Mike Waters

Presenter: Mike Waters, Owner & managing Director at SkillsBar, Bucharest; www.skillsbar.eu

Intercultural Aspects of Business English

In an increasingly globalised world, intercultural considerations play a bigger role than ever before in business communication. The right word or gesture can seal a lucrative deal, but one wrong phrase, unintentional signal or even the wrong facial expression can kill it dead on the spot.

In this talk, we will examine some aspects of intercultural business communication and discuss some possible ways of reducing our likelihood of sending the wrong message and shutting doors forever.

We will be discussing: the Relationship between Business English and Intercultural Communication, Some Key Terms, mportance of Culture in Business Communication: High Context or Low Context; Communication Styles, Direct -v- Indirect, Formal -v- Informal, The significance of silence, Meetings: potential for disaster!. Negotiation: Seal the deal or kill the deal?, look at some practical scenarios and Open discussion (if time allows)

Sue Leschen

    Still  Plus ça change* …. unfortunately!

In the UK spoken and sign language interpreters working into and out of legal English have traditionally been trained (both initially pre – qualification and then subsequently post – qualification) in splendid isolation not only from each other but also from the other professionals with whom we work such as lawyers, the judiciary and the police. 

As a result, there is much wasteful and non – cost effective duplication of training time and materials for all concerned. It seems that, inexplicably, that interdisciplinary training for professionals working with legal English is almost unknown in the UK. As a result, there is a lack of mutual understanding as to joined up best practice.

Add to this the fact that the majority of legal interpreters are not trained by qualified lawyers but rather by their fellow interpreters who have varying levels of legal English competence.

Police interpreters need to be very familiar with both the informal and formal legal English spoken in suspect interviews and lawyer – client consultations at the police station. However, unfortunately, interpreter trainers in this area (with a few notable exceptions) are rarely serving or former officers).

On the positive side, some professional UK interpreter membership organisations are at long last beginning to book lawyers and police officers to at least give guest lectures to interpreters which means that they are “hearing legal English from the horse’s mouth”. Sadly, this is still a one-way street as the latter do not reciprocate by inviting interpreters to train them or join their training.

For their part, sign language and spoken language interpreters are beginning to market their legal English terminology webinars to each other albeit, (again for reasons unknown), more sign language interpreters dare to cross the line than spoken language interpreters.

At least it is a start!

Interdisciplinary training surely makes sense because we are all working in the same legal English arena but still, unfortunately seemingly reluctant to knowledge share.

*Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose – The more things change the more they stay the same

Karolina Karczmarek-Giel

PRACTICAL WORKSHOP

Ten things to check before your next client visits your website

Workshop Description  

Most website problems are not the stuff of nightmares. They are small frustrations – unclear messaging, buried information or burdensome contact forms – that can lead to lost enquiries, wasted time and reduced trust.

In this practical 90-minute workshop for Legal English and Business English teachers, translators, interpreters and lawyer-linguists, Karo Karczmarek-Giel will guide participants through ten checks covering clarity, credibility, accessibility and the journey from a first visit to a successful enquiry.

Participants will audit their own website or digital touchpoint, prioritise their findings and leave with one specific repair to make and a simple way to test whether it worked.  

Outline

Introduction: Website friction: effects on enquiries, time and trust

Ten practical website checks:

            Clarity on first visit: offer, audience and relevance

            Language from the client’s perspective: familiar terms rather than professional shorthand

            Essential pre-enquiry information: services, specialisms, languages, formats, process and availability

            Evidence supporting professional claims: qualifications, experience, examples and testimonials

            Accuracy and consistency: current information across all key pages

            Proportionate enquiry forms: necessary information, privacy and confidential material

            Mobile usability: navigation, documents, forms and booking tools

            Essential accessibility: zoom, keyboard use, headings, labels and error messages

            Clarity of the next step: specific actions and appropriate expectations

            Reliability of enquiries and bookings: delivery, confirmations, calendars, time zones and follow-up

Prioritising the findings and selecting one improvement to test

A WORKSHOP TO HELP CLIENTS FIND YOU AND ENGAGE

Stephen Rifkind

Practical tips and different approach for teaching grammar to ESL students

In this lecture, Stephen will share with you his tips for teaching English grammar to non-native speakers acquired over some 35 years of teaching engineering students. They include techniques for engaging students’ attention and memory as well as an explanation of a holistic approach, one that is quite different from that used in most high schools. Stephen will also discuss the process of helping the students apply this understanding both for recognition and production. 

