Conferences and institutional partnerships sometimes bring together people who discover they share similar experiences and enjoy collaborating with each other. Sharing the experiences in teaching German for tourism and being aware of the lack of opportunities for the exchange of knowledge in this area, Nevenka Blažević (University of Rijeka, Croatia), Irena Zavrl (University of Applied Sciences Burgenland, Austria) and Marija Trdan Lavrenčič (University of Primorska, Slovenia) came up with the idea of biannual conferences jointly organized by their universities that would bring teachers and researchers of foreign languages for tourism and tourism discourse together and provide a space for professional and scholarly dialogue.
Communication is key in keeping relationships alive. Repeated collaborations, shared goals and a high degree of dedication from all sides involved ensure that the collaboration will endure and grow organically. Thus, the conferences organized by the Network have attracted teachers and researchers from nine different European countries and their studies have dealt with English, German, Italian and Croatian. The initial network of three universities was joined by the University of Zadar (Croatia) in 2016.
The Foreign Languages and Tourism Teaching and Research Network is a network of universities offering courses of foreign languges for tourism as well as individual teachers of these languages for specific purposes and researchers of tourism discourse. Together they aim to facilitate the advancement and dissemination of knowledge regarding tourism discourse and teaching languages for tourism.
Joining the Network: Please write to foreign.languages.and.tourism@gmail.com.