EAP Conference

What does this mean? English for Academic Purposes is the answer. Yesterday I spent the day attending the EAP Conference 2014. It was hosted by Potsdam University on their Griebnitzsee Campus. This is to the east of Potsdam and is easy to reach via S-Bahn.

This year it was organised by Potsdam Uni, Frei University Berlin, Wildenau Fachhochschule and eltabb. The eltabb board asked me to attend and take photographs. I readily agreed. They want to build up a file of photographs to use on the teachers’ platform and for a new newsletter on the net.

We, of course, send reduced versions of the photos to each speaker with permission to use them on their web pages, blogs or other social networks. I finished all that this morning before visiting an Oldie in a hospital.

After the welcome and coffee break starting at 9.00 am, teachers could choose from four parallel workshops. These covered eLearning platforms, communicative competence, write your own materials and feedback on student writing. I went to all and took a range of photos.

There was a relaxing lunch break followed by two parallel paper presentations and an afternoon coffee break. I managed to cover six of the eight sessions and take photos. At 3.00 pm we all trooped into a large lecture hall for a panel discussion. Interesting comments by some speakers.

The day ended with a “Korean barbecue”. Yes, you have read correctly. It was all new to me and discovered the Korean title came from the mix of sauces and different salads that went with the meat(s). It was easy to digest and very tasty.

I attach a photo of one of the classes. I took fifty photographs so I picked just a few. There is one of most of the organisers. You can never get them all in one place at the same time.

You can see the queue for the BBQ, and finally the ‘thing’ that ended up on my plate. It was washed down with Berliner Beer!