ICC-Languages Webinars
Geoff Tranter | Book – Or No Book?
October 27 (Monday) 2025 | 5:00-6:00 pm CET
Abstract:
This is a question that teachers are often confronted with when taking on new courses. And there are good arguments for and against both alternatives. At lower levels such as A1/A2, coursebooks are the standard answer simply to offer a transparent structure. As from B1 however, there are a number of good reasons why teachers should consider not using a coursebook but provide their own materials to meet their learners’ needs and interests. In this session we will be discussing suitable materials and looking at strategies that will ensure that the aims and objectives of the course are fulfilled. The takeaway will be a matrix to enable teachers to plan both the whole course and the individual lessons in a way that meets the interests of the teacher and the students.
This webinar was originally planned for July.
Bio:
Geoff Tranter is a Teacher, Teacher Trainer and Consultant at the Technical University of Dortmund, Germany, specialising in English for Specific Purposes, including Engineering, Social Sciences, Business Communication Skills and English for Urban Planning. He is also Chair of the Anglo-German Society in Dortmund, and is working on promoting the city partnership between Dortmund and Leeds and bringing together groups of like interests such as schools, senior citizens and people from the creative arts. One of his particular interests is humour and how to use humour in the classroom to promote language learning and intercultural competence. He has published two books on this topic which offer photocopiable materials for use in EFL courses.
The speaker: Dr Luke Prodromou has a BA from Bristol University in English, an MA in Shakespeare Studies from the Shakespeare Institute, Birmingham University, a Diploma in Teaching English as a Second Language (Leeds University), and a PhD (Nottingham University). His PhD thesis was published as English as Lingua Franca: A Corpus-based Analysis (Continuum, 2010). He is the author—with Lindsay Clandfield—of the award-winning Dealing with Difficulties and numerous textbooks for students of English.
Nick Michelioudakis (B. Econ., Dip. RSA, MSc [TEFL]) has been active in ELT for many years as a teacher, examiner, presenter and teacher trainer. He has worked for many publishers and examination boards and has given seminars and workshops in numerous countries. He has written extensively on Methodology, though he is better known for his ‘Psychology and ELT’ articles which have appeared in numerous newsletters and magazines. His areas of interest include Psychology, Student Motivation, Learner Independence, Teaching one-to-one and Humour.
Ian McMaster is a business communication consultant, author, and journalist. He was editor-in-chief of the business communication magazine Business Spotlight from 2001 to 2021. He is a former coordinator of IATEFL Business English SIG and a member of the ICC board. His latest publication (in English, with Bob Dignen) is Trainingsbuch Business English – Kommunikation und Zusammenarbeit in internationalen Teams (Haufe. 2023)
Ben and David Crystal’s 2023 book 
Bio: 
The phenomenon that some people can handle the challenges of cultural diversity more successfully than others has long been well-known. In the wake of numerous investigations since the 1950’s, this ability has been conceptualised – with slight variations in emphasis and terminology – as the capacity to communicate and interact effectively and appropriately with members of other cultures. This competence has been variously designated more recently as intercultural interaction competence (Spencer-Oatey & Franklin, 2009), global dexterity (Molinsky, 2013), and cultural agility (Caligiuri, 2021). A Delphi study (Montecinos Baumann & Grünfelder, 2022) recently generated the further, differently nuanced conceptualisation of transcultural competence.
The Arab World is not only strategically a very important region full of natural resources but also a huge market with potential growth. Still, many stereotypes and lack of knowledge about the region as well as the culture and the religion make it very difficult for foreign companies to do business successfully there. What are the peculiarities of Arabs? How do they tick and think? What is an Arab? Is an Arab necessarily a Muslim and is every Muslim automatically an Arab? Does the Arab World exist?
GEORGE F. SIMONS, MA, DMin
Arja Krauchenberg holds a BA in French and an MA in romance languages from Vienna University with a special focus on multilingualism, diversity and interculturalism and has also trained as a certified tourist guide.
Prof Nikolay Slavkov is Director of the Canadian Centre for Research and Studies in Bilingualism and Language Planning (CCERBAL) at the Official Languages and Bilingualism Institute (OLBI) of the University of Ottawa. His research contributions include keynote addresses, edited volumes, journal articles, and book chapters on language pedagogy and innovation, child language development, family language policy, technology, bilingualism, multilingualism, and (Slavic) linguistics. His work has appeared in the AILA Review, Canadian Modern Language Review, International Journal of Multilingualism, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, Foreign Language Annals, Second Language Research, Immersion Journal, Canadian Journal of Applied Linguistics, TESL Canada, Lingua, and Journal of Slavic Linguistics. He has taught in Canada, the United States, China, and Bulgaria.
