Travel Advice Bureau

Recently, I attended a conference in Singapore which entailed being away from class for a week. I asked my students to assist me in the travel arrangements.

Working in small groups, the students were given copies of all the correspondence from the conference organisers. This included information about hotels, the weather, vias requirements, suggestions for free time, and the conference schedule. Based on this material and anything else they found in the library, each group made a short oral presentation, giving me advice about the following areas:

• The most suitable hotel to stay in.
• What kind of clothes to take, taking note of the weather in
• Singapore at that time.
• Visa requirements.
• Suggestions on how to spend the one free afternoon.
• Suggestions on what to take.

On my return, I gave a short talk about the trip and put up a poster that included photographs and lots of tourist brochures about all the places in Singapore I did not see.

As a result of the presentation, the students had to deal with authentic offical documents and were genuinely involved in the travel preparations. They were very curious about Singapore and eagerly read all the tourist brochures I brought back. What could have been just a week away from class became an opportunity to involve the students in a genuine information sharing task.