SPELT’s Innovative Travelling Conferences

Associates’ Coordinator Margit Szesztay gives you details of a fascinating conference venture utilized by SPELT (Society of Pakistan English Language Teachers), Below you will find an organizer’s perspective, as detailed by SPELT Quarterly Editor Zakia Sarwar, and the view of two presenters, from Jane Willis (UK) and Pauline Ernest (Spain)

Travelling conference in Pakistan: two perspectives

What is a travelling conference?
For SPELTers (members of the Society of Pakistan) the travelling conference means that, instead of the participants gathering in one city, it is the presenters who travel to at least four different cities to repeat the same paper or workshop. The speakers are divided in teams. A and B to cover different geographical locations in Pakistan. After the inaugural conference in Karachi, a team goes to Multan and proceeds to Lahore, whereas team B goes to Abbotabad, then Islamabad. Over the weekend, there are simultaneous conferences in Lahore and Islamabad. There is a ‘ presenters’ cross-over on the second day of the conference after mid day: Team A in Lahore moves to Islamabad and vice versa. SPELT maximizes the input of its presenters and at the same time gives its presenters a chance to travel across Pakistan and meet teachers who normally would not get this rich experience.

Why a conference that ‘travels’ to teachers?

The ideas of the travelling conference has come to SPELT to meet the challenges it faces in the environment we work in, Interested teachers are mostly women but given our conventional and financial constraints. They would not be in a position to travel to another city and stay in a hotel overnight. They even have difficulty in coming to weekend SPELT conferences held in their own city! The families ‘ allow’ women to their own city! The families’ allow’ women to work – that means simply going to teach and coming back home straight away. Any ‘extra’ time given to their professional development is something they are still struggling for!

ELT is still not a fully recognized educational field in Pakistan . There are very few training opportunities for teachers here. At SPELT conferences, teachers come into contact with national and international experts in ELT, thus widening their horizon. These teachers are ‘thirsty’ for knowledge and the conference gives them an opportunity to meet and network nationally and internationally. It’s and event everyone waits for in Pakistan!

In addition, SPELT has six chapters in different cities of Pakistan. The travelling conference empowers the conference organizers in smaller cities to participate in SPELT activities and grooms them with leadership qualities. This in turn strengthens SPELT as an organization. Top

The visiting presenters’ perspective

Jane writes: Pauline and I were among the six or so plenary speakers who attended the SPELT Conference in Pakistan in October 2004. We saw a lot o f different facades of Pakistan from coastal city to desert towns, misty hill stations and the setting of the Raj Quarter.

We travelled between venues sometimes by air, sometime times by air conditioned bus (spot on time) We received warmhearted hospitality from the teachers who entertained us in their homes and who cooked wonderful local dishes for us and regaled us with stories of their childhood villages and explained their views on modern Pakistan society. At British Council receptions, we met some incredibly interesting people, many of whom were, in addition to their normal jobs, working voluntarily to help rural schools in poor areas.

The conferences themselves were generally very well organized indeed with many SPELT helpers in attendance. At plenary sessions audience ranged from 200 in the smaller towns to 800 or so in Karachi and Lahore, all very enthusiastic teachers willing to ask questions and come and talk afterwards. Workshop participants were highly co-operative and had excellent ideas for putting the suggestions we made into practice. We received so much appreciative feedback- it was all very rewarding. I came back to my family in UK much energized and full of admiration for what SPELT has managed to achieve since its inception 20 years ago. If you ever get a chance to take part, do go!

Pauline continues: Delivering a series of plenary sessions and workshops in four different cities in Pakistan over a twelve-day period turned out to be pretty demanding. However, as a result of the excellent organization and the warm hospitality and generosity of the ‘SPELTers’, it was also exciting, rewarding and extremely enjoyable . SPELT is a highly regarded organization run entirely by volunteers. Everyone made great efforts to ensure that all the visiting speakers were well looked after and that the complex travel and accommodation arrangements worked efficiently.

The teachers and students who attended my sessions were very motivated and I thoroughly enjoyed working with them. They participated enthusiastically, sharing their experiences and appreciating any advice I could give them to help improve the difficult working conditions that many experience daily. I returned from Pakistan feeling exhilarated by the experience and pleased that I had been able to contribute, albeit in small way, to the excellent work of SPELT. Top