My interest in the use of technology in teaching, led me to the session “Quick wins with technology in the BYOD language classroom”. BYOD? Bring Your Own Device. It will take me weeks to follow up on all the tips and information from this talk by Joe Dale, who apparently is quite renowned as an expert on this topic, judging from the almost full room of 190 capacity.

By far the most packed session I attended was “How long does it take to learn English?”. The results of a study by Wall Street English of over 50,000 learners in 25 countries were presented. The results were a bit difficult to decipher because they focused on the blended learning approach of WSE as opposed to what Cambridge calls “guided learning” (face to face). So, like the presenter, I can’t reveal a clear answer, but from the fact that all 90 seats were filled and it was standing room only, it’s clearly a question that a lot of colleagues would like to have an answer to.

I’m off now to “Meet the IATEFL SIGs” (Special Interest Groups). I hope to find out what’s planned by the Business English and English for Special/Academic Purposes groups. Should be interesting.

I will keep you posted. Also check on the iATEFL website iATEFL conference home page with link to iATEFL online

Cathy Duffek