Best of BESIG

Workshop documents

How to Use Videotaping in the Classroom in Several Easy Steps

By Barry Abrams

The workshop, while brief, will try to give participants some insights into how to effectively use video in the classroom. This will include, in large part, dispelling the 'fear factor' of working with technical equipment.
We will look at various uses of video in meetings, negotiations and presentation role-plays and discuss the many possibilities video provides to work on not only the learners’ language skills (with delayed correction), but also to help them become  more effective public speakers.
If time allows, some of the more creative uses of the medium, such as one on one interviews and letting the learners script and act in their own socializing video role-plays will be discussed.

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International Team Building Training

By Nick Brieger
Nick Brieger

Developing Yourself and Your Team in an International Context’is a one-day training programme run by York Associates to various international clients.  It brings together three areas:

  1. - awareness of preferred working styles, using a psychometric tool
  2. - people-linking skills and task-linking skills for effective team working
  3. - intercultural awareness, looking at national and corporate cultures

These three background issues are then developed through practical activities to raise awareness of their applicability in the participants’ working contexts.
In this session, I am to go through the programme for the day:

  1. the course objectives
  2. the stages
  3. the activities

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Critical Moments: Creating Spontaneous Teaching and Learning Opportunities

By Tom Smith + Stephanie Ashford

This is an interactive workshop that examines ways of developing scenarios for teaching the 'high surrender' language chunks that are essential for business people using English in a range of situations. No materials are used – the participants suggest the situations, and the facilitators create simple 'information gap' simulations and monitor the activities and give feedback. We will discuss issues of classroom organisation, how to set up authentic simulations and encourage participation, and effective ways of taking language notes and giving feedback. This workshop will be of interest to anyone involved in the practical aspects of teaching Business English.

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