Language Show - Live

I have just got back home after the Language Show Live, which has been going on for the past three days at Olympia, Kensington, London. I have been to this event for the past 3 years but this time I was more purposeful on who I wanted to see and what I wanted to do there. For once, I wasn't looking for work. Instead, it was another networking opportunity, catching up with some names I know from #ELTchat and finding out if there was an 'easy', visual guide for learning Vietnamese. I say the latter as I have just been offered a job to work in Binh Duong, near Ho Chi Minh City and my Vietnamese knowledge is zero. Unfortunately there were no taster classes fr that, but I did find a downloadable or plug-in app from Eurotalk - see here, who specialise in some lesser spoken and slightly more obscure languages, including Tegalog, Abruzzese and, most surprisingly, Klingon! As with most companies present they were making an offer on their products. It will probably be the same offer next week - £20 introductory price for the Talk Now pack, which includes 'baby' words - vocab for the beginner. 

Photo by Euro London Appointments

View from the 'networking lounge'

Michael J Harrison

Two years ago I was interested in the Arabic stall, having just been offered one month's work in Saudi Arabia, whilst I amused myself at the Korean and Chinese stalls - having previously worked in South Korea and China.  Last year, I talked to the people from iatefl but didn't join on the day, although I did sign up a month later and I learned some basic Japanese.  This year, I wasn't interested in any taster sessions or learning languages per se, with the exception of Vietnamese as already mentioned.  I just wanted to see Luke Meddings again - talking about going 'Unplugged', on Friday.  I also returned on Sunday to see Johanna Stirling talk about where students lose careless marks in exams - 'The Spelling Thief', Michael Harrison - on 'using imagination to motivate students' - slides here - and David Heathfield, who I had met at IATEFL in Glasgow earlier this year - on 'storytelling'.  I also wanted to catch up with Jim Scrivener and my tutor from Warwick, Russell Stannard, but both of their sessions clashed with me going, on Saturday, to see West Ham beat Southampton 4-1 at Upton Park.  

Luke Meddings

I wanted to explore other possibilities within TEFL and there was one session on Friday, which I attended, about Where to go next? Professional development.  This was a jointly presented seminar by Madeleine du Vivier and Rich Quarterman.  It examined the options once you have done a few years in the business under your belt.  One of those was management, as shown by the slide below, although I am mostly interested in being a senior teacher or doing teacher training.  Although my next job is as an EFL teacher in Vietnam, I am interested in exploring my options next year, maybe at the end of my new, one year contract.  Who knows? This may well come within my new institution.

Slide by Rich Quarterman

In addition, this time around, I wanted to find out anything to do with IELTS, given that having previously taught students how to do well in this standardised exam, I am going to be doing the same again very soon in my new teaching job.  I found the IELTS stall, in which I picked up some teacher materials, including a DVD.  I caught the useful tips session, too, but I think I could have given that talk myself, having previously done it several times with students in Beijing and Riyadh.  Furthermore, my professional development might include me training to be an IELTS examiner, which would complement (and hopefully, not overlap) with my new job.

IELTS material for teachers

I have just made a little video from the show - see below - which I edited together on the train back home, on Sunday evening.  It features snippets of each of the presentations that I went to. The organisers were busy making their own 'proper' videos, advertising the show for next year and for showing on the Language Show Connect site, featuring interviews with some of the participants an presenters.  The site will also feature content from some of the seminars, which will hopefully be available within the next few days.

Mike J Harrison's slides on motivating with imagination: click here.
Presentation from Joe Dale on using QR codes - click here.
Alex Bellars' fun with a cheap visualiser - click here.

See a photostream by Helen Myers on Flickr - click here.