Jessica Driscoll presenting at the V-lang conference, Warsaw 2011

- By Jessica Driscoll (@JessieDriscoll) Product Development Manager, Languagelab.com

The V-lang conference, ‘Future Language Learning Now: Innovative Applications and Methods for Language Training’, took place in Warsaw on 17 November 2011.

Funded by the EU Lifelong Learning Programme, the conference focused on new and innovative ways to learn languages. There were presentations on learning in virtual worlds, online classes via Skype, and games for language learning. It also included discussion on research into these methods of learning.

I presented Languagelab’s newest product, Market Leader Live. My main points were that by simulating real business situations, stress, and interactions with students from different countries, you can create a more realistic Business English experience that will prepare students for working internationally.

My presentation also discussed the use of course books in a modern classroom, and why simply digitising books is not enough to meet the needs of learners. Reading has become fragmented by the use of e-books and mobile devices, so the linear method of working through a course book with a teacher in a time constrained atmosphere is not an ideal way of experiencing Business English online.

If you can take a textbook and make it into a virtual experience which is rich in co-presence, real language in context and prepares students to be in the real situation you are on the right track to making a resource of the future.