BIO: Stephen Rifkind – Gaguzia Translations – since 2004. He translates from Hebrew (and from French and Russian when there is an opportunity) to English, both US and UK, specializing in legal and financial documents, in particular contracts and official documents. He is a member of the ATA and SFT (France), a Recognized Translator by the Israeli Translators Association and a Proz.com certified Pro.

His eclectic education background includes a BA in Russian, Teaching Credentials in French, an MBA and legal studies. He has also been a Lecturer of English at Braude College of Engineering in Karmiel, Israel for over 35 years. He has had a blog for over 10 years.

Alice O’Keeffe

More than Words: Helping Learners Find Their Professional Voice

Business English learners typically want to improve their speaking skills, but are often unclear about what exactly they want or need to improve. Many assume that becoming more “fluent” means learning more idioms and phrasal verbs. Yet effective communication is not only about what we say, but also about how we sound when we say it.

‘I became particularly aware of this when I was told that I sounded “different” when speaking Italian. It made me reflect on how much of our communicative identity is carried by the voice—and how easily this can become a blind spot for language learners. Learners may unknowingly sound monotonous, hesitant, overly fast, abrupt or less engaged in English, despite having the language and ideas they need. In international business communication, such unintended impressions can affect how a speaker is perceived.‘

This presentation explores how Business English teachers can help learners develop greater awareness and control of their voice. It will consider practical work on intonation, pausing, pace, clarity and signposting, with particular attention to the tendency to focus so heavily on what to say that how it is said receives little attention.

The presentation will also introduce Ciro Imparato’s concept of “voice colours” as a practical framework for exploring how vocal choices can communicate different intentions and interpersonal meanings.

Participants will leave with practical activities for helping learners listen to, experiment with and take greater ownership of their voices in English.“

BIO: Alice is a freelance Business English teacher with over 20 years’ experience working in Germany, France and Italy. She holds CELTA and Delta qualifications, with Business English as her Delta Module 3 specialism. She has also worked as an IELTS Speaking Examiner and as an occasional voice-over artist, translator and interpreter.

She is passionate about helping learners become more effective communicators in English – whatever that looks like in their particular context. She is especially interested in helping learners develop greater awareness of how they use their voice and how this shapes the way they are perceived.

Magdelena Krygiel-Bartoszewicz

University of Health and Sports Sciences in Wroclaw, Poland

Going, Going, Ghosn: The US $140 Million Cultural Blindspot

Can outstanding performance buy immunity from governance failures and cultural blindness?

This session analyzes the dramatic downfall of Carlos Ghosn, the former celebrity CEO of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance, who went from a corporate savior to an international fugitive.

While headlines focused on his cinematic escape in a musical instrument case, the true collapse of his multi-billion dollar empire was rooted in an invisible cross-cultural friction.

This presentation examines critical collision between Western and Japanese collectivism, showing how structural synergies fail when leaders misinterpret (or are unaware of) high context communication and bypass corporate checks and balances. 
Designed for global managers, HR professionals, and Business English educators, this session provides and actionable framework for deleveloping Cultural Intelligence (CQ) and navigating modern corporate diplomacy. 

BIO: Magdalena Krygiel-Bartoszewicz, MA, head of the Foreign Languages Centre at the University of Health and Sports Sciences in Wroclaw, Poland, teaching Business English for over 25 years introducing cultural flavour in the class. A breakthrough in her career was her role as an English language assistant in the hearing of the Grand Chamber in the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France. She values human interactions and believes in the power of words; an Argentinian tango lover; a QiGong and TaiChi trainee

Lucyna Wilinkiewicz

Cracow University of Economics, IATEFL Poland

Effective Meetings for All: Teaching Skills for Real-World Success.

Meetings are a central part of professional life, yet the skills needed to participate in them effectively are often assumed rather than explicitly taught.

This practical, interactive session explores how teachers can prepare learners for successful participation in real-world meetings, whether face-to-face, hybrid, or fully online.

The session begins with a short brainstorming activity on why meetings matter and what makes them effective or ineffective. We then consider the core skills identified by research as increasingly important for professional success by 2030, and examine how these skills can be developed through meeting-based activities in the language classroom.

The workshop focuses on the key foundations of effective meetings: appropriate language, clear structure, participant roles, active listening, interaction, and engagement.

