9 April 2022

29th ICC-Languages Annual One-day Online Conference

Conference Recording

Following our 2022 online International Conference on April 9th the ICC-Languages Board thanks and congratulates our contributors on their excellent presentations. We are sorry that Can Ece Boz  was unable to join us due to illness but wish her quick recovery.

The feedback has been very positive and we are delighted to post on our website below recordings of the presentations and Q and A that followed. We will also publish summaries of the presentations in our ICC-Journal. Thank you all again for your excellent work and we hope to be able to welcome you all personally to our conference in 2023.

Please click on the recordings below in order of presentation.

Conference Programme

Saturday, 9th April 2022
10:00 – 10:15 Welcome
10:15 – 11:15

Plenary

Robert Gibson

Presentation title:
Navigating Cultures in a Winds of Change VUCA World

Abstract:
We live in a world of increasing Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity (VUCA). Globalization means that more people than ever before in human history are coming into contact with cultures other than their own. Technology has enabled a new level of global hyperconnectivity. People are able to travel further, faster and more easily than in the past, the labour force is more mobile and diverse and there are unprecedented numbers of people trying to escape from poverty, conflicts and natural disasters.
These megatrends create an increased demand for language and intercultural skills. This presentation will look at the need for global competence in the workplace and explore practical ways of helping people to navigate cultures for positive effect. It is based on the presenter’s extensive experience of providing a wide range of intercultural services for individuals, teams and organizations in a large multinational engineering company.

Bio:
Robert Gibson has 30 years’ experience of global competence development in business and education. Originally a language teacher, he was responsible for intercultural training at Siemens AG from 2000 – 2018 and is an Adjunct Professor at the Business School of the University of Bologna. His latest book Bridge the Culture Gaps – A toolkit for effective collaboration in the diverse, global workplace’ was published by Nicholas Brealey in 2021.

11:15 – 12:00

Session 1

Anna Soltyska
University Language Centre, Ruhr University Bochum (Germany)

Presentation title:
New technologies in classroom assessment: a necessary evil or window of opportunity?

Abstract:
New technologies are here to stay, with regard to not only how foreign languages are taught and learnt, but also how they are assessed. With an accelerated trend towards moving some educational processes online, practitioners and researchers alike are pondering the questions of validity and reliability of assessment procedures in new digital contexts.

This presentation aims to collate questions and dilemmas related to assessment of language skills that teachers in various areas of education have been facing since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. These challenges and possible ways of addressing them will be used as a springboard for revising current approaches to testing and making assessment an integral part of 21st century media-based language learning. The talk will end with some practical tips on designing online assessment procedures that teachers may wish to implement in their diverse teaching settings.

Bio:
Lecturer in English for Academic and Specific Purposes at the University Language Centre of the Ruhr-University in Bochum (Germany). Active in the language teaching and testing industry since 2000. As a teacher trainer and presenter has held workshops and spoken at conferences worldwide, including Great Britain, Egypt, Finland, Poland, Russia and most recently Azerbaijan. The convenor of the working group “Language centres against academic misconduct” to promote awareness of academic integrity and non-cheating culture in educational contexts in Germany and beyond.

12:00 – 12:45

Session 2

Poppy Skarli and Rob Williams
Turku University of Applied Sciences
Senior Lecturer in English, University of Westminster, London

Presentation Title:
How to empower and engage students in an online course: Case CATAPULT MOOC

Outline:
Teaching online has become the norm since the beginning of the COVID pandemic. Course design, materials, methodologies had to be adapted to meet the needs of the new circumstances. One of the greatest challenges of teaching languages online is how to empower and engage the students. This workshop will present the case of the CATAPULT MOOC, a course entitled “Teaching LSPs”; provide concrete examples and good practices of student engagement, in particular the use of Teaching Assistants; and discuss how the lessons learnt from the CATAPULT MOOC can be applied in your teaching.

Bio:
MA in International Education, Senior Lecturer in English at Turku University of Applied Sciences, Faculty of Engineering and Business.  Poppy has been teaching English in three different countries and across a range of educational institutions. Since 2001, she has been teaching English Communication Skills at Turku University of Applied Sciences, Finland. Since 2014, she has been involved in creating MOOCs in Erasmus+ projects such as CoMoViWo (Communication in Mobile and Virtual Work) and CATAPULT (Computer-Assisted Language and Platforms to Upskill LSP teachers).

