or a resúmé? What is the difference – is there any? As part of the unification of Europe, the European Commission has set standards, not only for certification on skills ( including languages – ie. European Common Framework), but also on how to present a CV. As a career advisor for the American-based international organisation Going Global, I have received a number of perfect American resúmés which are perfectly useless in Europe – the same, of course, is the other way around. Does the person want to send it on-line or as a hard copy? What are the advantages and disadvantages? How can I make a hard copy ‘stand out from the crowd?’ This is not only important for English resúmés and CVs, but also in their own culture. In this workshop we will be looking at and discussing the differences between American resúmés and CVs and comparing them to European and national norms.

Biodata: For the past three years I have been working as a resúmé and CV writer with the title of 'German Representative' for an American-based non-profit organization called PRWRA (Professional Resume Writing and Research Association) and one of three career advisors for Germany for another American non-profit organizations called Going Global where I have written numerous articles for their website on 'Working in Germany` - one of which is still on the Denver University website. This work I do as part of an outplacement agency called 'executive link' which is a side-line to my business English and communications skills training and seminars under the name of Logik Sprachtraining which I founded in 1990.

A02 - Vicki Hollett: Carry on Tech Talking

Type: Publisher on behalf of: OUP   Audience Size: any size   Audience Type: mixed   Length: 60 minutes

Summary: If your students don't quite fit the executive business English norm, the good news is Tech Talk is growing to another level. The general English course for  technically-oriented students is advancing up to the pre-intermediate level. The goals remain the same: to satisfy practical needs, to save teacher time and to make serious learning fun with good games, good pictures and good jokes. Vicki Hollett will be examining the student profile of the technical English learner, discussing the differing needs of business and technical students and demonstrating activities from both the elementary and the forthcoming pre-intermediate levels of the course.

Biodata: Vicki Hollett is the author of a number of EFL textbooks published by Oxford University Press. Her courses include the prize winning Business Objectives and Business Opportunities, Quick Work and also videos such as Meeting Objectives and The Jericho Conspiracy. More recently Vicki has written the highly practical Tech Talk, designed for learners who need to get jobs done in the international workplace.

A03 - Pete Sharma: Technology in Business English:  future perfect?

Materials available: Handout (.doc, 53kb)

Type: Publisher on behalf of: Summertown / Langenscheidt   Audience Size: any size   Audience Type: mixed   Length: 60 minutes

Summary: Technology is here to stay. As in any paradigm shift, conflicting viewpoints exist: what role does technology play in teaching and learning? Pete will offer an overview of current practice, updating “The Internet and Business English” (2003) and covering models of blended learning / interactive dictionaries /  jargon busting / complex searches / virtual learning environments ….. almost everything the BE teacher needs to know about technology – but was afraid to ask.  The session will finish with a personal view of future developments and time for questions. Especially useful for teachers wishing to raise their awareness of Technology-enhanced language learning.

Biodata: Pete is a freelance teacher, teacher trainer, software reviewer and a regular conference presenter at BESIG. Co-author of “The Internet and Business English” (2003 Summertown Publishing), he writes a weekly business English e-lesson for Macmillan and is currently working on his dissertation for his M.Ed in Technology and ELT.  www.petesharma.com

A04 - Tonya Trappe: Learning Business...Doing Business

Type: Workshop   Audience Size: 25-50   Audience Type: mixed   Length: 60 minutes

Summary: This workshop looks at the needs of students to learn about the business world (Learning Business), and also develop the skills they need to work effectively and professionally in it (Doing Business).  Amongst other issues Tonya will explore the usefulness of using authentic business material, the importance of cultural awareness and students' need for training in general office / career skill and higher-level 'executive' business communication skills.  Tonya will refer to material from the new Longman course Intelligent Business.

Biodata: Tonya Trappe is one of the authors of Insights into Business (Longman), one of the best-selling Business English courses ever.  She has been teaching in Paris for the last 15 years and has also taught in North Africa, Germany and Ireland.  She graduated in Economics from Trinity College Dublin.

A05 - Marjorie Rosenberg: Teaching Business English with our Students in Mind

Type: Workshop   Audience Size: any size   Audience Type: mixed   Length: 60 minutes

Summary: David Kolb’s model of learning styles is often used in team building processes or in project management to identify four different learner types. Kolb’s model has been further adapted by Bernice McCarthy in her 4-Mat system for use in the classroom. This active workshop will explain these two models and show you how they can be used in the business English classroom. You will see how to plan and carry out a lesson, have the chance to try out activities designed for the different phases of this learning cycle and take away materials to help you with your own lesson planning.

Biodata: Marjorie Rosenberg worked in advertising in New York City before coming to Austria in 1981. She teaches English for Specific Purposes at the Berufspädagogische Akademie in Graz and is involved in teacher training both in Europe and the United States concentrating on NLP and learning styles. Marjorie is the author of “Communicative Business Activities” published by öbv&hpt in Vienna in 2001.

A06 - Duncan Baker: Things Webby

Type: Round Table   Audience Size: 15-25   Audience Type: mixed   Length: 60 minutes

Summary: This is an open but prepared panel discussion on all things webby. It can cover marketing, materials preparation and integration and distance learning. We will be asking participants to pre-register and to submit questions at least 3 weeks before the start of the conference so that the panel can prepare the material to be covered. Questions from the floor will also be accepted but only after the pre-submitted questions have been answered. Participants will be encouraged to participate. We hope to have four panel members covering all aspects of integrating the web and the internet into what we do.

Biodata: Duncan Baker is marketing and administration partner of Lydbury English Centre. He runs his own website as well as those of various associations including BESIG.

A07 - Ian McMaster: Anyone seen a native-speaker?

Materials available: PowerPoint presentation (578kb)

Type: Talk   Audience Size: any size   Audience Type: mixed   Length: 60 minutes

Summary: It is often said that the vast majority of  worldwide communication in English is between non-native-speakers. Is this also true for business English? In this talk, Ian McMaster will present results from recent surveys of Business Spotlight readers. The surveys aimed to find out which tasks German-speakers needed to carry out in English at work, and with whom they were dealing. The consequences of the survey results for English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) will be discussed.

Biodata: Ian McMaster is editor-in-chief of Business Spotlight, a quarterly magazine for German-speakers who need English in their jobs (www.business-spotlight.de). He is also a qualified business English trainer.

A08 - Steve Oliver: Keeping It Real

Type: Workshop   Audience Size: 25-50   Audience Type: mixed   Length: 60 minutes

Summary: I believe very strongly in trying to work with my students in as authentic a way as possible.  I hope they see me as a colleague with whom they can cooperate as they would in their day-to-day lives.  At the same time the activities we do, the materials we use and the environment we work in should be as similar as possible to those they find in their office.  This workshop will be stuffed with ideas and activities for keeping it real.

Biodata: Steve Oliver is partner responsible for Executive Courses at Accent International Language Consultancy, a small, highly authentic operation in the south-west of England.  Steve has been involved with Business English as a teacher, teacher trainer, materials writer and manager for more than half his lifetime.

A09 - Marina Zvetina, Helen Bicknell : The Bologna Process and its Implications for Business English at Universities

Materials available: Handout (.doc, 42kb)

Type: Workshop   Audience Size: 15-25   Audience Type: mixed   Length: 60 minutes

Summary: The Bologna Process was signed by 32 European countries in 1999, and aims to establish a European Area of Higher Education by 2010, principally by establishing Bachelors and Masters degree courses throughout Europe. 

This workshop will introduce the aims and motives of the Bologna process, and wishes to allow participants to share their experiences and discuss developments at their institutions in order to identify possible challenges and/or opportunities for Business English teachers working in European higher education. 

Please bring any material on your course structures (present and planned) with you, if possible.

Biodata: Marina Zvetina, MA, University of Applied Sciences Wiesbaden, Germany Coordinator and Instructor, English Courses Dept. of Social and Cultural Studies Chair, ELTAF (English Language Teachers’ Association Frankfurt/Rhine-Main-Neckar)

Helen Bicknell, MA., University of Applied Sciences, Mainz, Business English Lecturer Member of ELTAF, IATEFL Liaison Officer, PhD researcher at Birmingham University, Subject: European Works Councils

A10 - Adrian Pilbeam: Problem solving and decision making across cultures

Materials available: PowerPoint presentation (80kb) * Handout (.doc, 32kb)

Type: Workshop   Audience Size: 25-50   Audience Type: experienced   Length: 60 minutes

Summary: If your learners are experienced business people who are working internationally, then they will often need to participate in problem solving and decision making meetings. These tasks are difficult enough in one's own culture, but when working in multicultural groups, many other factors also come into play. What is the most effective way to try to solve problems in large group discussions? How are decisions taken in different cultural settings? This workshop will look at different communication styles and approaches to meetings, using simulation and examples on video of different cultural groups participating in problem solving discussions.

Biodata: Adrian Pilbeam is a Senior Partner of LTS training and consulting in Bath, UK. He has many years' experience as a trainer and consultant in language, communication and intercultural skills for corporate clients, and is working increasingly on problem solving and decision making issues in multicultural teams.

B01 - Elizabeth Renshaw: How to be a Successful Freelance Business English Trainer

Type: Workshop Audience Size: any size Audience Type: mixed Length: 45 minutes

Summary: Hungry? No? Then squeeze in one more workshop before lunch - a swapshop full of top tips on how to be a successful (and profitable!) freelance trainer. What can you do to obtain new clients and how do you hang on to them once you have found them? Networking, acquisiton, contracts and finances all in 45 minutes! Come along, share your ideas and pick up new ones. Lunch can wait!

