Getting out of the bubble

Last weekend I was at a one-day EAP conference in Nottingham. Although I've been teaching EAP at Bristol Uni for a few years now and have dipped into writing EAP materials, I hadn't previously got involved in the world of BALEAP; the professional organisation for EAP teachers. So this was my first PIM - no not a summer cocktail, apparently a Professional Issues Meeting.

As with all these sorts of things, it was a mixed day with some very interesting, inspiring and thought-provoking ideas and some interesting people, but also some dull, irrelevant bits and some rather annoying people bent on making their own petty, 'political' points. But overall, it was well worth the train trek there and back. And perhaps more importantly, it was another excuse to get out of my freelance bubble, to mingle and to listen to different points of view and experiences.

I came away feeling more definite that I want to get my teeth into writing more EAP stuff - a nice EAP grammar book would be great. In the short-term though, I had to satisfy myself with trying out some of my new ideas on my EAP class yesterday evening. I wonder if they realise how much I use them as guinea-pigs?!