ESP Conference in Vienna, Austria: 23-24 May 2014

There will be an ESP conference at the University of Applied Sciences Technikum Wien (Vienna, Austria) from 23-24 May 2014. This will be the 7th UAS Language Instructors' Conference.

The theme of the conference is: Integrating Language, Culture and Purpose in ESP.

The conference website: http://esp.technikum-wien.at

The keynote speakers will be Henry Widdowson (University of Vienna) and Barbara Seidlhofer (University of Vienna). Both are not only very well known in their field, with many publications to their name, but are also extremely dynamic speakers.

I'm the organizer of this conference, and I have developed the theme and description. I think it is very important for teachers of English for Specific Purposes (for engineers and any other special-interest students) to keep up to date, share ideas with other teachers, and find ways to help themselves develop materials specific enough for their students and teaching situations to be relevant. As most (all?) of us know, this is not easy!

My description of the conference is: As the reasons to learn English have become more specific, the challenges of making content and methods relevant for ESP students have become even greater. This conference will focus on the three components of English for Specific Purposes: language, specificity and purpose.

How can we inspire and motivate our students to reach both their personal and professional potential? In which ways can technology serve as an ESP teacher's tool to help achieve this? How can we most effectively meet students' specific needs for English in multicultural societies?

These issues are among those we will be focusing on in talks, workshops and poster presentations. Every are of ESP is encouraged, including all types of engineering and technical fields, and English for business, law, management, medicine, social work, information and communication technologies, tourism, architecture, sport, aviation, etc.

By sharing a variety of strategies and approaches, we will create a forum that will enhance the professional development of teachers, materials developers, testers, course book designers and all those involved in any area of Specific Purpose language teaching.

The closing date for Speaker Proposals is 15 February 2014
Early bird registration by: 31 March 2014

To send proposals or to register, go to the conference website: http://esp.technikum-wien.at



Vienna, Austria, is a beautiful city!