12:45 – 13:45 Lunch Break
13:45 – 14:30

Session 3

Marijana Prodanovic
Associate Professor (ELT) at Belgrade University

Presentation Title:
How Motivating is Online Language Environment: Examining the Role of Learning Apps

Outline:
In the unseen era education systems around the globe are witnessing nowadays, the era in which our daily choices depend on the Covid 19-related measures, this paper aims to address the notion of motivation in online language environment. Relying on corpora illustrating the activities conducted with the support of online-based applications, it reports on the extent to which such activities influence language learning atmosphere and students’ motivation.

Questions related to what could motivate language learners have been at the heart of a number of EFL-related research for decades. No matter whether we examine extrinsic, intrinsic, i.e., integrative, or instrumental motivation – one cannot neglect a direct link between motivation, on the one hand, and classroom atmosphere and language learning outcomes, on the other.

Given the current needs, including not only our introduction to the most up-to-date technologies, but also their active usage, as well as reflection on their benefits and drawbacks, it seems that providing our students with motivating enough activities has become a two-fold task.

Despite the hurdles one may come across along language teaching-learning path, the paper concludes that carefully selected and dully planned and paced activities supported by online applications can play a significant role in improving the classroom atmosphere and enhancing students’ motivation.

Bio:
Ms Prodanović obtained her PhD (2015) degree (English Language and Linguistics) at the Faculty of Philology, Belgrade University. The very same year, she became an assistant professor – and climbed to an associate one in 2020.

Prodanović has been teaching English at university level since 2012 (ESP, EAP, ELT, Pragmatics, Communication). She was occupying the position of Singidunum University (Belgrade, Serbia) English Department Head 2016-2021. As of 2021 – she has been occupying the position of the Dean of the Faculty of Philology, Sinergija University.

Her fields of interest include but are not limited to: (Sub-) Branches of Micro-linguistics, as well as Intercultural Pragmatics, and emerging issues in ELT – she has addressed them in a number of scientific papers and three coursebooks.

Prodanović has actively participated in international projects and pursuits and (co-) organised ≥50 conferences, round tables, workshops – focused on current issues and trends in ELT/ESP/EAP, as well as language schools, aimed at encouraging multilingualism in the country (region). It is also a worthy note that she is a member of the Foreign Languages and Literature Association of Serbia Board (2016-on), as well as co-editor in-chief or SingiLogos journal.

14:30 – 15:15

Session 4

Aleksandra Beata Makowska
University Assistant Lecturer at University of Łódź,
Department of Specialised Languages and Intercultural

Presentation title:
Online assessment during the COVID-19 pandemic – the students’ perspective

Outline:
The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the educational reality worldwide. Suddenly, 93,100 university teachers and about 1.2 mln university students in Poland were faced with the challenges of distance learning and teaching. Along with other changes, assessment of students’ knowledge had to be adapted to the new conditions in order to maintain the continuity of the educational process.

The aim of the study is to discuss the students’ perception of online assessment procedures conducted at University of Łódź during the COVID-19 pandemic. The analysis is based on the anonymous survey conducted among students of Linguistics of Business and Linguistics in Specialised Communication. The questionnaire shows students’ opinions about advantages and disadvantages of online assessment, ways to solve the existing problems, issues connected with fairness and fraudulent practices, technical problems that might affect the outcome or their preferences concerning future forms of knowledge assessment. Its results are contrasted with the teacher’s experiences and difficulties that appeared while preparing and conducting remote tests measuring students’ progress.

Bio:
Aleksandra Beata Makowska holds a Ph.D. degree in linguistics. She also holds an MA in Specialised Translation from the University of Łódź, an MA in Marketing and Management from Wyższa Szkoła Kupiecka and MBA from IFAM in Paris, France. During her PhD studies, she received a scholarship from Zürcher Hochschule der Angewandten Wissenschaften, IUED Institut für Übersetzen und Dolmetschen in Winterthur in Switzerland. Currently, she teaches Business and Legal English at University of Łódź as well as advanced English and basic German. Her research interests include EAP, ESP, teaching business and technical jargons, specialised translation, technical and business communication

15:15 – 15:30 Coffee Break
15:30 – 16:15

Session 5

Philip Cronin
Teacher of English

Presentation Title:
EUROLTA – A chance to reflect and refresh.