Biodata: Elizabeth Renshaw is a freelance Business English Trainer based Bonn, Germany. She works in company with a variety of corporate clients and as an English lecturer at a University of Applied Sciences. In her spare time, apart from looking after a husband, a business, a house and two small children, there doesn't seem to be much time left!

B02 - Barbara Mehlmauer-Larcher & Gunther Kaltenböck: Introducing a Genre-Informed Approach in Teaching Business English

Type: Audience Size: any size Audience Type: mixed Length: 45 minutes

Summary: Traditionally courses for Business English have focused on teaching the lexis and grammar of specific registers. New research on patterns of language use in professional settings provides useful insights which can be incorporated into the design of courses for Business English. A central concept in this discussion is genre awareness. In this talk we will investigate the potential of a genre-informed approach to teaching Business English by making students aware of the ways in which discourses are used to achieve specific aims in a certain discourse community.

Biodata: Barbara Mehlmauer-Larcher
My professional experience includes teaching English at secondary and tertiary level as well as conducting teacher education programmes. I currently work in the Department of English at the University of Vienna in the field of language teaching methodology. My main research intersts are ESP and foreign language teacher education.

Gunther Kaltenböck
He is a lecturer at the Department of English at the University of Vienna and teaches Business English at a Fachhochschule in Vienna. He has been involved in ELT for over ten years in Austria and Britain. His main research interests are phonetics, syntax, corpus linguistics and language teaching.

B03 - Ludmilla Yevtushenko: Compiling a Trilingual Business  Dictionary (Necessity, challenge, hardships)

Type: Talk   Audience Size: any size   Audience Type: mixed   Length: 30 minutes

Summary: The talk will be devoted to the hardships we’ve encountered since we decided to create a thematic dictionary. It will be used both for translation and for learning terminology related to different fields of business. Hence three major sections Management, Marketing, Finance, each of them being further subdivided into themes. Where to begin and when to stop? Those were major issues to solve. Initially it was planned to have about 1000 entries, but two years of work resulted in more than 4000 entries, and alphabetic indices in English, Ukrainian and Russian

Biodata: More than 25 years of varied experience in teaching English to students and adults. Free – lance interpreter and translator. Scientific Degree  in Linguistics. Currently – a head of Business English Department (International Management Institute). Co-authored 4 textbooks. Published more than 40 articles on language theory and methods of teaching.

B04 - Elena-Simona Mitocaru, Olesia Lupu : Business English Textbooks - "The Romanian Way"

Type: Materials   Audience Size: any size   Audience Type: mixed   Length: 30 minutes

Summary: The paper aims at presenting a comparative study on Romanian course books for Business English, focusing on the problems encountered by the presenters both while trying to adapt the materials available to the needs of the students and when designing a new in-house pilot-textbook called  "Episodes in Business English". While keeping the main topics imposed by the outcome of the first ESP national project, PROSPER, namely a course book entitled "English for Business and Administration" (EBA), we attempted upgrading and improving the content of the new manual. The paper analyses the needs of the target beneficiaries of this project and focuses on the specific characteristics of the Romanian undergraduate Business students, also referring to the outcome of this endeavour.

Biodata: Both presenters are lecturers at The Faculty of Economics and Business Administration of  "Al. I. Cuza" University in Iasi, one of the oldest and most prestigious universities of Romania. They teach Business English and have a strong interest in this area.

B05 - Olga Karpova, Vladimir Egorov : Mastering Business English Through Reference Works of New Generation

Type: Talk   Audience Size: 15-25   Audience Type: experienced   Length: 30 minutes

Summary: The presentation is devoted to the analysis of new types of reference works with special reference to Business Vocabulary in practice. Emphasis is placed on a new set of exercises in connection to electronic corpora and their role in the training of business English advanced level students. Practice Your Vocabulary Exercises are explained with reference to definite topics: the changing world, business and businesses, global training, sustainable development, production, sales, business performance, etc. Details of teaching effective communication in business are also focused on.

Biodata: Karpova Olga, Prof., Dr., Head of English Philology Department, Ivanovo State University, author of 212 works on lexicography, linguistics and teaching English as a career.

Egorov Vladimir, Dr., Prof., president of Ivanovo State University, author of 190 works in economics and business.

B06 - Bettina Höfels: How to become a Blended Learning teacher

Type: Talk   Audience Size: any size   Audience Type: mixed   Length: 45 minutes

Summary: The field of e-teaching, and in particular blended learning courses, represents a challenge for many teachers. What do we need to learn in order to work with modern blended learning courses effectively? Which skills make a teacher of blended learning courses successful?  These questions involve among other issues the appropriate deployment of media, a revision of social and communication skills, group administration and computer skills.  How can we acquire these skills? Gain an insight into the Train-the-Trainer program that complements the PONS GET (Global English Training) blended learning courses. Any successful blended learning teacher training must integrate the claims that blended learning in general make with those of an individual course/product.

Biodata: Bettina Höfels (M.A.) has taught English and German in Germany and Japan. She currently works as a multi-media editor of English blended learning materials for adults at the Klett publishing house in Stuttgart.

B07 - David Grant: Personalised activities for busy teachers

Type: Workshop   Audience Size: mixed   Audience Type:    Length: 45 minutes

Summary: Personalised activities are probably the most reliable barometer of individual progress, but they can demand a lot of advance preparation. This workshop will look at relatively effortless ways of getting working professionals to talk about (or communicate in) their own work situation. We will focus both on specific language-practice activities and more spontaneous discussions. We will also take into account differences in approach when teaching management or non-management employees

Biodata: David Grant is the Director of International Language Services in Nantes, France. He has more than 20 years of business teaching experience in France, England and Spain. He is the co-author of Business Basics, Quick Work Elementary and Business Focus.

B08 - Inge Koch, Neva Cebron : Cross-cultural Issues in Business Communication

Type:  Workshop  Audience Size: 25-50   Audience Type: mixed   Length: 45 minutes

Summary: The project entails founding a simulated company to market a product or service of the participants' choice and carrying out commercial correspondence with similar companies from different countries. The project coordinators provide the international contacts, i.e., students in a similar situation. It will enable the students to learn about the workings of a company (interdependence of various departments in developing and selling a product or service) as well as gain practice in a near-realistic situation dealing with international suppliers and customers. This includes presenting the company to prospective business partners (making students, their company and their product known and designing an advertisement), writing and receiving enquiries, offers and orders and dealing with financial and transportation matters and adjustments.

Biodata: Mag. Inge Koch is a Professor at the Secondary College for Business Administration Wien 13, also called Schumpeter Commercial College, a vocational College, specialised in Entrepreneurship Education and Ability teaching. She is the head of the Health Promotion Centre at the ‘Pädagigische Institut des Bundes in Vienna’ and a lecturer at the ‘Sportakademie’ and the ‘Institut für Sportwissenschaften‘ in Vienna. Mag. Koch has done her Master degree in English and Sports at the Philosophical Faculty of the Viennese University. 

Mag. Neva Cebron started developing the ideas underlying the practices within the CCBC project together with Mag.Inge Koch in 1999 and coordinated it from the very beginning. Her professional interests include translation, ESP, cognitive linguistics, comparative linguistics and ICC. She has been teaching ESP at different tertiary institution since 1991, presently at the University of Primorska, Faculty of Humanities of Koper, Slovenia.

B09 - Oleg Tarnopolsky, Svitlana Kozhushko : Immersion into Finances: Teaching Finances or Teaching Business English?

Type: Talk   Audience Size: any size   Audience Type: mixed   Length: 45 minutes

Summary: The talk discusses a novel approach to teaching Business English to university students in Ukraine. The approach is based on organising mini-courses on different professional subjects in the framework of Business English programme for senior university students majoring in Business and Economics. The mini-courses on Finances, Marketing and Management are designed just as ordinary ones on such subjects – including lectures, seminars, practical tasks and tests – with the difference that they are given in English only. The talk analyses one of such mini-courses – on Finances – and demonstrates its outcomes, both for teaching Business English and for teaching Finances.

Biodata: Full Professor, Dr. Oleg Tarnopolsky is the author of books and articles on EFL. He heads the Department of Applied Linguistics and Methods in Foreign Language Teaching at Dnipropetrovsk University of Economics and Law (Ukraine).  Associate Professor, Dr. Svitlana Kozhushko heads the Foreign Language Department at Dnipropetrovsk University of Economics and Law (Ukraine).

B10 - Pauline Brazier: Teaching Business English for Academic Purposes

Materials available: Handout (.doc, 73kb) * PowerPoint Presentation (148kb) * Discussion group feedback (.doc, 688kb)

Type: Talk   Audience Size: any size   Audience Type: mixed   Length: 45 minutes

Summary: Details the philosophy and pedagogy of a school where Business English is taught to over 40 different nationalities as preparation for university study. It examines the variety of teaching approaches and assessments that enable sufficient development of English language skills that its multicultural, multilingual students  need to successfully study business in an English-language university. The issues and questions raised concerning effective Business English teaching within the IUM department will be common questions and issues that all Communications Departments working with non-native speakers have. Whilst the approach to Business English teaching for Academic Purposes may not be unique, it aims to share and evoking discussion in teaching Business English for academic purposes.