Participants will consider how these elements can be taught and practised across different contexts, including face-to-face, hybrid, and online meetings, with particular attention to the challenges and adaptations required in each setting.

A strong practical component will provide ready-to-use tools and classroom activities that teachers can adapt to their own contexts. Participants will also work collaboratively to develop checklists of ideas for effective meetings and reflect on the learning outcomes students can achieve through systematic practice.

A set of useful handouts will be provided for further classroom use.

The session aims to bridge the gap between classroom language learning and professional reality, helping teachers equip students with transferable communication, collaboration, and meeting skills that can contribute to their future workplace success.

BIO: Lucyna Wilinkiewicz-Górniak is a Senior Lecturer at the Foreign Languages Centre of Cracow University of Economics (UEK), where she teaches Business English and Business Communication. She is a graduate of English Philology at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow and of International Relations (Foreign Trade specialisation) at Cracow University of Economics.

She has also studied in the USA (Alliance College) and the Netherlands (Tilburg University).

Her professional interests include Business English, Business Communication, project-based learning, 21st-century skills, professional communication, creativity, intercultural competence, technology in education, and continuing professional development. Her teaching is strongly practice-oriented and based on the project method, encouraging students to apply theoretical knowledge to authentic tasks and real-world contexts.

She has delivered presentations and published articles on project-based learning, developing communication and 21st-century skills, teaching multicultural groups, technology in education, visual communication, creativity, and teachers’ continuing professional development.

Larysa Dudikova– Kharkiv National University of Internal Affairs 

AI-Enhanced Legal English

Preparing Future Law Enforcement Professionals for Human-Centred Communication in the Digital Age

Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming legal and law-enforcement professions, creating new opportunities for professional communication while also raising important questions about accuracy, ethics, responsibility, and human judgement.

This presentation explores how AI can be meaningfully integrated into Legal English education to prepare future law enforcement professionals for communication in increasingly digital professional environments.

The session proposes a human-centred approach in which AI is used not as a substitute for professional judgement or language learning, but as a tool for developing higher-order communication skills.

Examples will include AI-assisted analysis of police reports, legal texts and professional correspondence; simulation of interviews and questioning; scenario-based communication with victims, witnesses and suspects; and critical evaluation of AI-generated legal and professional language.

Particular attention will be given to developing learners’ ability to identify inaccuracies, ambiguity, inappropriate terminology and potential ethical problems in AI-generated content. The approach also highlights the importance of human rights, professional ethics, intercultural awareness and accountability in law-enforcement communication.

Drawing on experience in teaching English for Specific Purposes to future law enforcement professionals, the presentation will demonstrate practical classroom activities that combine Legal English, authentic professional scenarios and generative AI.
The session aims to offer Legal English educators practical strategies for moving from traditional language instruction towards AI-aware, professionally relevant and ethically responsible legal communication training.

BIO: Larysa Dudikova, Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences, Professor, is Professor at the Department of Language Training at Kharkiv National University of Internal Affairs, Ukraine. She has extensive experience in English for Specific Purposes, Legal English, professional communication and intercultural communication.
Her research and teaching interests include ESP methodology, Legal English, professional and ethical competence, intercultural communication, academic communication, and innovative approaches to language education for future professionals.
Professor Dudikova has served as Head of the Department of Foreign Languages at National Pirogov Memorial Medical University, Vinnytsia, and currently teaches English for Specific Purposes to future law enforcement professionals. She is the author and co-author of academic publications, teaching materials and manuals in professional English.
Her current work focuses on developing practice-oriented approaches to Legal English education, including the integration of authentic professional scenarios, human rights and ethical issues, digital technologies and emerging AI tools into language training for future law enforcement officers.

Sofia Parastatidou

Plus more

Registration Details

Registration Fees are as follows:

ONLINE €50 per person (ILETA Bronze Member)

ONLINE €70 per person (ILETA & EUBETA Basic Member)  

NON MEMBER ON LINE €90 per person

Register here: Registration: ILETA & EUBETA ONLINE CONFERENCE 2026

You will be sent banking details once you have registered. Your registration will be complete once we acknowledge receipt of your payment. 

A few days before the Conference those who are following online will be sent a ZOOM link. Please note, that the Link must not be shared with third parties and we reserve the right to cancel the participation of any registrant who does so, and/or charge them extra fees accordingly. 

