Celebrating something of a milestone: 4 years of LanGW4

On 29th June LanGW4 celebrated its 4th Colloquium in Cardiff. The organization and welcome by colleagues at the hosting institution was warm and generous, ensuring that the event was a great success. The day started with a bang thanks to our engaging keynote speaker, Professor Chris Pountain, who gave us a stimulating talk on the kind of dangers we face, and sometimes succumb to, unless we are very clear about the academic nature and the shape of our discipline. It was a call to arms – albeit a peaceful one – to defend the integrity of what we do, which certainly goes beyond the mere teaching and practicing of skills.

This was followed by three panels where colleagues shared their insights and creative ideas on language teaching, ranging from the use of social media, the teaching of professional interpreting skills, facilitating writing skills from a more meaningful and personal angle, or the sense of accomplishment and self-efficacy gained by students competing on debates. The list of presentations is too long to mention here, so for a complete list of contributions, please check our programme. They were all interesting and engaging.

With Cardiff, we have come to the end of the first phase of our LanGW4. I am delighted our community has been so supportive of every colloquium, showing that we are thirsty for opportunities to grow professionally and that we love what we do. LanGW4 started back in 2014 as a big idea with just a little money, but our success comes to show how much we can achieve with vision, enthusiasm and collegiality.

Thank you all for your support and have a great summer.