Vicki Hollett

Yes, you’re at the Learning To Speak ‘Merican blog.  I’ve changed the look so we should now have the ability to reply to specific comments and I can post wide videos. (I hope to have more videos in 2011.) I think I may have a bit of formatting work to do, so please let me know if anything about the new WordPress theme is driving you nuts.

A date for your diaries/calendars in 2011: At 14.00 (CET ) on Monday 7 February 2011, I’ll be chairing a webinar on English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) for BESIG (IATEFL’s Business English Special Interest Group). Jennifer Jenkins, who set everyone talking with her ground breaking research into ELF phonology has kindly agreed to be a panelist, along with Mark Powell, our favourite author and ‘lean English’ ELF skeptic. And internet willing, Barbara Seidlhofer, leader of the VOICE (Vienna-Oxford International Corpus of English) project and the world’s foremost authority on the lexico-grammar of ELF, has also kindly agreed to come. Lots of other key figures will be stopping by, such as Almut Koester, Susanne Ehrenreich, Jeremy Comfort, Ian McMaster, Robin Walker and many more. So we have a star studded line up and with an internet connection, you can come too. I do hope you can make it. More joining details here.

And finally, I’d just like to say a big thank you to all my readers in 2011. I’ve made some great new friends via this blog and you’ve given me lots of great ideas and good chuckles. Please keep coming back and I wish you all a very happy, healthy and prosperous 2011.

Before I talk about my latest faux pas, a word about the E4BT (English for Business and Technology) conference in Brunei.  It’s a unique mix of terrific teaching ideas from South East Asia, an abundance of exotic food and Brunei hospitality – all coming together to make it the friendliest conference I’ve ever known. Truly heart warming. It may become a biannual event so if you get a glimmer of a chance, go for it! 

And you also get treated to Ritual (intentional capita R). There’s an opening ceremony, a closing ceremony, and a farewell dinner and lots of food in between.  Amongst other things, the opening ceremony includes drums, honoured guests, a very honoured guest, a gong, speeches, fresh flowers, a prayer, lots of press and a master of protocol.

I totally screwed up on the protocol. I  mistook my cue and leapt up and spoke ahead of time, throwing the whole order of events out of sync. Ah my. Dismay and consternation. Unknowingly I’d usurped the very honoured guest position and caused embarrassment left right and centre. Argh! And the irony was – I was speaking about ‘politeness theories’.

Notes to self: ‘Take it easy’. ‘Wait, wait, and wait until you are sure you have been called upon’. ‘Go say sorry – thankfully people can be very forgiving’. ‘E4BT is definitely one to return to if you can.’

My belated ‘merican thanksgiving list:

Firstly, I feel thankful for all the wonderful folks I’ve met in the last three weeks – dear old friends and new. And what a privilege to present in Paris, at BESIG and all over Poland – wow! Recesssion or not, ELT and business English is buzzing with energy, creativity, generosity, professionalism, warmth… I’m in awe.

Secondly, it was such fun to meet virtual friends face to face at last – folks I’d been wanting to meet for ages! This (just partial) list included the energetic Heike Philp and Holly Longstroth of Lancelot School, the enthusiastic and sharing Shelly Terrel ,@TEFLpet, and Kenny Christian (English Profi), the business English teacher training blogger Carl Dowse (please blog more Carl) and the first class ESP blogger, Jeremy Day. And a real treat for me, Karenne Sylvester, (what a gem!) who even took time out to sort my tweet deck for me so I can now follow conversations better on twitter.

And thirdly, I’m very thankful to Anne Hodgson who has set me a new task on this blog by raising the question of ways into pragmatics. I’m really not sure how we can best teach some of the stuff that’s arising in conversational analysis and sociolinguistics, but I love your idea Anne! And I’ve got lots of thoughts – some of which I’m sure could work and some of which will need readers input and help. So here’s my goal for a new strand to this blog… practical ways we can upgrade how we teach functions and help folks get along better. 

And fourthly and finally – I slept in my own bed last night. Ah….! S’wonderful!

PS. Just came across this video of Karenne talking about Twitter and social media that I think Carl must have made at BESIG.

If you want to know what’s happening in the English language teaching blogosphere, Karenne at Kalinago English is  a ‘must visit’  site. She is running a blog fest. Her concept is ingenious – for old hands at ELT blogging and complete newbies like me to share our experiences with our colleagues.

But argh – what to do if you’re still stumbling around in the dark, like me. The deadline approached. And then it struck me. Folks – I have had the privilege of meeting Kareene virtually. Here is my first meeting with this warm hearted and hard working communicatons professional:

Kareene, thank you for connecting people to people, and ideas to more ideas.