Bruno Leys’s Image Conference Brussels Experience

 

Bruno Leys writes about his experience as a speaker and delegate at The Image Conference Brussels.

 

1. What did you enjoy about The Image Conference?

 

The people, the talks and above all the unique atmosphere and positive vibes I felt all through the conference.

 

2. How was The Image Conference different from other conferences you’ve been to?

 

I realise that this was part due to the unprecedented circumstances, but at the same time it was just wonderful to see how this was a kind of self-regulating conference. Room changes, timing, technical stuff and so on all rolled flawlessly  thanks to all delegates’ and speakers’ positive involvement.

 

3. Sum up your talk briefly.

 

My talk focused on using images, pictures with samples of real language as a tool for grammar teaching, rather than the sometimes sterile and artificial coursebook exercises sentences. I introduced, and we tried out a series of activities based on such images. I referred to the hashtag #reallyrealgrammar that I and some others use to share images, containing samples of languages that can be used for this purpose.

 

4. What were the main discussion points to arise in The Image Conference?

 

I especially felt that this was a group of equal-minded professionals, all seeing the benefits of working with images, film, visuals in language teaching, as a tool, but probably also as a goal in itself.