Outline:
This talk will give an overview of Eurolta and its different elements, as well as the motivations of myself and my colleagues for undertaking the course. We will look at key questions, such as “What have I learned from the course?” and “How has the course made me a better teacher?”.

The Eurolta offers a wide range of topics, all related to language teaching and learning. The course is ideally suited to those with little or no teaching background, as well as more experienced teachers. Typical areas of study are the learner in language education, the CEFR and its implications, as well as effective ways of teaching the four language skills of Reading, Writing, Listening and Speaking. The home assignments and learner diary entries which follow each module give us the opportunity in private to analyse and evaluate different teaching and learning concepts.

Central to the Eurolta course is the micro-peer teaching, which each participant carries out a number of times during the course. The talk will also address the merits of this and how critical feedback from the instructors and our colleagues has facilitated our development as teachers.

Bio:
I am a teacher of English at the Volkshochschulen (adult education centres) in Berlin. I am a university graduate, as well as a CELTA holder and have been teaching for over ten years within a wide range of ages and levels.

16:15 – 17:00

Session 6

Barry Tomalin
Editor, ICC Journal, Consulting Editor, Training Language and Culture.

Title:
Language Lasts Longer but Culture is Quicker

Outline:
One of the fastest ways to get students engaged and motivated in foreign language learning is to explore their cultural and personal interests, not just to learn about the culture of the language they are learning.

The presentation will explore three things.

  1. The new paradigm

‘The Winds of Change’ emphasises that we are one species on one planet, with diversity in expression and behaviour depending on where we live. Our job as teachers is to find the common ground between us. This means talking less about cultural differences but finding commonalities between our ways of communicating and adapting where necessary to the target language.

  1. Culture is quicker.

Getting students interested in the culture, especially in relation to their own interests is a fast way to motivate language learning. The presentation demonstrates activities to achieve this.

  1. Student engagement

Presents regular short intercultural cultural activities to stimulate learning the target language.

The message:
We are all part of one planet, one species, one culture. Let’s focus on finding the common ground.

Bio:
Barry is a lecturer in intercultural studies and Public Diplomacy at the Global Institute for Diplomacy and has published over 30 books including ‘Cultural Awareness’, ‘World Business Cultures- a Handbook’ and, ‘Cross-Cultural Communication, Theory and Practice’. He is Founder and Director of the Business Cultural Trainers Certificate at International House London, an intensive programme, training teachers to research, plan, market and deliver intercultural training in business and other organisations. Barry was Editor of BBC English by Radio and Television in the BBC World Service and has worked in over 60 countries worldwide with the British Council and other organisations.

17:00 – 17:45

Session 7

Can Ece Boz
Instructor Atılım Üniversitesi, Ankara, Turkey

Title:
Are EFL Teachers Motivated Towards Web-Based Professional Development?

Outline:
Evidence suggests that motivation is among the most important factors for participation in web-based professional development (WPD) activities. My experience during online education that has driven this research. Up to now, very little attention has been paid to the importance of motivation on WPD. It states a need to comprehend the different perceptions of motivation that exist among studies. This prospective study was designed to investigate how EFL teachers are motivated towards WPD. The research data in this thesis is collected from a hundred nine teachers working in a foundation university. In order to identify teachers’ preferences, the participants responded to twenty-nine items using a 7-point Likert scale. Descriptive data were generated for all variables. Statistical significance was analysed using analysis of variance and t-tests as appropriate. All analyses were carried out using SPSS, version 23.0. The findings revealed that the teachers who were highly motivated and the respondents who reported low levels of motivation are nearly equal. Moreover, their motivation towards WPD did not distinct significantly with respect to gender, age, marital status, number of children they have, department, employment status, unit, principal area, degree status and computer competency. However, this study has identified that participants’ motivation is significantly dissimilar in regard to experience and the Internet competency. Moreover, the results of this investigation show that there are some relationships between sub-dimensions. One of the most important findings to come out in this study is that the category of practical enhancement has the highest score of all dimensions. The present study has been one of the first attempts to thoroughly examine the motivation towards WPD.

Bio:

Right after graduating from Gazi University, I started working at a college and worked for 4 years. Since November 2017, I have been working in the preparatory department of the School of Foreign Languages at Atılım University. After I got my master degree, I continued with DELTA M2. Recently, I have been doing DELTA M1. I continue my duty as Educational Unit Head in the institution I work for.

17:45 – 18:00 Farewell