Biodata: Post script Hoping to develop discussion and research into meeting The European Framework of reference with regard to communications courses. (PHD topic)

C06 -  Kathy Jähnig, Cornelsen Verlag: Just five reasons to use Cornelsen’s Short Courses!

Type: Publisher on behalf of: Cornelsen Verlag   Audience Size: any size   Audience Type: mixed   Length: 45 minutes

Summary: Cornelsen’s Short Courses

S pecifically cater to the real needs of ESP learners at B1 and B2 levels

H elp students learn vocab and expressions through a wide range of exercises

O ffer opportunities for personalization and discussion

R equire students’ active participation through role-play activities and pairwork tasks

T arget the essential language that learners need to do their jobs effectively.

Whether used to supplement a coursebook or on their own, the Short Courses enable learners to quickly assimilate key structures and phrases for a variety of skills and business areas (Emails – Telephoning– Automobile Industry – Accounting – HR – Customer Care). This presentation will introduce you to the key features of the series. We shall also discuss and develop ideas on how to use the book(s) in order to meet the learners’ needs in various classroom situations.

Biodata: Kathy Jähnig teaches in-company courses and supports professionals in their English needs. Currently her major affiliation is with the German subsidiary of an American pharmaceutical company. Kathy has an MSc in Teaching English for Specific Purposes and is Vice Chair of ELTAB-B (English Teacher's Association in Berlin and Brandenburg). Although she is from the US, as her name indicates her links to Germany are not only professional.

C07 - Paul Emmerson: Improving email writing skills

Type: Publisher on behalf of: Macmillan   Audience Size: any size   Audience Type: mixed   Length: 45 minutes

Summary: The talk will discuss practical ideas for working on email writing with students, and will include a look at some activities from Email English (Macmillan). This book is designed for self-study or classroom use, and gives comprehensive and systematic practice of the language of emails.

Biodata: Paul Emmerson works as a writer, teacher and teacher trainer. He is the author of Business Builder, Business Grammar Builder, Business English Frameworks and Email English. He teaches at the International House Executive Centre, London, and has worked as a teacher trainer all over Europe.

C08 - Bill Mascull: Business English for low-level learners

Type: Publisher on behalf of: Thomson-Heinle   Audience Size: any size   Audience Type: mixed   Length: 45 minutes

Summary: There is increasing demand for specialised business English courses among pre-work and in-work low-level learners. Best Practice is a two-level course designed to meet this need. I’ll be highlighting some of its key features - attractive business scenarios and situations  - straight-to-the-point grammar presentation and practice  - immediate use by students of this language  - intensive telephone work  - interesting reading activities  - systematic vocabulary development  - realistic writing tasks  - regular revision  - accessible grammar- and vocabulary-building resources.   And I’ll be showing how these features can be combined and adapted for particular learning situations.

Biodata: Bill Mascull has taught English and trained teachers in Sweden and France, where he became particularly interested in materials writing and the interplay between materials and teaching. Now based in the UK, he is a full-time writer and lexicographer.

C09 - Désirée Verdonk, Hans Platzer : English competence among first year business students

Materials available: Handout (.pdf, 382kb)

Type: Talk   Audience Size: any size   Audience Type: mixed   Length: 45 minutes

Summary: At the beginning of the academic year 2003/04 all first year business students at the ""Fachhochschule Wiener Neustadt"" were subjected to a quick placement test (OUP) to ascertain their English competence as well as to a set of vocabulary levels tests (Nation) to establish the size of their passive vocabulary.

We shall report on the results of these tests, which provide a rough idea about competence levels among students entering tertiary education. Following on from this, we will deal with possible repercussions for one closely defined area of BE teaching, viz. the reading of unsimplified material from the business pages.

Biodata: Désirée D. Verdonk, Mag. Dr.  M.A. in interpreting and translating, Univ. of Vienna Ph.D. in economic history, Univ. of Vienna -Head of the English Department,  "Fachhochschule Wiener Neustadt" (since 2000) -Secretary General of the "Österreichischer Fachhochschulrat" (1994-1997) -Assistant, Department of Economic and Social History, Univ. of Economics Business Administration, Vienna (1993-1994) -Research Assistant, Business History Unit, London School of Economics (1990-1993)

Hans Platzer: M.A., Ph.D. in historical linguistics, Univ. of Vienna Posts held • BE trainer, "Fachhochschule Wiener Neustadt" (since 2002) • Assistant, Dept. of English Studies, Univ. of Vienna (1992 - 2002) • External lecturer, Univ. of Economics and Business Administration (Vienna) and ""Fachhochschule der Wiener Wirtschaft"" (until 2002)

C10 - Luigi Cosenza: B-Teaching and E-Teaching for BE Teaching

Type: Talk   Audience Size: any size   Audience Type: mixed   Length: 45 minutes

Summary: E-learning and blended learning - these umbrella expressions need to be un-hyped and un-bundled. As language teachers and intercultural communication trainers, how can we combine pedagogy and technology to add value to our courses? Blend - yes - but what do we blend and to what end? How do we make sense of the plethora of software products on the market? How do we avoid the risk of using technology for technology's sake? This talk will try to answer these questions allowing for the specific needs of corporate BE learners, by carefully classifying the pedagogic and technological options.

Biodata: Luigi Cosenza BA, FIA, DipTEFLA, MA(TESOL) works in the corporate world as a Business English and Financial English teacher, materials writer, teacher trainer and consultant and in the academic world as an e-tutor and distance lecturer in teacher education. His major affiliations are with Deutsche Bank AG in Frankfurt (since 1991) and with the University of London's Institute of Education (since 1997).

 

D01 - Nick Brieger, Gabriele Eilert-Ebke, Timothy Phillips: Corporate Communication and Language Trainer Certificate

Type: Professional   Audience Size: any size   Audience Type: mixed   Length: 60 minutes

Summary: CLTC (Corporate Communication and Language Trainer Certificate) is a new training competency award being developed by a group of partner organisations for in-company Business Communication trainers.  The award will be based around a 50-hour training cycle and a series of portfolio tasks.  The training will cover:

Module 1 – a framework for Business Communication (what and how)

Module 2 – e-learning (technology and materials)

Module 3 – blended learning for corporate environments

The partner organisations are:

• Bosch
• Geeport
• Henkel
• Phillips Learning
• 3M
• York Associates

In this presentation, we aim to present the thinking behind this certificated programme and to introduce the content of the modules.

Biodata: Nick Brieger is a director of York Associates. He divides his time between:

• running language and communication skills training courses for in-service professionals
• training Business English teachers
• writing materials for the Business English classroom

Gabriele Eilert-Ebke is a training manager at Henkel KGaA, Duesseldorf, where she is in charge of:

• planning and organising business communication courses for managers and employees
• consulting affiliated companies of Henkel on training measures
• co-ordinating training measures with Human Resources

Timothy Phillips is founder of Phillips Learning GmbH which focuses on

• developing the communication skills, including language skills, of staff in companies
• advising companies on the integration of new technologies into their training courses
• preparing trainers for the demands that new learning technologies bring with them

D02 - Steve Flinders, Simon Sweeney : Getting the balance right; English for work and life

Type: Publisher on behalf of: Cambridge University Press   Audience Size: 50-80   Audience Type: mixed   Length: 60 minutes

Summary: Do Business English courses provide the language and skills that most adult learners actually want and need? The second level of English365 (Cambridge University Press: lower intermediate to intermediate) is based on the premise that learners are motivated by materials that address their personal as well as their professional needs.

In this talk, Steve Flinders and Simon Sweeney will use sample materials to demonstrate some of the key features of this course including authentic content, a strong lexical and communicative thrust, a variety of learner training activities and a Personal Study Book which also aims to encourage all-year-round learning.

Biodata: Steve Flinders studied Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Oxford University. In 1992 he joined York Associates as the partner in charge of Publications and teaching resources. He is the author of a number of titles for learners of professional English. He has a special interest in English for human resources, trade union and political purposes.

Simon Sweeney is a lecturer at York St John College in the School of Management, Community and Communication. He has published numerous books on Business English. Formerly Head of the International Language and Short Course Unit at York St John, in recent years he has specialised in management, marketing and international studies.

D03 - Donal O´Riada (formerly Reid): Edutainment?

Type: Workshop   Audience Size: any size   Audience Type: mixed   Length: 60 minutes

Summary: Edutainment: Is one of our functions to entertain course participants? Should we try to be funny? (Is it possible to be funny yet inoffensive and still teach?) Can we be crude if it's for a good cause? Where do we draw the line? Can central Europeans be humerous? These and other questions like who made the world will be explored in a workshop designed to see if we can mix entertainment with education.

Biodata: Donal O`Riada (formerly Reid, it´s a long story) teaches business english in the Augsburg region for ibc and sometimes gets frustrated with his station in life and wonders can we liven it up a bit.

D04 - John Hughes: Three for the price of nothing.

Type: Publisher on behalf of: OUP. Workshop   Audience Size: any size   Audience Type: mixed   Length: 60 minutes

Summary: Mix the thoughts of management gurus with a sprinkling of corporate training and add a good dose of language teaching – surely a recipe for some thought-provoking classroom tasks. This practical workshop asks you to come and try them out. And better still the collection of activities are all drawn from a source of online Business English materials which are downloadable, instant and absolutely free.

Biodata: The speaker runs a teacher training department in the UK, including a course leading to the LCCIEB Foundation Certificate for Teachers of Business English. He is also a materials writer and has recently written online materials for OUP.