If you require an invoice please fill in the details below. If you have any further questions, please contact us : info@ileta.org. 

We look forward to welcoming you all. 

Introducing the Inaugural EUBETA Monthly Teachers Meetup! 

We are proud to announce the launch of the EUBETA Monthly Teachers Meetup — a new space for Business English teachers across Europe and beyond to connect, share ideas, exchange experiences and learn from one another.

The EUBETA Monthly Teachers Meetup is designed to be an informal but professional forum where teachers can:

• Share practical teaching ideas and classroom strategies
• Discuss challenges and solutions in Business English teaching
• Explore new approaches, tools and technologies
• Exchange resources and best practices
• Connect with fellow Business English professionals
• Build a supportive international teaching community

Our aim is simple: to create a community where Business English teachers can learn from each other and grow together.

Whether you are an experienced Business English trainer, a university lecturer, a freelance teacher, or relatively new to the field, you are very welcome to join us.

Inaugural EUBETA Monthly Teachers Meetup

Date:               31 August 2026
Where:           ZOOM Online

Time:              13:30 CEST-14:30 CEST

Registration form: Please sign up here EUBETA Registration Form
Open to Business English legal English teachers and trainers

This is the beginning of a new monthly tradition — one conversation, one idea and one connection at a time.

We look forward to welcoming teachers from across Europe and creating a vibrant international community of Business English professionals.

Come along, share your experience and be part of the EUBETA community!

26 & 27 September 2026

Call for Papers

EUBETA Online Conference 2026

                                                26 September & 27 September 2026

Conference Theme: Business English for a Changing World

The European Business English Teachers Association (EUBETA) is pleased to invite proposals for its inaugural Online Conference, bringing together Business English teachers, trainers, researchers, university lecturers, corporate language professionals and instructional designers from around the world.

The conference aims to explore innovative approaches to Business English teaching in an era shaped by artificial intelligence, globalisation, sustainability and rapidly evolving workplace communication.

We invite proposals on topics including:

• Artificial Intelligence in Business English teaching
• Business communication in international organisations
• Teaching negotiation, presentations and meetings
• English for Finance, Banking and Accounting
• English for Human Resources
• Marketing and Digital Communication
• English for Entrepreneurship and Start-ups
• Intercultural Communication in Global Business
• Business Writing in the AI Era
• Assessment and Certification
• ESP Methodology
• Materials Development
• Case-based Learning
• Gamification and Interactive Learning
• Online and Hybrid Teaching
• Business English for Higher Education
• Sustainability and ESG Communication
• English for Supply Chains and International Trade
• Soft Skills for Business Professionals
• Future Trends in Business English

Presentation Formats

• 30-minute Presentation (25 minutes + 5 minutes Q&A)
• 45-minute Interactive Workshop
• Panel Discussion
• Practical Classroom Demonstration

Who Should Submit?

We welcome proposals from:

• Business English teachers
• University lecturers
• Corporate trainers
• Researchers
• Language school professionals
• Learning designers
• HR and L&D specialists
• Business professionals with expertise in international communication

Proposal Requirements

Please submit:

• Presentation title
• 200–300 word abstract
• Presenter biography (up to 100 words)
• Five keywords
• Submit here EUBETA: Call for Presentations. Submission form

Important Dates

• Call for Papers Opens: 7 August 2026
• Submission Deadline:15 August 2026
• Notification of Acceptance: 20 August 2026
• Conference: 26 & 27 September 2026 (Online)

Conference Theme

Business English for a Changing World

This year’s conference explores how Business English professionals can prepare learners for modern workplaces where technology, intercultural competence and effective communication are more important than ever.

Whether your focus is classroom innovation, research, corporate training or practical business communication, we would love to hear from you.

Join colleagues from across Europe and beyond as we shape the future of Business English education.

We look forward to receiving your proposal!

THE EUBETA INAUGURAL ONLINE CONFERENCE WILL BE HOSTED BY ILETA (INTERNATIONAL LEGAL ENGLISH TRAINERS ACADEMY)

We are proud to welcome you to the EUBETA website.

We would like to introduce the European Business English Teachers’ Association website. Over the next few days we will be introducing EUBETA to you including events, workshops, how to apply for membership, EUBETA MeetUps(TM) and of course, our Inaugural EUBETA ONLINE Conference 2026.

We look forward to meeting you all.

Sofia Parastatidou

EUBETA

Founder & President