I felt like I was returning home. I lived in Cáceres for three years from 2016-2019 and when I first arrived, I could barely say more in Spanish than request basic food staples and state that I didn’t eat meat (and that includes tuna; and no, not even jamón). So I was returning to my Spanish pueblo, but as a changed man! The Talgo arrived on time at the station and we were welcomed with a deluge from the skies…but I’d booked a taxi to take us straight to the university, perfectly in time for the welcome cocktail at the Facultad de Formación del Profesorado at the University of Extremadura.
It simply wasn’t possible for me to arrive in time for the sessions on Friday, so my conference started properly early on Saturday morning. We had breakfast at a cafe I used to frequent when I was resident in Cáceres and then, on the way to meet the bus, stopped for second breakfast of porras at what was once my local churrería! The first talk I attended was given by my colleague from IATEFL ReSIG ELT Research journal Dr Jessica Mackay, and she spoke about motivation over time for language learners. My talk this weekend was also about motivation, so it was interesting to hear the different angle and ideas that Jessica had to share. I have already begun to make use of one of the ideas I got from the talk as well. From there, I spent the rest of the morning in the Salon de Actos with a talk about Inclusion from Varinder Ulna and my first AI talk of the weekend from Ceri Jones. Saturday’s plenary was given by Evan Frendo, who challenged us to think about how and what we teach when we teach English for Business.
Rain and very full restaurants frustrated our attempts to have a quick bite for lunch in the city and I had to get back for my late afternoon talk so my lunch was quick, on the move and profoundly unSpanish! Motivation (along with AI) has been a theme of conferences this academic year, so I was very grateful to those delegates who chose to come and listen to me talk about this topic and who also discussed their experiences with each other in such depth. After my slot, I was able to relax a little and was treated to the moving and uplifting presentation by Beccy Allen about the work of Desert Voicebox in the refugee camps of Western Sahara. Finally, Fiona Dunbar reassured us that teachers are necessary in the age of generative AI, but did make me question why we keep questioning our necessity (more on this to come, I think).
On Sunday, Charles Whitehouse spoke to us about AI and really gave me food for thought on how I can use ChatGPT to help my students improve their writing and thus leave these tools behind! David Bradshaw gave us a genuinely fascinating potted history of Cambridge Exams and a look ahead at what’s coming up in the future (I now understand why the exams have traditionally had names like ‘First’ or ‘Preliminary’ or ‘Proficiency’), alongside a reminder that assessment has to meet the needs of the candidates. And finally, I heard Emma Gowing talk about Global Skills and how they have built some modules around the Cambridge Life Competencies Framework. I did some work integrating this framework into the syllabus in my last post, so it was great to hear about how someone else was working with it.
Last year’s closing plenary was given by Libor Štěpánek who talked about creativity and told us not to fear ChatGPT! Generative AI (and ChatGPT) has been very much a theme of the conference this year. Something tells me that while Generative AI is certainly having its moment and we are contending with ChatGPT generated FCE practice essays (or in the case of a colleague I spoke to this week…Masters Degree assignments), I’m minded to agree with Charles Whitehouse who pointed out that such moments don’t often last and the novelty often fades away. This year’s closing plenary, given by Joan-Tomàs Pujolà, was very much on the topic of GenAI and thus seemed fitting.
Thank you to everyone who made the event possible: the TESOL Spain board, the volunteers, the speakers and the university staff who gave us a place to meet. Also, thank you to the amazing shuttle bus driver who made sure those of us who didn’t have a car made it to and from the venue from the city each day.
It’s now been two weeks since I arrived back in Cáceres for TESOL Spain 2024 and there are still many classroom ideas turning around in my head and thoughts about future collaborations firing away. In a year we’ll meet in Burgos, I wonder what will happen between now and then!
Chris Richards ELT 