D05 - Jennifer Burkart: The Cross-Cultural Conference Room

Type: Publisher on behalf of: Intercultural Resource Corporation   Audience Size: 15-25   Audience Type: mixed   Length: 60 minutes

Summary: A video will be presented that demonstrates how teams of experienced managers from the United States, South America and Japan, all working for the same multi-national company, attempt to solve a product failure dilemma.  The non-scripted deliberations bring out striking ethical and cultural differences in decision-making, teamwork and management styles.  For the purposes of contrast and self-reflection, participants will engage in the same deliberations as the executives in the video.  Materials will be presented for using the video with Business English learners.

Biodata: Jennifer Burkart has worked as a Business English trainer in Germany since 1999.  She has her M.A. in English and TESOL from West Virginia University and her Intercultural Foundations Certificate from the Intercultural Communication Institute

D06-D10 -  LUNCH

E01 - Michael Lewis: The Shock Of Real English

Type: Talk   Audience Size: any size   Audience Type: mixed   Length: 60 minutes

Summary: Many corpora are designed to show what is typical. I will present many real, often amusing, examples of what is interesting. Examples which challenge EFL 'rules'; words which 'don't exist'; patterns not noticed before. Will shock, amuse, and change your idea of ideas and grammar rules forever.

Biodata: Michael Lewis has 30 years experience in the world of ELT. He has written and edited several titles including: The English Verb, Practical Techniques for Language Teaching, The Lexical Approach, Implementing the Lexical approach, and Teaching Collocation. He now spends more time attending lectures than he does giving them. He continues to study language but has much more time to spend on his other interests: cricket, opera and the history of ideas.

E02- Heather Daldry: Working for or against examinations?  A workshop on the Cambridge Business English Certificates (BEC)

Type: Workshop   Audience Size: 50-80   Audience Type: mixed   Length: 60 minutes

Summary: Preparing language learners in a classroom for an examination: how relevant can this be for those working in business needing English as a flexible and strategic tool? This workshop looks at ways of developing speaking and writing skills using scenarios flexible enough to reflect the diversity of business interaction while preparing the learners for an international examination.

Biodata: Heather Daldry works as a teacher trainer and consultant and has worked with teachers and organisations in Europe, South America and Asia. She is an examinations consultant at Cambridge ESOL where her work includes being a senior seminar presenter and a Principal Examiner for BEC Vantage Writing.

E03 - Evan Frendo, James Schofield : Dos and don'ts are not the only way

Type: Workshop   Audience Size: any size   Audience Type: mixed   Length: 60 minutes

Summary: Teachers often complain that many business English coursebooks either take a Cosmopolitan magazine approach to intercultural training, focusing on lists of dos and don'ts or simply quote directly from the gurus without integrating the intercultural elements usefully with the language training elements. This workshop will use activities from ' Double Dealing' pre-intermediate and intermediate levels to show that there are other ways to approach this very important part of business English teaching.

Biodata: Evan Frendo has worked as a business English trainer, consultant and writer since 1993. He is currently based in Singapore, where he is working on an EdD,focussing on small talk within an intercultural business communication context. James Schofield has taught in Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Spain and Germany, for various organizations including the British Council and Language Training Services. He now works for Siemens in Munich. He is married, has seven children, two cats and a blind goldfish.

E04 - Petra Colak, Tamara Crnko Gmaz : Define learning styles and maximise your teaching results

Type: Workshop   Audience Size: 25-50   Audience Type: mixed   Length: 60 minutes

Summary: Most successful teacher-trainers are those who understand how adults learn. BE trainees are goal-oriented professionals who learn best what helps meet their needs.  The effective teacher-trainer provides trainees with meaningful, varied and appropriate experience through multi-sensory approach involving trainees’ feelings, thoughts, memories of past experiences and physical activity.  The workshop will help you define learning styles and provide the necessary tools to maximise the performance of those involved in the learning process.  Motivation is all about interest and personal benefit. If your trainees can see immediate benefits, they will perform better and the results will be longer lasting.

Biodata: Colak, Petra has 8 years' experience in BE teaching. In 1997, she founded HalPet business communicatin based in Zagreb, Croatia. HalPet specializes in BE teaching and providing training in Business Communication Skills to major Croatian companies. It currently employs 35 teachers. Apart from running the centre, as a trainer and NLP practitioner, she is involved in training, teacher-training, creating courses and writing BE materials. 

Crnko Gmaz, Tamara has been in BE teaching for 8 years. She joined HalPet in 1999 (see data on Petra Colak). As a teacher-trainer her responsibilities involve teacher-training and intensive training, mainly for middle and senior management. One of her main priorities is to work on a constant improvement of the training quality level in the centre, which involves mentoring, creating new programmes, etc.

E05 - Almut Koester: Authentic English at Work

Type: Workshop   Audience Size: any size   Audience Type: mixed   Length: 60 minutes

Summary: What role do summaries play in negotiations? Why is vague language frequently used when talking about facts and figures? When can being explicit be a bad thing? Why are idioms used when people talk about problems at work? When does small talk occur during a business conversation?  In this workshop you will learn about some interesting and perhaps surprising characteristics of business and workplace conversations which can be discovered by studying recordings of real examples. We will look at ways of introducing learners to some of this language and discuss ideas and activities for the classroom.

Biodata: Almut Koester is a lecturer in English Language at the University of Birmingham, and previously was a Business English teacher and teacher trainer in Germany. She is author of *The Language of Work*, which is based on her doctoral thesis, and writes a column on “Authentic English” for Business Spotlight.

E06 - Patrizia Spella: Intercultural Communication for learners of Business English

Type: Workshop   Audience Size: 15-25   Audience Type: mixed   Length: 60 minutes

Summary: When business people are sent on foreign assignments, learning the language is not the only challenge they face.  As part of the preparation process, being well-informed about the host country’s customs and traditions is also crucial. However, additional emotional and communicative challenges can also hinder successful integration into a new culture.  This workshop will demonstrate activities that can be used with learners to introduce some of the additional challenges they could face abroad, and will provide some insight into the sources of these challenges. Strategies to help them adapt successfully to the new environment will also be reflected on.

Biodata: Patrizia Spella (1960) studied at Strathclyde University in Scotland and, after 12 years in tourism abroad, retrained as an EFL teacher.  She is currently employed at the Fachhochschul-Studiengang International Business Relations in Eisenstadt, Austria, where she teaches Intercultural Communication and Business English.  She is a freelance teacher trainer and completed an MBA with the Open University in 2002.

E07 - Brian Shields: What can the Training Department do for us?

Materials available: Session notes (,doc, 56kb)

Type: Workshop   Audience Size: 15-25   Audience Type: mixed   Length: 60 minutes

Summary: Working with a professional, committed Training Department can make in-company language training rewarding and successful for all involved. But we do not always have that luxury - and some clients may not even have a dedicated training function. This workshop will deal with the practical side of working with clients to set up and run in-company language training. Key issues to be explored include identifying and handling different types of client, getting the information we need, 'client education', flexibility without compromise. There will be opportunities for experienced trainers and those new to in-company work to swap experiences and ask questions.

Biodata: Brian Shields has over 20 years' experience in a variety of roles within Business English training and management development. He is currently with the University of Central Lancashire, where he teaches Business English and Communication Skills and Human Resource Management and Development, and runs an MA in Teaching English for International Business.

E08 - Michael O'Connor: Powerpoint for Student Presentations:  Added Value or Audience Nightmare ?

Type: Workshop   Audience Size: 25-50   Audience Type: mixed   Length: 60 minutes

Summary: Since its introduction 20 years ago,  Powerpoint presentation software has become a staple of business presentations.  At the same time, misuse and abuse of  Powerpoint software has led to a backlash of rejection. This presentation will briefly retrace the extraordinary growth of Powerpoint and analyze why so many people in business and teaching are criticizing it.  The speaker will present tips on how to get the most out of the software to add  value to business presentations without boring the public.  Common errors in slide design and information presentation will be addressed.  The workshop will include practical activities that can be used in the classroom  to help students design effective Powerpoint presentations as a complement to their in-class oral presentations.

Biodata: Michael O'Connor is reference librarian at Audencia Nantes School of Management in Nantes France, where he trains students in information literacy and presentation skills.

E09 - Elke Beder: Can Erin Brockovich, Bridget Jones and the Godfather teach your students business English?

Type: Workshop   Audience Size: 15-25   Audience Type: mixed   Length: 60 minutes

Summary: In teaching Business English we often face the problem of having to find materials that reflect the real business world instead of the business world of the language classroom. Therefore, scenes from films are an ideal source of language activities because they provide both "authentic" language and business situations. Film scenes are short, fun and learners are usually familiar with the films. They can be exploited to teach a wide range of topics including presentations, meetings, role plays, vocabulary work and grammar. This workshop will introduce hands-on activities and ideas that can easily be adapted to any Business English class.

Biodata: Elke Beder works at Campus Graz, a specialized branch of the Fachhochschul system in Austria, in the Degree Program IT& IT Marketing. She is a freelance teacher and teacher trainer and specializes in Business English and materials design for using films in the language classroom.

E10 - Miriam Jacob, Roberta Wedge: writing for the big wide world

Materials available : Powerpoint presentation (32kb)

Type: Workshop   Audience Size: 25-50   Audience Type: mixed   Length: 60 minutes

Summary: Email is the most common form of business writing today, and millions of people around the word are only too aware of their need to improve the clarity of the emails they send in English. However, finding a motivating and realistic context for both professional and pre-experience trainees to write professional correspondence either within or from an organisation with appropriate levels of civility and formality is not always easy. We hope to show that by developing a scenario and providing realistic writing tasks trainees can develop not only accuracy but also appropriacy of style when writing for different purposes and audiences.

