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I also gave some talks at this conference.  The first one was on the use of extracts of student assignments as a teaching aid.  The talk seem to provide for interesting discussion from the audience with suggestions of how and when they can be used.

The second talk was on the use of podcasts.  Again, there were interesting comments from the audience but perhaps it was less successful as a talk.  Perhaps it was not as clearly focused in terms of the balance between the practicalities and the principles.

The slides for the talk on student extracts are attached.

I was at the NALLC conference this weekend and found it an interesting and worthwhile occasion.

The first talk was by Klaus-Dieter Rosade.  He emphasised the joy of language learning and also argued that there is a clear link between the senses and language learning.  For example, he described how he had strong associations between smells he associated with Mexico (eg corn tortillas and beans) and the Spanish language.  At first, I felt sceptical about this as the smells are associated with countries rather than languages but perhaps there is a sensory link between certain smells and certain varieties of languages.  For example, I would associate certain smells with Qinghai province in China - perhaps chilli and mutton and different smells with Guangzhou - perhaps soya and oyster sauce and a more vegetal smell.  This might link to the different languages and varieties of Chinese spoken in these places.