Critical Conferences 4: Academic or Practical?

I think one of the biggest problems plaguing today’s ELT conferences is that they are still modeled on an academic format.  That is, they are lecture-based, research-heavy, theory-heavy, and often focused on abstract concepts rather than practical classroom ideas.  They also favor presenters with advanced degrees and lots of published material (who may or may not actually have entered a classroom for years) rather than actual teachers who have decades of experience in the classroom.

Take a look at the first 3 presentation headings for an up-coming conference in China:

1)  Validity and Reliability Issues in the LargeScale Assessment of English Language Proficiency
2)  Optimizing the Limited Resources for More Efficiency in Teacher Development Programs in China
3)  Criterion-referenced Tests: Roles and Functions in Language Assessment in the Chinese Context

Does that sound like something that’s going to be immediately relate-able and applicable to your classroom teaching?  Would you guess the presentation is going to be stuffy and academic or down-to-earth and practical?

Although I think many teachers going to ELT conferences go with the mindset that they will be learning something that will help them improve their teaching in the here and now, many conference presentations only involve the recitation of dry facts and theories.

The problem is this:  those attending conferences are usually practicing teachers whereas those attending most other conferences are academic researchers.  In the conferences of most fields, and following the traditional academic format, research is shared and debated.  But this is not the background most teachers/conference participants are coming from in ELT and this is not what most of them want.   It is a fundamental flaw in the way conferences are set up.

In a great illustration of this, Melania from Romania would like to learn how to deal with illiterate, undisciplined, or unmotivated students instead of listening to the latest research from a presenters such as those in the US with state-of-the-art resources available in their classroom. In a similar vein we could ask:  how do we deal with overcrowded classrooms, how do we manage administrations that are distanced from education, how do we get our students to connect with English in ways meaningful to them, how do we promote learning for our students (rather than someone else’s half a world away).  IMO, these are the kinds of things most teachers attending conferences really need.

This connects to a comment of mine on Scott’s R is for Research post as well.  Why do we have professors flying in from Japan or the US to present on a small bit of action research done with their students at a conference in Turkey?  Is it really translatable to my classroom with Turkish students?  It comes from this same academic mentality that conferences are the sharing of isolated and niche-research projects rather than solutions to real class issues in a teacher’s specific teaching context.

I think there are conference organizers and presenters out there who get this.  They are the ones that model their plenaries and workshops on best practices in teaching.  They are the ones who provide interactive content that, as Alex Case often says is important, teachers can use on Monday.

The other issue I mentioned is the question of why there are so many presenters at conferences who haven’t been in an actual English language class in years?  How does spending the last ten years in academia prepare them for teaching teachers how to teach?  Why is someone who wrote a coursebook in Britain a better presenter than a local teacher with 10 years of experience in the local context?  These are some of the questions that need to be asked regarding many current conference set-ups.

I’m not saying there is no room for research at conferences, because some teachers do really like that (I’m looking at you Sarah ).  However, I think we should make a clear distinction between academic conferences oriented towards SLA and methodology research and conferences oriented towards teachers who want to learn how to best teach their classes in their own contexts.  At the very least, conferences should clearly mark or have separate areas for the two types of presentations/workshops.

How do you feel about conferences in this regard?  Do they often provide you with information and activities you find useful and applicable in YOUR classes?  Is there too much of a focus on an academic model?  How can we improve conferences to make them more applicable to practicing teachers?

Related Posts:

R is for Research on an A-Z of ELT

On Conference from a Different Angle on Melania from Romania

What Makes a Good Conference on Jeremy Harmer’s Blog

Critical Conferences 3: Expense and Exclusion

Critical Conferences 2:  The Cyprus Conference

Critical Conferences 3: Expense and Exclusion

Continuing on from my first post in this series I now want to examine some possible economic inequalities that underlie conference attendance.

Many conferences outside of Turkey come with a very hefty price tag.  Not including travel, accommodation, and food, prices of some conferences that I attended this year ranged from 68 to 150 Euro.  Now that’s a huge chunk of change, especially for someone on a teacher’s salary in a country where the conversion rate from the local currency to the Euro is 2 to 1, not to mention that time taken off of work. Already, what I’m sure is the vast majority of educators are excluded from the bigger ELT conferences simply by price.

Interestingly enough, at my last international ELT conference, I found out that I seemed to be the only person paying my own way.  I was also the only person camping out behind the hotel in a tent .  Perhaps one reason why conference fees remain so high is that the average teacher doesn’t actually attend.  Expenses are generally covered by the institutions teachers work for.  This would mean that, by and large, only teachers working at schools already interested in development and with the expense account to finance it are given the chance to go.

In this respect, should ELT conferences be considered a tool of the elite?  Generally, only those from wealthy families, countries or institutions are able to attend the big international conferences.  What about the rest of the educators out there?