Biodata: Miriam and Roberta have both worked at the University of Westminster since the mid-1990s. They have a combined total of 25 years' experience of teaching Business English.  Roberta worked internationally before doing her MBA; Miriam is the co-author of English for International Tourism, Longman, 1997.

F01 - David Cotton: A New Edition of Market Leader

Type: Publisher on behalf of: Pearson Education   Audience Size: 50-80   Audience Type: mixed   Length: 45 minutes

Summary: The Market Leader series has been a popular choice for Business English teachers around the world.  In his presentation, author David Cotton will talk about the ideas behind the course and what considerations were made when developing a new edition of the Intermediate level.

Biodata: David Cotton has 30 years experience of teaching and training in ESP, EFL and Enlgish for Business.  He is one of the authors of the best-selling Longman titles Business Class and Market Leader.  He is currently a Senior Lecturer at London Guildhall University.

F02 - Adrian Pilbeam: Bringing authenticity into business English courses

Materials available: PowerPoint presentation (72kb)

Type: Materials   Audience Size: any size   Audience Type: mixed   Length: 45 minutes

Summary: Whether you are working with pre-experience students or business executives, it is vital to make the context of business English courses as authentic as possible. One way is to use extracts from the business press and from authentic business documents. But greater impact can be obtained by combining these with short video reports based on real businesses. In this interactive presentation,  I will show how the video reports in OUP's ""Big City"" series of videos can introduce authenticity and also act as a springboard for case study work.

Biodata: Adrian Pilbeam is a Senior Partner of LTS training and consulting in Bath, UK. He has many years' experience as a trainer and consultant in language, communication and intercultural skills for corporate clients. He has also written and published a wide range of business English material.

F03 - Bill Mascull: Presenting and practising advanced business vocabulary

Materials available: PowerPoint presentation (.ppt, 9.4Mb; .zip, 8.2Mb)

Type: Publisher on behalf of: Cambridge University Press   Audience Size: any size   Audience Type: mixed   Length: 45 minutes

Summary: Business Vocabulary in Use - Advanced  builds on the success of Business Vocabulary in Use.  It is designed to develop vocabulary skills in eight key areas: The human dimension, Quality, Strategy, Marketing, IT and its uses, Finance, Corporate responsibility, Global economy.  I’ll be looking at some of the main issues in these areas, showing some of the ways in which the related vocabulary can be presented, and how it can then be practised in controlled and then freer contexts.

Biodata: Bill Mascull has taught English and trained teachers in Sweden and France, where he became particularly interested in materials writing and the interplay between materials and teaching. Now based in the UK, he is a full-time writer and lexicographer.

F04 - Mark Ellis: The Importance of Context and Probability in Designing Activities

Type: Talk   Audience Size: 25-50   Audience Type: mixed   Length: 45 minutes

Summary: The presentation examines the importance of context in the production of probable language. Probable language can be presented to learners and evaluated by trainers, in terms of collocation, lexical blocks, pragmatic force, the use of the sound system, and a variety of other factors which together go to making up our assessment of appropriacy.  The argument is that learners become used to the idea that language is not just grammar, but also extended vocabulary, interactive devices which may be culturally bound, and a complex of organisational devices which together work as a fundamental operating system. There will be audience interaction.

Biodata: Mark Ellis is a partner at LTS.  He is author of a large number of books for general and Business English, including Teaching Business English (OUP). In recent years he has given many presentations at conferences on matters relating to the lexical approach.

F05 - Goeran Nieragden: YUPPIE--WOOPIE--NIMBY? Using Acronyms For Conversation Activities in Adult Classes

Materials available: Handout (.doc, 37kb)

Type: Talk   Audience Size: any size   Audience Type: mixed   Length: 45 minutes

Summary: One of the principal aims of all courses in adult foreign language tuition is to increase students' competence in spoken English. This includes range as well as fluency, and, moreover, it surpasses job- or 'business'-related contexts, as it is a trite that both pre-work and in-work learners of English for the Office, Business Communication etc. find an 'ordinary', everyday conversation not entirely un-problematic. A variety of easily manageable (and zero preparation!) activities are pointed out which are based on any number of current acronyms used for describing trends in society, fashion, economics, and politics.

Biodata: Goeran enjoys wearing different teaching hats. Holding a Ph.D. and an M.A. in English Literature and Linguistics, he teaches English Literary Studies at Cologne University, English for Business and Law at the city's University of Applied Sciences, and a variety of company courses. He has published widely in English Studies.

F06 - Paul East: Publishing Your Own Materials

Type: Publisher on behalf of: eBooks World   Audience Size: any size   Audience Type: mixed   Length: 60 minutes

Summary: Getting accepted by a traditional publisher is very difficult but e-publishing is accessible to everyone. Particularly in ESP, there is a dearth of materials and e-publishing gives teachers the opportunity to provide others with materials to fill this gap - and the royalties are good, too! This presentation will give an overview of ebooks with examples of published materials. All participants will receive a 400+ page handout in a digital form containing the presentation together with articles and information on e-publishing and e-books.

Biodata: Paul East is the owner of Pyramid MultiMedia Consulting based in Ulm, Germany. Pyramid provides Business English and management training, translation services, Technical English, legal seminars and customized company e-learning training. eBooks World offers e-publishing and print on demand with its main focus on the education sector.

F07 - Mark Waistell: May I help you?

Type: Talk   Audience Size: any size   Audience Type: mixed   Length: 60 minutes

Summary: Many UK and US multinationals are now outsourcing their call centres to "the developing world" to take advantage of cheap telecommunications and labour costs. The controversy over this is well-known. If you call from Oxford to find a number in Birmingham, your call may go to an operator in Delhi or Manila. What are the problems facing the call-centre operators when they receive calls? What are the problems facing the enquirer when they make calls? What are the problems facing the Business English Consultant/Trainers when they try to make sense of it all? This talk/workshop examines the overlap of linguistic, cultural, commercial and ethical considerations involved and uses a real case study of recent work and authentic materials to illustrate it all.

Biodata: Mark Waistell is Senior Partner at Accent International, a specialist Business and Professional English Executive Centre based in Devon, UK but working with corporate clients all over the world. He has more than 25 years' experience in EFL, ESP and EBP as teacher, teacher-trainer, DOS, Principal, author and lecturer. His work now involves strategic planning, management and marketing ...and trying to spend as much time in the classroom as possible. He is currently Chair of Business English UK.

F08 - Trevor Smith: Best practices in Business English -Sales and Marketing

Type: Workshop   Audience Size: any size   Audience Type: mixed   Length: 60 minutes

Summary: Best Practices in Business English – Sales and Marketing   The days of your top clients giving you an unending number of courses and seminars are long gone! It is now time to look again at the marketing of our products and the sales process in order to gain a competitive advantage and thus EARN more MONEY! This workshop will ask (and hopefully answer) the question "Are we sure we are selling what the client really needs, and how can we maximise our profit?" New concepts such as consultative selling and value-based approaches will be introduced.

Biodata: Trevor works for ibc Business English in Augsburg Germany and runs Vision Training and Consulting, which provides management training and is based in Prague; Czech Republic.

F09 - Blanka Frydrychova Klimova: Written English and its Transformation

Type: Workshop   Audience Size: 15-25   Audience Type: mixed   Length: 60 minutes

Summary: Owing to the development of new information technology media, written language is constantly being changed. Thus some typical features of written language are disappearing. What does written discourse look like nowadays? How has it changed? Is there still any difference between spoken English and its written form? Come to the workshop to discover it!

Biodata: PhDr. Blanka Frydrychova Klimova, M.A., Ph.D., teaches at the Faculty of Informatics and Management of the University of Hradec Kralove in the Czech Republic. Her field of interest is teaching business English and writing.

F10 - Emma Sue Prince: Certificate in Teaching Business English - ARELS/LCCIEB CertTEB

Type: Workshop   Audience Size: any size   Audience Type:    Length: 60 minutes

Summary: The workshop will focus on presentation and update of this qualification for experienced business English teachers. Key differences between CertTEB and FTBE will be highlighted as well as key developments in the business English teaching world with regard to qualifications for business English teachers.

Details and highlights of current courses will be explained and demonstrated through some short interactive exercises.

Biodata: Emma-Sue Prince, CertTEB Moderator, LCCIEB Chief Examiner FTBE is an experienced business English teacher trainer working mainly in developing and transitional environments. She also has her own business consultancy focusing on management development and business strategy and works with a wide range of businesses in the UK and internationally. More recently the consultancy has ventured into CSR work with corporates and business mentoring as well as social entrpreneurship.

Sunday

G01 - Diane Boardman: Speaking American English - Pronunciation Essentials

Materials available: Handout 1(slides. .doc, 836kb) * handout 2 (.doc, 27kb)

Type: Workshop   Audience Size: 50-80   Audience Type: mixed   Length: 60 minutes

Summary: More and more English language learners wish to become skilled in the pronunciation of American English for both social and business concerns.  This informative, interactive seminar will focus on aspects of the pronunciation of American English which English language instructors may incorporate into their classes as an integral part of the language learning process.  Participants will understand why pronunciation is so important for effective oral communication.   This presentation is appropriate for instructors of beginner through advanced students. Topics include pronunciation rules for (1) Articles   (2) The American "th"   (3) Plurals/possessives, and   (4) Basic intonation patterns.   Time will be left  for a question and answer period.

