Eaquals Conference 2022

Chris Moore, SLC’s Managing Director, is also a Trustee on the Board of Eaquals, the world’s leading language education accreditation association. Eaquals inspects and accredits university language centres, private language education institutions and online language education providers around the world.

Eaquals recently held their annual conference in Venice from 28^th to 30^th April. Chris chaired a number of sessions and attended others, including excellent and insightful plenaries from Professors Steve Walsh and Waldemar Martyniuk.

We asked Chris about the conference, and here are some of his thoughts:

“It was great to attend a brilliantly organised conference with so many interesting speakers on such a wide range of topics - face to face! Throughout the conference, I got many thought-provoking ideas and experiences to bring to what we do at SLC.

A strong theme throughout was that of reflective practice looked at in a number of ways - from teacher development to academic management to classroom interaction to incorporating digital technology into education. Perhaps this is no surprise given the convulsions in international education caused by the pandemic.

Like us, everyone I spoke to has had to really examine what they do over the course of the last two years and make all kinds of decisions as they have responded to rapidly changing and unpredictable circumstances. I got the impression that while this was incredibly difficult for many, a lot has been learnt, the way people think about education has changed, and some changes will be irreversible.

The Eaquals conference was a great opportunity to talk to and learn from connections old and new, both in the various sessions and also over coffee, lunches and long dinners, including one in the most magnificent of Venetian palazzos. A fabulous treat and reminder of what so many of us have missed over the last two years.”

Eaquals is organising an online training and development event in October and its next annual conference is due to be held in Tallinn, Estonia in April 2023.