In contrast to this situation, there have definitely been some positive steps forward with conferences in the form of scholarships and live Internet feeds, and that’s a trend that I hope continues into the future.  Would it be possible to do more of this?  I think it would even be reasonable to charge a small fee for access to a video archive of talks and workshops.  Perhaps more conferences could take this direction in the future.

I’ve been told by some conference attendees and organizers that very little money is made off of conferences.  I’d be curious to know for what percentage of conferences that holds true.  I’ve also been told by others that prices can be much higher than they need to be.  Any readers who have organized conferences in the past, I’d be grateful to get some numbers on either one.

I think the best example of affordable conferences done right is actually Turkey.  Conferences in Turkey are usually free or rarely cost more than 15 Euro to attend.  Often included in that fee is transportation to and from the event and lunch at the very least.  In addition, as they are often organized by large universities or school conglomerates, accommodation is provided on site for a very low fee.  If conferences can be organized for this cheap, why can’t the same be done in other countries?  Standard expenses here are often comparable to other nearby countries, so there shouldn’t be that much difference.

I think, as members of the ELT profession, we need to critically examine the role of conferences and actually look at who they are benefiting.  You seem to see a lot of the same names and faces and conferences and, to me, that‘s more an indication of who has the ability to go rather than who has the desire to go.

What do you think?  Could conferences be cheaper?  If so, how?  What could be done to allow more teachers to be able to attend?  Would lower prices even mean more teachers would attend or do the ones that really want to go make it happen?  How many people pass on conferences because of expenses?  Also – from the other side – isn’t it better to at least have conferences than have nothing?  What would be the alternatives?

Critical Conferences 2: The Cyprus Conference

I’ll be continuing with the critical aspect of this series in a bit.  However, last week I came back from the best conference I’ve been to to date.  Sure, it had some oversights but there was a lot of really good stuff that happened and so I wanted to highlight it.  This was the 3rd Eastern Mediterranean ELT Conference in Northern Cyprus.

First and foremost, as always, the best thing about this conference was the people.  There were really some very talented people at the conference both in the way of big name ELTers and people who weren’t so well-known.  Almost everyone was very friendly and sociable and willing to share.  I think this is what ultimately made the conference a big success.  Being an almost unprecedented 3-day event, it was really important to be surrounded by good people.

One reason for everyone getting along so well was, I think, the absolutely wonderful social programs that the conference organized for all participants (that’s right, anyone and everyone attending was invited!).  Every night there was some kind of event.  The first night we were bused to the ancient city of Salamis and then taken to a reception hall for drinks, food, music, and a folk dance troupe.

The second night it was a tour into the old city of Famagusta.  The third night was by far the best.  We finished up the conference at 2pm, were given a tour of the campus, then taken to Nicosia’s old town, to an old castle near Girne, and, finally, to the famous Bellapais Monastery.  We were then invited to a wonderful meal directly across the street from the monastery and once again drinks were on the house and we had entertainment in the form of music and a belly dancer.

All the events were absolutely wonderful, gave us a taste of the culture and a chance to bond.  All of it was also absolutely free (although I’m sure the hefty conference fee covered some of it).  Another point to make is that it’s very difficult to get around Cyprus as public transport is lacking to say the least.  Usually, if you actually want to tour the country yourself, you need to rent a car at a 100 US a day.  However, everything was organized and provided absolutely free by the conference.  It was really an amazing time.

The other main thing that I really liked about this particular conference was that they split up concurrent sessions into presentations and workshops (many of which were given by local Turkish Cypriots or Turks). This really helped participants know what they were getting into.  And let me tell you, the workshops were great.  I have been to 9 conferences now this year and every single workshop here was fantastic, better than anything else I’ve been to at any other conference.  The presenters knew how to involve the participants and had some great practical ideas that everyone could use.  I would like to thank everybody whose workshop I attended for doing a great job and, of course, those who attended mine as well

Now there were some oversights as well and I don’t want to give the impression that everything was perfect. Accommodation was really expensive and no alternatives were provided, although for the quality of the hotel I’d say prices were comparable or cheaper to anything you’d find in Europe, just comparing to Turkey things seem really pricey.  I ended up just camping out in a forest behind the hotel to save on expenses.

Probably the biggest issue was that there were no breaks between presentations or workshops.  When one ended, the next was immediately supposed to begin, which made things incredibly difficult for presenters as they had to leave one presentation early and then rush to theirs only to have to wait outside the door because the presenter wasn’t finished yet, not to mention having no time to set up.  Then there was the added difficulty of everyone coming in late because everything started and ended at the same time.

Those were the two biggest issues and I hope that they will be corrected next year, but I don’t think they dampen a job well done.  The conference organizers did a fantastic job making everything work and making everyone feel at home.  I made a lot of good friends at this conference and I hope that in the future we shall be able to meet again.  The picture at the top was another great idea the organizers had.  They took it and then sold copies to anyone who wanted one on the last night.  What a cool idea and great way to remember the conference by.

Until next year…

You can check out my other pics from the conference here.