Biodata: Diane Boardman M.A., CCC-SLP is a licensed Speech-Language Pathologist born and living in New York.  She received her M.A. in Speech-Language Pathology from Queens College, C.U.N.Y.  Ms. Boardman works with adults from around the world to improve their pronunciation of American Enlgish, at Hunter College, C.U.N.Y., as well as through her private practice.

G02 - James Schofield: Preparing students for BEC Higher and Vantage. Materials and activities

Materials available now: Handout - Resource comparison (.doc, 45kb) * BEC Feedback (Excel spreadsheet, 442kb)

Type: Workshop   Audience Size: 50-80   Audience Type: mixed   Length: 60 minutes

Summary: Contents: The BEC exam suite demands a big investment from our students in terms of time and money. How can we make sure that we give them the best possible preparation? This workshop looks firstly at the different exam components, and then together we will design a programme of activities and materials that we can use to make sure they pass. Please feel free to bring along materials, ideas, website addresses etc to share with your colleagues

Biodata: James Schofield has taught in Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Spain and Germany, for various organizations including the British Council and Language Training Services. He now works for Siemens in Munich. He is married, has seven children, two cats and a blind goldfish.

G03 - Keith Harding: Touching the void: bridging the gap between structure and topic

Type: Workshop   Audience Size: any size   Audience Type: mixed   Length: 60 minutes

Summary: The key challenge at Intermediate level is making the connection between the conventional grammar and language syllabus on the one hand, and the realistic and relevant use of language on the other. How can we make the content of an Intermediate course book meet this challenge for professional adults? Of paramount importance is the selection of topics and texts that are not only interesting on an international scale, but which also carry the structures and lexis needed at Intermediate level. Reference will be made to how this worked in writing the new edition of International Express.

Biodata: Keith Harding is the author/joint-author of International Express Intermediate (new edition), High Season, and Going International. He is also Principal at St Giles College Highgate, where he has also been a teacher, teacher trainer, and Director of Studies.

G04 - Marc Frye: New Basis for Business

Type: Publisher on behalf of: Cornelsen Verlag   Audience Size: any size   Audience Type: mixed   Length: 60 minutes

Summary: This talk introduces New Basis for Business – the new two-level Business English course especially designed for German-speaking learners. In addition to providing an overview of the coursebooks and the various components, this presentation will focus on one important feature of the course the Business Files. Covering a wide range of business areas (from writing emails to taking part in meetings), the business files provide relevant hands-on training in everyday business tasks and help learners gain the confidence they need when it comes to doing business in English.

Biodata: 1983 - 2000 Language teaching experience 1990 - M.A. in Applied Linguisitcs University of Hamburg Since 2001 Cornelsen sales rep.

G05 - Tamara Sladoljev-Agejev: “Glocalising” Business English classes

Type: Workshop   Audience Size: 15-25   Audience Type: mixed   Length: 60 minutes

Summary: Glocalising Business English classes  In today's globalised world hardly any domestic business issue is of solely local nature. This offers a lot of opportunities to BE teachers to introduce local issues in order to increase students' class participation and their motivation to learn. The workshop will focus on examples from Croatia's business life which might also be of interest to international audience (e.g. EU, M&A in the finance industry etc.)

Biodata: WORK EXPERIENCE  1998 - present Business English lecturer at the Graduate School of Economics and BUsiness, University of Zagreb  1994 - present interpreting and translation assignments in Croatia and abroad; BE courses with in-service students  EDUCATION  2002 Etudes europeennes (M.A.), Universite Pantheon-Assas, Paris II  1993 English and French language and literature (B.A.), University of Zagreb

G06 - Viktor Slepovitch: Strategies of Teaching Intercultural Business Communication

Type: Talk   Audience Size: any size   Audience Type: mixed   Length: 30 minutes

Summary: Issues of intercultural business communication should increasingly be in the focus of teachers' attention. In addition to general knowledge of what the process and model of business communication are about, they need to be aware of implications that stand behind messages. For students to be confident and competent in their intercultural business communication, they should follow a number of guidelines that can also be qualified as strategies in that field. The paper focuses on strategies of intercultural business communication which can be incorporated in the process of teaching business English to students majoring in international business and international economic relations.

Biodata: Ph.D. in linguistics, Head of Business English Department at Belarus State Economic University, a Fulbright scholar (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor), Chevening award recipient London, UK). Author of text-books on business communication published by TetraSystems in Minsk, Belarus.

G07 - Galina Cherednichenko, Oksana Naumenko : The National University of Food Technologies from GE to BE, how and why?

Type: Talk   Audience Size: any size   Audience Type: mixed   Length: 30 minutes

Summary: The National University of Food Technologies  is the only technological university of Ukraine in which training of highly skilled specialists of such educational qualification levels as bachelor, specialist and master in 25 specialities and 15 specializations for food, meat and dairy, pharmaceutical and microbiological production and other branches of agricultural complex and food engineering of the country is conducted. We’re going to tell you how our teachers train students and develop their skills in English from general (GE) to business-related context (BE).

Biodata: Galina Cherednichenko, 30/05/1976, senior teacher of English, The National University of Food Technologies, Kyiv, Ukraine. 5 years experience in high school, 4 years in secondary school.

Naumenko Oksana, 20/06/1978 , senior teacher of English, The National University of Food Technologies, Kyiv, Ukraine. 4 years experience in high school.

G08 - Rita Baker: A Global Approach to Grammar; the Need for a Paradigm Shift.

Download session handout here

Type: Publisher on behalf of: Saffire Press   Audience Size: any size   Audience Type: mixed   Length: 60 minutes

Summary: There has always been a tension in Business English course design about balancing language and business skills, fluency and accuracy. Senior managers are more and more wanting to be able to speak and write 'correctly'. How much grammar can we fit into short intensive courses? The Global Approach provides an accelerated way of grasping English grammar. It challenges the traditional 'deconstructed' grammar ‘rules’ and cuts to the core  - starting with the 'big' picture before going into the details - which is closer to how we naturally learn. I shall be referring to my forthcoming book, but this will not be merely a commercial presentation.

Biodata: Rita Baker and her husband Duncan Baker jointly run Lydbury English Centre - specialising in residential courses in English for business and professional purposes. Rita has been developing the Global Approach for the last 15 years. She has incorporated insights gained from working with young and dyslexic learners as well as business people, including experience in accelerated learning techniques.

G09 - Veronika Caspers: The Emotional Element in Public Speaking

Materials available: Appeals handout (.doc, 26kb)* Text passages handout (.doc, 37kb) * PowerPoint presentation (131kb)

Type: Talk   Audience Size: any size   Audience Type: mixed   Length: 60 minutes

Summary: Emotional appeals are an important feature of public speaking in English. Most handbooks on presentations stress their importance, but often foreign language students regard these appeals as isolated features. In this talk, examples from political speeches as well as business presentations will show that these appeals are a general characteristic and are used in ""real life"". Emotional appeals become apparent in choice of vocabulary, syntax, intonation and story telling. This talk will provide examples of these strategies as well as give ideas on how to integrate them into the teaching of business presentations.

Biodata: Dr. Veronika Caspers has been a Business English Consultant for ten years. In addition to working in companies and institutions of tertiary education, she serves on the examiners´ committee of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Baden-Württemberg. She has written her PhD thesis on American political rhetoric.

G10 - Axel Beer, Martin Herles : How the Economist can serve as an efficient resource to teach all layers of Business English

Type: Workshop   Audience Size: any size   Audience Type:    Length: 60 minutes

Summary: With time becoming an ever more precious commodity, we have to find efficient ways to convey what is considered essential and representative Business English knowhow. In our workshop, we will look at how the Economist's "Business this week" section (also available as a free e-mail subscription service) can be used effectively and above all efficiently to provide our students with fundamental business terminology and offer them an insight into intricate interdependencies and the business world at large. What's more, by using those clippings in class and for our exams, we get students to actually read a business magazine every week.

Biodata: Axel Beer and Martin Herles were born in Vienna, Austria, in 1969 and 1965, respectively. They both received their master's and doctoral degrees from the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration (WU). As associate professors at the WU's Department of English Business Communication, their main research areas include corporate communication, corporate language, U.S. and British cultural studies, discourse analysis, and sociolinguistics in general.

G11 - Steve Pawlett: Creativity Tools for BE sessions

Materials available: Handout (.doc, 77kb)

Type: Workshop   Audience Size: any size   Audience Type: mixed   Length: 60 minutes

Summary: This workshop will contain new tools and tricks that Steve picked up in his recent OU MBA course called Creativity, Innovation, and Change. Steve will share the highlights in an interactive and fun way. All techniques will be adapted for use in a BE session. Come to this session and put some new bows in your quiver for your business English sessions.

Biodata: Steve is a freelance trainer, coach and facilitator based in Zürich. He specializes in using a facilitative approach to training to get everyone else to do the work. One of his recent projects is designing small scale blended learning for companies in Switzerland. One of the founding members of the Freelance Network, he likes to promote freelance training and help people set up shop.

