“Scotland is inspirational in many ways.” “How has Scotland inspired you?”
Being in Scotland this week has inspired me greatly. Not because I was in Scotland but because I was at the IATEFL conference in Glasgow. The fact that it was my first experience of IATEFL and it was in Glasgow will be inextricably linked for me. What a friendly city. As clichéd as that may sound, I found it to be absolutely true. And what a friendly, approachable, welcoming lot the IATEFL crew are. On Sunday when I was unsure about where to go for the pre-conference associates’ dinner, my Twitter plea for information was answered by the President no less!
Now, despite my post-conference fatigue, I can say I’ve felt inspired this whole week in Glasgow. My first ever IATEFL Annual Conference. I’d never made the effort before thinking the distance, inconvenience, time and energy needed to get me there and through the whole experience just weren’t worth it. As a small, freelance teacher of mostly in-company BE courses, what could IATEFL offer me? There would be mostly “proper” teachers; people who became teachers by design rather than by accident and who subsequently take ELT very seriously.
Those people are definitely there – in their thousands. What I discovered is that I fit right in! I met up with people I know and struck up conference friendships with new people – colleagues with whom I intend to stay in touch.
Instead of feeling like an imposter or a semi-fraud, I felt right at home! Indeed I found the whole experience extremely inspiring, stimulating, (re-)motivational and lots of fun. There are many different types of teachers at IATEFL, and I mean more than those from the different SIGs and therefore teaching with a different focus (business English, ELT for young learners,teaching full-time in schools – public or private). There are traditional English school teachers, the pragmatic “this is my business”, entrepreneur-minded and the real actual academics. I peeked into the world of ELT in academia where people study the process of teaching, the effects on learners of different types of teaching, the whole educational psychology aspect. It’s fascinating! There are so many big, “technical” words for language, language teaching, language learning – a never ending source of material for academic discourse. A whole other world from that which I inhabit on a daily basis. And utterly fascinating.
As well as conversing quite comfortably with the IATFEL President, I fell in with a number of renowned and highly respected ELT authors, with movers and shakers of the wider community, I chatted with representatives from the publishers, owners of international language schools. In other industries I could imagine the “famous” people being less approachable. At IATEFL, it’s much more a “we’re one big family” environment. Ultimately, everyone is a teacher and with that commonality at the core, building relationships and making connections is as natural as drinking gallons of coffee between the many talks and workshops during the conference!
Being an international conference, meeting teachers from around the world was also very exciting – I talked with teachers from Cameroon, Ghana, Serbia, Poland, Turkey, Wales (!). Talking with some of them reminded me of how privileged we are in Germany in terms of infrastructure (unlimited access to internet) and good pay. And all the many different accents floating around the SECC!! People talking sometimes in their native language but often using English to chat between nationalities. A brilliant example of ELF in action! Personally, I found it quite strange – in a good way – to know that no matter who I wanted to speak to, I was guaranteed they would understand me and be able to confidently chat back. A refreshing change for an English woman living in a foreign country
So what I am ultimately saying. Being at IATEFL Glasgow was exhausting, at times frankly overwhelming. Ultimately, though, I found it highly professionally organised, varied, informative, fun and utterly inspiring. If you were also there, how would you respond to a banner ad flashing up next to the departures screen:
“IATEFL is inspirational in many ways. How has IATEFL inspired you?”
Michelle.
PS: Here are some pictures from the week. Thanks to Mike Hogan for sharing on Flickr: http://flic.kr/s/aHsjyJ2D5y
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