MaWSIG meets MATSDA

I'm on the train on my way home from a great weekend in Liverpool for the MATSDA (Materials Development Association) conference and reflecting on the similarities and differences between the MaWSIG crew who I usually hang out with and the MATSDA crowd ... or at least I'm trying to over a rather raucous hen party who I'll be sharing my journey with as far as Wolverhampton!

I was invited to speak at the conference as a step towards encouraging more cooperation between the two groups. We're both involved in working on ELT materials, after all, so there should be lots of overlap. So what did I notice?

Well, I think the first clue is perhaps in the name - materials writers vs materials developers. The difference may seem a subtle one, but it came out quite clearly in a number of ways. As I looked down the programme of presenters, only 5 out of 53 (including myself) weren't representing universities. This gave the event a much more academic feel than the average MaWSIG gathering which is typically dominated by freelancers who work on projects for commercial publishers.

This academic bent also came through in the sessions. Many had a fairly abstract focus on pedagogy and were peppered with references to academic research, others were about individual research projects, presenting or evaluating materials developed for very specific, generally small-scale, contexts (South Korean tour guides, German police officers, Malaysian university students). MaWSIG events tend to focus more on the work of materials writing; the constraints and issues around working with publishers, the practicalities of being freelance. That's not to say that they don't address pedagogical issues too sometimes, but they tend to come at them from a slightly different perspective.

One of the other things that really struck me was the international nature of MATSDA, with probably more people from outside of the UK than inside. There were people who'd come from Asia, Africa and South America just for the two-day event, which was both impressive and made for some fascinating insights. This perhaps comes back to the fact that most of the delegates were funded by their institutions, an option not open to self-employed freelancers who typically have to self-fund any trips. My experience of most MaWSIG events is a largely British crowd either based in the UK or travelling in from Europe (on budget airlines!), rarely from any further afield.

So what am I taking away from the weekend? Well, when I joined MaWSIG, it was great to meet up with a group of people who did the same thing as me, who understood the joys and frustrations of being a freelance writer, people with whom I could share ideas, problems, advice or just have a laugh. Although many of the MATSDA members didn't quite share my professional context, we still found plenty we had in common and we still had a laugh. I found it really useful to forget about commercial constraints and the woes of the publishing industry for a while and to get back to thinking about the basics of what materials writing's about at its heart; helping teachers to teach and students to learn in the most effective, engaging way possible. It felt like a bit of a luxury that I rarely get time for and it was much more fun being involved in informal, interactive sessions with academics than trying to keep up with 'the literature'!

I also found it really fascinating to meet people working in so many different contexts. Although I get to meet teachers from around the world when I'm giving talks and workshops, it was interesting to get a slightly different take from folks who are developing materials independently; a world away from the large-scale, global projects I'm generally involved in. I came away with a number of ideas that I think I can transfer to my own work in some form.

So there are lots of things that I think other MaWSIG members like myself could get from dipping a toe into MATSDA territory every now and then. But what could MATSDA members gain from exploring what MaWSIG has to offer? As well as insights into the world of commercial publishing, I think the main thing they might gain is more practical hands-on ideas that they can take away and make use of. Although the MATSDA sessions provided plenty of food for thought, I didn't come away with concrete things to try out, links to follow, tools to play with in the same way that I often do after a MaWSIG event.

Overall, I think there's definitely room for both groups to continue looking at the world of ELT materials from their slightly different perspectives, but I also think there's lots of scope for overlap and sharing too.

If you're interested in finding out more about either group:
MATSDA:  https://www.matsda.org/

MaWSIG:  http://mawsig.iatefl.org/ 

IATEFL light

I’m on a train on my way back from Liverpool, reflecting on what I think is probably my 13^th IATEFL conference.  I nearly didn’t make it this year, but I’m very glad I did, even though it was a slightly different IATEFL experience from usual. I usually go for the whole week; going to talks, meeting up with folks and just generally soaking up the vibe. As a freelancer, it’s way of keeping in touch with the industry, what’s new, who’s doing what, but it’s also an invaluable source of contacts. All my work comes via contacts and many of them I meet, or reconnect with, during that one week in April each year. 

After a year spent writing for royalties though, this year the coffers were empty and, with no talk for a publisher lined up, I decided I just couldn’t afford to shell out for registration, travel and accommodation for the week. As the conference got nearer though and people kept asking me if I was going, I started to think that I couldn’t afford not to go. So this year, I did IATEFL on a budget. I booked a cheap hotel for a couple of nights (which turned out to be really central and absolutely fine) and went along to the conference without registering. That, of course, meant I couldn’t go to any of the sessions, but I was still able to schmooze around the exhibition hall and arrange to meet up for endless cups of coffee with friends, colleagues and useful contacts, both old and new. It was a bit odd not having a programme of talks to go to and I did feel a bit left out when people kept asking “Did you go to … ?”, but it was still a pretty packed and productive day and a half.

This year’s highlights, from my rather limited viewpoint, included the buzz around getting more people involved in materials writing. With the major publishers and the publishing industry generally clearly in the middle of a huge upheaval at the moment - with the spread of digital content and the challenge of how to make money out of it - it was nice amongst all the uncertainty to also get a feeling that something new, exciting and less exclusive may emerge from it all. Initiatives like ELT Teacher 2 Writer, Nick Robinson’s agency for ELT writers and the round are starting to help new writers become involved in writing good quality materials, either through the traditional publishing channels or in new ways through e-publishing, self-publishing or more local projects. And the launch of the new IATEFL Materials Writing SIG (MaWSIG) seems to signal more interest in sharing skills and best practice. I was lucky enough to be taken on fresh from my MA and trained in-house (at CUP) as a lexicographer. I actually only spent a relatively short time in-house before I went freelance, but it gave me not only a really solid grounding in lexicography and corpus research, but also an insight into how the whole publishing process works and some invaluable contacts to get me started. For new people wanting to make that shift from teaching to publishing now though, the opportunities to learn the ropes seem much more limited. With tight deadlines and even tighter budgets, publishers are often looking for experienced, reliable people (writers, editors, etc.) who can ‘hit the ground running’. So it looks like if we’re going to bring new talent through and keep standards high, then it’s perhaps going to be through sharing skills and experience. I’m definitely looking forward to being involved in some way.

The other novelty for me was meeting people face-to-face who I’ve got to know through social media. I had the odd experience of going up to people I’d never actually met before all smiles and instantly friendly chat, because they’ve become so familiar via my computer screen! I met several other freelancers who I’ve got to know through Facebook and even a fellow #EAPchat regular from Canada, which was great and lovely to put not just a face, but a voice to a name!

I’m heading home with a pile of new business cards, feeling again like I’m part of a community rather than a lone freelancer working away on my own, and also feeling pretty positive about the possibilities ahead … after that is, a well-earned holiday next week ...