H01 - Sabrina Mallon-Gerland: Intercultural Activites for the Language Classroom

Type: Workshop Audience Size: 25 Audience Type: mixed Length: 45 minutes

Summary: This is a highly interactive workshop in which participants will engage in some intercultural activities that I have written especially for the language classroom. The advantage of this workshop is that you as teacher will learn how to use the activities by trying them out yourself. Some of the activities were written with the German language learner in mind, but are adaptable. We will discuss the principles behind them and look for ways to adapt them to your student’s needs.
These activities were developed for intercultural communication training at Siemens in Munich. Their purpose was to make apparent the effect of non-verbal communication signals on perception, and relationship building differences through conversation.

Biodata: Sabrina Mallon-Gerland was born in California, USA and has lived in Germany since 1981. She is a business English teacher and intercultural communications trainer in the industry as well at two universities. Sabrina is currently working on her Ph.D, thesis, which addresses an appropriate framework for teaching intercultural communication in business. Sabrina is a past BESIG committee member.

H02 - Robert McLarty, Adrian Wallwork, David Grant : The rationale of mainstream business English coursebooks

Type: Publisher on behalf of: OUP   Audience Size: 50-80   Audience Type: mixed   Length: 45 minutes

Summary: In-company group courses are traditionally made up of mixed abilities, differing needs and variable attendance. Most participants want to communicate better in English not only within their own specific context but also in the outside world. How can mainstream Business English coursebooks cater for these needs?  This talk will focus on activities designed to improve communication skills whilst covering the key language items of grammar, functions, lexis and phonology  necessary for working in English. Reference will be made to Business Focus (Pre-Intermediate) and Business Vision (Intermediate).

Biodata: Robert McLarty - teacher, teacher-trainer, school manager, coursebook writer, now working at OUP as Publishing Manager for Business English.

David Grant - teacher, teacher-trainer, school manager, coursebook writer, now running his own school in Nantes, France.

Adrian Wallwork - teacher, teacher-trainer, school manager, coursebook writer now running courses in Italy

H03 - Martin Maier: Perfekt! Business English - a blended self study mix (provisional!)

Type: Publisher on behalf of: Cornelsen Verlag   Audience Size: any size   Audience Type: mixed   Length: 45 minutes

Summary: "Perfekt! Business English" is a brand new media package with a distinct media mix. It combines the strengths of various media (high-end software, audio-cd + printed material). Unlike with many competing titles, users will find a progressive approach in which all components are fully compatible with each other. A main feature of this self-study package is the fact that each of the accompanying media may be used either as an entry point to approach a new unit, but also for consolidation phases.

Biodata: Editor with Cornelsen, a leading educational publisher in Germany, for the last four year with heavy focus on developing new material for the adult education market by using software and online material. Beside studies at university, I also have many years experience as a teacher & trainer (English) in various institutions in Germany but also German as a foreign language.

H04 - Steve Flinders: Intercultural communication activities for the Business English classroom

Materials available:

• All files (PowerPoint presentation + 8 handouts) .zip, 894kb
• PowerPoint presentation (573kb)
• Handouts from Intercultural Resource Pack (all .pdf format): Handout 1 * Handout 2 * Handout 3 * Handout 4 * Handout 5 * Handout 6 * Handout 7

Type: Publisher on behalf of: Cambridge University Press Audience Size: any size Audience Type: mixed Length: 45 minutes

Summary: How can I introduce intercultural communication skills activities into my Business English classroom? Where do I obtain appropriate materials? In this talk we will answer these questions by examining and evaluating some activities from the Intercultural Resource Pack, which profile national, corporate and group cultures as well as looking at culture and communication, types and stereotypes, and why culture matters. The Intercultural Resource Pack is the latest title in the Cambridge Copy Collection series, written by Derek Utley and with an introduction by James R. Chamberlain.

Biodata: Steve Flinders studied Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Oxford University. In 1992 he joined York Associates as the partner in charge of Publications and teaching resources. He is the author of a number of titles for learners of professional English. He has a special interest in English for human resources, trade union and political purposes.

H05 - Svetlana Kandybovich, Anna Sokol : A Way to Real Business English through Running a Virtual Company

Type: Talk   Audience Size: any size   Audience Type: mixed   Length: 45 minutes

Summary: Continuous simulation that we use in Minsk State Linguistic University is innovative both in its contents and in teaching techniques employed to achieve course objectives. It provides an explicit link between the classroom and the world of business. Students learn a business language while thinking about a problem which is not a language problem. It allows the learners to be themselves in terms of their thinking, provedes a more relaxed classroom environment, helps the students overcome their diffidence and embarrassment caused by the lack of business experience.

Biodata: I am a senior teacher at the Chair of Foreign Speech Communication; Intercultural Communication Dept. Responsible for teaching English for Business Communication; Contracts; Economics; Law; Management; Marketing. Have experience of teaching business English for 8 years. Education: BA in linguistics, MA in teaching English as a Second Language, enrolled in PhD research in the field of teaching business English. Married. Have a daughter.

Anna Sokol is a senior teacher at the Chair of Foreign Speech Communication; Intercultural Communication Dept., Minsk State Linguistic University. Teaches English for Business Communication; Contracts; Law; Management; Marketing. Has experience of teaching English for more than 10 years. Enrolled in PhD research in the field of teaching English as a foreign language.

H06 - Gunvor Sarelin-Sjöblom: Language/Communication Skills in Industry and Business - a Finnish Survey

Materials available: Presentation & handout (.pdf, 839kb)

Type: Talk   Audience Size: any size   Audience Type: mixed   Length: 45 minutes

Summary: How should language programmes in Higher Education adapt to the needs of industry and business? What are the language needs of industry and business and which are the communication situations in today’s business life? Do BE teachers take into account the educational trends for the future?

Biodata: Gunvor Sarelin-Sjöblom, Lecturer, International Coordinator, M.A., B.Sc., Central Ostrobothnia Polytechnic, JAKOBSTAD, Finland, gunvor.sjoblom@cop.fi

H07 - Michael Williams: Lightening Your Load

Materials available: Main handout (.pdf, 20kb) * "Streams" handout (.pdf, 20kb) * Definitions and References (.pdf, 22kb)

Type: Talk   Audience Size: 15-25   Audience Type: experienced   Length: 30 minutes

Summary: The demands on our time, as instructors, are ever-increasing, whether in added administrative duties or taking on more clients, and we all wish we could lessen our work without decreasing the quality of instruction. Moreover, if we could help increase our students’ performance in English that would be even better, right?  Sound too good to be true? Perhaps, but in this short talk I hope to illustrate my attempt at reaching this goal through a more student-centred approach which has also benefited my own teacher development. Lastly, we will reflect on our own situations and begin to lighten our loads!

Biodata: Michael Williams is a Lecturer in English and Curriculum Developer in the Business Administration (Betriebswirtschaft) Bachelors program at the Fachhochschule Vorarlberg (University of Applied Sciences) - Dornbirn, Austria. He resides in ‘Ländle’ with his wife (‘a flower from the mountains’) and their five children. He can be contacted at michael.williams@fh-vorarlberg.ac.at

H08 - Rima Shadid: Stimulating Simulations for Business Communication

Sorry, session cancelled!

Type: Talk   Audience Size: 25-50   Audience Type: mixed   Length: 30 minutes

Summary: This presentation aims to demonstrate a model simulation of the business setting of an organization that can be used effectively in the classroom . It will be shown how students can use their simulation of a business company for various communication tasks, both written and oral. This activity sets the ground for simulation of a real life business setting whereby students communicate within various types of companies as in real business. Letters on various business situations will be written from company to company, memos within the same company and so on.

Biodata: Masters degree (M.A.) in English Literature - with many courses in communication and journalism.  Instructor of English and Business Communication in the English Dept. at the American University of Beirut.

H09 - Beatrice du Mesnil du Buisson: When learning to speak out is as hard as learning English

Type: Talk   Audience Size: 15-25   Audience Type: mixed   Length: 30 minutes

Summary: Increasing numbers of Chinese students are flocking to European business and language schools to learn English.  These students may find frequently used pedagogical approaches such as active participation, pair work, oral presentations, and student-centred activities unsettling; even just speaking up in the classroom may be as difficult for students as learning the language. Awareness of cultural differences in learning techniques and communication skills can help integrate Chinese students into the classroom. This talk will outline the main cultural differences between Western students and Chinese students and how to deal with them. Illustrated by real-life examples and experience, the speaker will present practical exercises and tips on how to facilitate communication and classroom activities in an intercultural environment.

Biodata: Teacher of English at Audencia, Nantes School of Management, France specialising in business English and communication skills. Programme manager for the international master's programme MSc in International Purchasing and Supply Chain Management. Areas of interest and research: effective comunication skills and intercultural communication.

H10 - Beate Jorda, Klaus Leitgeb : International trade/Inco terms/intercultural competence

Type: Materials   Audience Size: 15-25   Audience Type: mixed   Length: 30 minutes

Summary: lesson plans and teaching materials - communicative business English, team-teaching English - commercial subjects; presentation of  our teaching materials;

 1)International trade, Inco terms, intercultural competence.

 2)Gradekeeper.com: computer-aided students' assessment

Biodata: Beate Jorda: born on 30 April 1958 in Baden, teacher of English and history since 1982 at HAK Baden, married since 1984, three children, author of "1000 Jahre Österreich" and "Geburt in Geborgenheit und Würde".

Klaus Leitgeb: born on 12 October 1965, teacher since 1993, married, three children, teaches auditing and business administration at HLW Theresianum Eisenstadt.

 

J01 - Andrew Wright, Julia Dudas: Different students, different needs! Practical ideas!

