Schedule 

 

The schedule for Day 1 is as follows:

 

11.00 - 12.00 Almut Koester: Doing decision-making: Using real meetings for Business English training
12.10 - 12.40 Mercedes Viola: Delivering workshops to our clients – a way of enhancing their learning experience
14.00 - 14.45 Steve Flinders: Influencing
15.05 - 15.50 Alison Haill: Shall we Coach? Coaching or 1:1 Teaching, That Is The Question

16.25 - 17.10 David Bonamy: Go with the Flow! Just-in-time language input for communicative tasks

17.30 - 18.30 Kees Garman: Power in PowerPoint: Creative uses for PPT in the BE classroom

 

Scroll down the page for more detailed information about the speakers and their talks.

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How to join these sessions

The instructions below will perhaps seem a little complicated, but those who have already attended a BESIG workshop or webinar will confirm that once you're in the web conferencing room it is actually a lot clearer - so please do not be put off!

 

Please read the following carefully:

 

Logging in 

 

1) Use the link below to go to the login page shortly before the event is due to start. Before entering the room you will be prompted to "Enter as a guest". Please use this model to enter your name:

 

Carl Dowse (Germany)

 

That is,

 

• first name
• family name
  
• where you are based.

 

This will make it easy to see at a glance who is attending and where they are from and give some sense of the no doubt very international nature of the event.

 

2) To reach the web conferencing room for these talks please click here: Day 1 online conference login

 

Taking part in the session

 

1) Once in the room, you will be able to communicate with other attendees and the moderators using the text chat window at the bottom of the screen. The team of supporting moderators will comprise of

 

• Andi White
• Carl Dowse
  
• Cornelia Kreis-Meyer 
• Mercedes Viola
• Mike Hogan
  

 

They will be monitoring the text chat and relaying any comments or questions privately on to the speakers and the audience.

 

2) If you would like to ask a question, please use the text chat to do so. To help things go smoothly and ensure that your question reaches the speaker, please write something along these lines:

 

Question for speaker - Do you think that ….? or
Question for Almut - Would you say …?

 

The moderating team will collate your questions and pass them onto the speaker at an appropriate time.

 

3) In the text chat, it is possible to select specific recipients for your messages by using the "To" menu which has the default setting of "Everyone". You'll find this at the bottom of the web conferencing screen towards the right.  Please feel free to use this channel of communication to network with others during the event if you wish.

 

It's easier than it seems

 

Apologies for the complicated instructions, but as I mentioned above, in this case, it actually is easier done than said, so please do join us if you can!

 

We are looking forward to greeting you to this online BESIG event!

 

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Speakers & talks

Session 1: Doing decision-making: Using real meetings for Business English training   Most Business English learners want to learn how to *do* business in English, for example participate in meetings and engage in decision-making. But when authentic texts are used in Business English materials, they are often language *about* business, e.g. texts/interviews from the business media. By using and adapting real business meetings, learners can be exposed to the language and strategies used by experienced business people. This workshop draws on two data sets of real meetings: 1) meetings from a range of companies (the 1-million-word CANBEC Corpus), 2) 60 hours of meetings from one organization. Focusing on decision-making, we will first show how meeting participants use language strategically to raise problems, propose solutions, advance positions and negotiate decisions. Workshop participants will then try out and discuss new teaching materials (including examples from a new Business English course) designed to help learners acquire the skills to engage successfully in meetings involving decision-making.
	Almut Koester is Senior Lecturer at the University of Birmingham and has a PhD in Applied Linguistics from the University of Nottingham. With years’ experience as a teacher/teacher trainer in Business English, she has given talks and held workshops for teachers around the world. She is author of three books, including Workplace Discourse (2010), and writes a regular column on ‘Authentic English’ for Business Spotlight.

Session 2: Delivering workshops to our clients – a way of enhancing their learning experience   We can say that a workshop is a method of organizing the teaching-learning process that resembles our clients’ daily working reality. Participants meet to solve or work out a common problem or project with people from different fields, business units or regions. A workshop is a cooperative learning activity where each participant socially builds knowledge and values, develops skills and attitudes based on their own needs, wants and experiences. In this talk we will look at and discuss why workshops are a way of improving the language learning experience of our clients and how we can design and implement them.
	Mercedes Viola lives in Uruguay, together with her husband and three kids. She holds a degree from the Universidad de la Republica Oriental del Uruguay and is currently taking an MA in TESOL. She has been running an English institute for 20 years. She is in charge of designing and implementing business English learning experiences for government-owned organizations, universities and many well-known global companies such as Microsoft, HP, American Express, McDonalds, Deloitte, John Deere and MasterCard. She designs materials for business English clients and trains new teachers on business English. She is a writer for the Teaching English site of the British Council and a member of the BESIG Online Team.

Session 3: Influencing   Effective international managers understand the importance of mastering a range of generic communication skills for building relationships, giving feedback, managing conflict, and so on. Influencing others is one of these skills that more and more business people need to exercise – because companies are flatter and more democratic, or because project leaders and managers in matrix organisations do not have direct authority over the people they lead, or because communication is virtual and authority is more difficult to exercise directly, or for any of a number of other reasons. People working internationally face additional challenges when they have to influence others from different national, functional and professional cultures. In this mildly interactive presentation, I shall look at what influencing is, and why it is important; at the language of influencing; and at how we can help our students (and ourselves) to learn how to influence others more effectively.
	Steve Flinders is a director of York Associates, a training, coaching and publishing organisation based in York, England whose mission is to develop people for their international roles. The company develops its clients’ skills in five main areas: language, communication, intercultural, interpersonal, and teamwork and leadership. Training is delivered both at its training centre in York and worldwide. Steve has lived and worked in the UK, France, Ireland, Sweden and Pakistan. His job now involves co-managing the company, delivering international training and coaching mainly across Europe, marketing in France and Scandinavia, and writing. He has a special interest in international HR and trade union communication and is the author of a number of books for people working internationally.

Session 4: Shall we Coach? Coaching or 1:1 Teaching, That Is The Question   Coaching is sexy. At least it seems so from the number of Business English teachers and providers who now claim to offer "coaching". Is this just marketing or is there a widespread misunderstanding of what professional coaching is? This workshop will answer these questions, look at the methodological differences between professional coaching and language teaching, and suggest some coaching ideas for participants to use in Business English courses. Case-studies, stories and examples of both Business English teaching and Executive Coaching will be used to illustrate. Participants will have an opportunity to practise using the ideas and discuss how they could adapt them in their own work.

Alison Haill is a communication specialist, executive coach, trainer and author of “The S-Factor A Coaching Handbook”. MD and founder of Oxford Professional Consulting, helping international companies get better results from their managers and leaders, in the UK and internationally. She has over 30 years’ experience in international communication and has built up a network of specialist coaches and trainers. She started her career in TEFL, later specialised in Business English teaching (12 years) and for 5 years was a BESIG committee member. Now she works in management coaching and training, currently an executive coach for clients in New York, Sweden and London. She has an MA Hons in Hispanic Studies, a post-graduate MA in Applied Linguistics, a PGCE TEFL, and three coaching qualifications.

Further information

Please contact Carl Dowse here for any further information you may need concerning the event, or if you would like to provide feedback or suggestions.

 

 

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