Member Event Fund Report: The Annual ASR Workshop

The theme of this year’s annual ASR workshop, held on 24th November, was Cracking the Code of Language for Business and Professional Situations. This event was supported by Eaquals through the ‘Member Event Fund’.

Following a short presentation of our Association and of Eaquals, the workshop was led by Swedish language consultant and regular conference speaker Caroline Ståhl.  Over 50 participants attended the two half-day sessions, and they represented a broad range of languages, including Swedish as a Foreign Language. Many language trainers, the majority of whom work as sub-contracting freelancers, see the annual ASR workshop as a great  opportunity to network with fellow language trainers working with corporate and public sector clients, several of whom had travelled long distances to attend.

The practical examples presented and discussed in the workshop focused on a number of skills and approaches. They were mostly focused on teaching Swedish as a foreign language for corporate clients from a range of sectors and at different levels, but the techniques and theories were applicable to the teaching of all languages.

Topics covered included advice on setting clear and relevant lesson, course and long-term goals; leveraging participants’ pre-knowledge and assumptions as a key resource; and transforming level, skills and cultural differences in the “classroom” into opportunities; sourcing materials for both lessons and self-study; and translanguaging.

Feedback following the event has been overwhelmingly positive, both with regard to the content and the networking opportunities. Some regular attendees even went as far as to say it was the most inspiring ASR workshop yet. We therefore look forward to continuing our annual workshop series in 2023 and hope to take it on the road to visit other Swedish cities in order to give more teachers opportunities to attend.

Click here for a full report on the conference.