Type: Workshop Audience Size: Any size Audience Type: mixed Length: 45 minutes

Summary: Students can wither or flower according to the types of technique and activity we use. In this session we will tell you about the individual needs of some of our students and some of the activities we did with them to help them to flower! (A couple of activities will be from the LCCI-ARELS CertTEB business English course materials run by Mark Powell at our school every year.)

Biodata: ANDREW WRIGHT is an author, teacher trainer and co-director of ILI. His books include Five-Minute Activities, Games for Language Learning (CUP), 1000+Pictures for Teachers (Longman), Storytelling with Children (OUP), etc.

JULIANNA DUDAS is a teacher trainer and co-director of ILI. She has trained teachers in 15 countries. Since 1999 she has been organising the LCCI-ARELS CertTEB business E. teacher training courses run by Mark Powell in ILI.Since 1999, 155 teachers from 25 countries have obtained the LCCI Certificate in TEB during the 10 courses she has organised.

J02 - Stephen Ferron: Identifying and exploiting our USPs (Unique Selling Points)

Type: Talk   Audience Size: any size   Audience Type: mixed   Length: 45 minutes

Summary: As business English trainers, we should know that USPs (unique selling points) are those things which give companies their competitive market edge--the factors which make an organization special or unique.  If we identify (and sell) our own USPs, we benefit by offering the services we're best qualified to provide, getting rid of those calendar 'black clouds' by eliminating courses we shouldn't be teaching and increasing our income as our level of competence and specialization becomes clear. This talk will encourage participants to analyze their own USPs with the idea of understanding their own strengths and increasing their job satisfaction.

Biodata: Originally from Colorado (USA), Stephen Ferron now lives in Switzerland.  He is a freelance in-company English teacher and also conducts presentation workshops along with team-building and intercultural communications seminars.  Many of his attitudes about business were shaped by years in the music industry.

J03 - Adrian Wallwork: Effective Email Lessons

Type: Talk   Audience Size: any size   Audience Type: mixed   Length: 45 minutes

Summary: We spend an average of 10 hours a week emailing. Our students tend to have problems with  1) recognizing that emails should be just as professional as a business letter; 2) interpreting the level of formality of messages received, and responding appropriately; 3) getting to grips with a series of standard phrases that may not have direct translations; 4) being concise but also clear; and 5) getting the desired reaction from the recipient. This talk addresses all these issues and shows how lessons on emails are perfect for revising tenses in an authentic context. The exercises outlined vary from the innovative to the extremely traditional (translation!).

Biodata: Adrian Wallwork began specializing in Business English in 1990 and is the author of three books in this field for OUP Business Options (upper intermediate), International Express Upper-Intermediate and Business Vision (intermediate). He has also written teacher resource materials for CUP, and audio / video booklets for the BBC.

J04 - Ilse Born-Lechleitner: e-learning

Type:    Audience Size: any size   Audience Type: mixed   Length: 45 minutes

Summary: Do your students, after the 25th business letter, still confuse "letter from" with "letter of"? If so, you might want to use SbX, the internet component accompanying the textbook "Make Your Way in Business Communication" (öbv&hpt), designed for Austrian Commerical Colleges. This presentation will outline the rationale for and theoretical background to the online exercises offered by SbX, explain how to access and navigate through them and suggest how the material can support classroom activities. The exercises practise vocabulary, letter writing and telephone skills, and feedback from students suggests that through the use of computers, they can be motivated for and interested in "tedious" language practice.

Biodata:

J05 - Vera Krnajski Hršak, Nina Liszt : The impact of transversal skills on BE course titles at university level

Type: Talk   Audience Size: 15-25   Audience Type: experienced   Length: 45 minutes

Summary: The obvious shift from teaching lexis to teaching transversal skills in Business English courses at the university level has brought forward the need for rethinking and possibly renaming the course titles. The talk, supported by examples of course contents taught at the Graduate School of Business and Economics, University of Zagreb, aims at inspiring a discussion on the following questions:  Do we teach English, or business, or business English or business communication in English or … what do we teach?

Biodata: The speakers are senior lecturers of Business English at Graduate School of Economics and Business, University of Zagreb, Croatia

J06 - Rosemary Richey: Beyond Telephoning Skills:  Customer Care Training

Materials available: Handout (.doc, 44kb)

Type: Talk   Audience Size: 15-25   Audience Type: experienced   Length: 45 minutes

Summary: This presentation will discuss the increasingly important role of Customer Care in today's Business English training.  Basic Customer Care concepts will be reviewed as a competitive tool for various customer-centred sectors. Customer Care training will be discussed as an expansive concept - that goes beyond teaching routine Telephoning Skills  Participants will explore sample Customer Care activities involving face-to-face techniques, telephoning, and business writing. Problem-solving and complaint strategy will also be examined.  This presentation is suitable for any trainer interested in teaching Customer Care as a full seminar/course or as a component of any standard Business English training.

Biodata: Based in Munich, Germany, Rosemary Richey (MATESL) is a Business Competency Consultant for training and material development.  Her background includes hotel management along with business and teacher training for the British Council, Syria.  Rosemary is currently authoring 'English for Customer Care' for Cornelsen Verlag, Berlin, published in autumn 2004.

J07 - Ian McMaster, Deborah Capras: Using Business Spotlight in the Classroom

Materials available: PowerPoint presentation (169kb)

Type: Workshop   Audience Size: any size   Audience Type: mixed   Length: 60 minutes

Summary: In this workshop, Ian McMaster and Deborah Capras will present the Business Spotlight product range - quarterly magazine, audio products, web site and the new exercise workbook, Business Spotlight Plus. Examples of how to use Business Spotlight's products in courses will be discussed with participants on the basis of ideas in the trainers' supplement, Business Spotlight in the Classroom.

Biodata: Ian McMaster is editor-in-chief of Business Spotlight, a quarterly magazine for German speakers who need English in their jobs (www.business-spotlight.de). He is also a qualified business English trainer. Deborah Capras is Business Spotlight's Online Editor and business English trainer.

J08 - Davor Planinec, Tamara Crnko Gmaz : BE Classroom Management

Type: Workshop   Audience Size: 25-50   Audience Type: mixed   Length: 60 minutes

Summary: BE classroom management is all about understanding how people work together and against each other. Dealing successfully with strengths and weaknesses of different groups results in more effective communication.  BE teacher-trainers must be familiar with specific behaviours and strategies, which should be used or avoided in the learning process. They should also learn how to identify, understand and manage different group members. These tools help them create a positive and productive learning environment.  The workshop will give the insight into roles people play within a group, their behavioural and language patterns and will offer techniques and tips for successful classroom management.

Biodata: Planinec, Davor has been in BE teaching for 6 years. He joined HalPet in 1998 (see data on Petra Colak). As a teacher-trainer and NLP practitioner his responsibilities involve teacher-training and intensive training. On of his main tasks is to work on a constant improvement of the training quality level in the centre, which involves mentoring, creating new programmes and developing multimedia approach. 

Crnko Gmaz, Tamara has been in BE teaching for 8 years. She joined HalPet in 1999 (see data on Petra Colak). As a teacher-trainer her responsibilities involve teacher-training and intensive training, mainly for middle and senior management. One of her main priorities is to work on a constant improvement of the training quality level in the centre, which involves mentoring, creating new programmes, etc.

J09 - Liselotte Pope-Hoffmann, Amy Krois-Lindner : Accessing ESP Texts in the Language Classroom

Type: Workshop   Audience Size: 15-25   Audience Type: mixed   Length: 60 minutes

Summary: A frequent problem encountered in an ESP context is the fact that learners have language needs related to content areas which teachers themselves are not familiar with. Our workshop addresses issues like finding suitable ESP-material, methods of making it accessible to both teachers and learners(largely based on Dudley Evans’ work), and, finally, ways of didacticising authentic ESP-texts, i.e. turning them into teaching tools to enhance comprehension, build vocabulary and develop writing skills. The workshop is conceived as a fear-taking exercise suitable for both experienced ESP-teachers and novices in the field.

Biodata: L.Pope-Hoffmann studied English and French at Vienna University (MA, PhD); wide range of teaching experience in vocational and non-vocational Austrian secondary schools ; University of Reading (UK); University College Galway (Ireland), Goethe Institute Nairobi (Kenya) and, since 1997, Vienna University (language skills, didactics, ESP); publication of topical teaching aids; textbook adaptation.

Amy Krois-Lindner, originally from New York, teaches English language skills at the University of Vienna. She is also an instructor of English at the Fachhochschule Technikum Wien and the TU Wien.  At the language school International Language Services she is involved in developing the Business English curricula.

J10 - Kevin Westbrook, Paul East, Carolyn Westbrook : A common framework for technical English?

Type: Talk   Audience Size: any size   Audience Type: mixed   Length: 60 minutes

Summary: Is business English becoming more technical or is this aspect simply increasing in importance? Either way, technical courses place new demands on our pedagogical skills, our materials, and our inter-personal abilities, as a whole new customer group "benefits" from English training. This combined talk and workshop considers whether teaching technical English differs from "normal" business English and suggests a broad framework that can assist in structuring such courses for a variety of companies and participants. This can provide a new marketing approach and also a method with which the less technically-minded can tackle such a course more confidently.

Biodata: Kevin and Carolyn Westbrook have been freelance English trainers for 8 years and run courses at companies in Germany and Austria. Kevin is also a translator specialising in technical and business texts. They worked for 7 years in Austria before moving to Germany last year. For Paul East, see his talk details.

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