My Presentations

"I just wanted to drop you a line and thank you for your talk at the BESIG conference. It was inspiring to see how you adapted your teaching to the online environment, and how well students responded to this. I really appreciate that you let us benefit from your research and experience. Your students are fortunate to have such a dedicated, capable, and creative teacher!
Kind regards,
R xxxx
XXXX Verlag GmbH & Co. KG"

​33rd IATEFL BESIG Annual Conference
Challenge & Change 
Online Conference
13-15 November 2020

ADAPTING TO CHANGE - TEACHING PRESENTATION SKILLS
 
Lockdown meant most universities suddenly moved online. At first, I questioned if it would even be possible to continue to teach presentation skills. I have and based on my experiences, I will address these issues when it comes to teaching presentation skills online:
-          attitudes towards change
-          preparation: selecting tools and platforms
-          adaptation: you, the learner, materials
-          advantages and improvements
-          disadvantages and limitations
-          exploration of teaching solutions moving forward.

As well as giving this talk, I have been assigned as a mentor for new speakers at the conference. 

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FHWien der WKW Competence Center for Business English

The 10th Austrian UAS Language Instructors’ Conference

Beyond the Traditional Classroom: Teaching and Learning in ESP Higher Education

15 & 16 May 2020

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CASE STUDIES

Business English / ESP course design should focus on activities that give students opportunities to interact and use language communicatively. Case studies provide an excellent platform for improving communication skills and applying theory to practical communication scenarios. Their benefits as learning tools are well documented. This workshop will explore how a case study can be used to generate activities that develop students’ understanding and communication of business tools and strategy.

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32nd IATEFL BESIG Annual Conference

Back to Basics

Wista Conventions in Berlin Adlershof, Germany

11-13 October 2019

HOW TO TEACH PRESENTATION SKILLS

 
 
"The theme of this year's conference is “Back to Basics” and, in line with this theme, BESIG will be offering a strand of talks and workshops titled “How to...”.  This strand, aimed at less experienced business English teachers, is intended to provide delegates with fundamental methods, approaches and techniques for teaching business English, and it will feature strongly in our conference promotional activities.
 
In keeping with the “How to...” theme of the strand, we would like you to offer a session with the title:
 
How to teach presentation skills​​​"

"Research on presentation skills and subsequently writing “Presentations in English” (Macmillan 2008) took me back to Aristotle and the 4th century BC. Surprisingly often. Do teachers need to learn new skills and adapt their teaching approach? It can be argued that presentations are all about back to basics and teachers simply need to master a fundamental set of skills and devices. I’ll explore these issues by examining the development or non-development of my own teaching over the past ten years."​

CRACOW / KRAKOW, POLAND

 Cracow University of Economics​
2nd IATEFL Poland Business English Special Interest Group (BESIG) Event

11 May 2019

TITLE: TEACHING AND ASSESSING PRESENTATION SKILLS IN UNIVERSITY COURSES

This talk addresses issues in teaching and assessing presentation skills in a university and outlines solutions that are part of the ongoing development of Business English at the Hochschule Düsseldorf. Teaching presentations in a meaningful way in a university context can be problematic and is often done in such a manner that a student can pass an exam but cannot present confidently and authentically in the actual business environment. Problems revolve around the size of university classes, the time allocated to teaching, teaching itself, student attendance, student engagement and the criteria for assessment. Alumni of the Faculty of Business Studies have stated in feedback that they recognise that their presenting skills in English are good in comparison to graduates they have encountered from other institutions. We must have begun to find some answers to the problems. 

VIENNA, AUSTRIA