PER SE Legal and Business English

13/10/2025

🌍✍️ Did you know?

October 13 isn’t just another day on the calendar - it’s International Plain Language Day!
Why this date? Because on October 13, 2010, President Barack Obama signed the Plain Writing Act, a law that made clear, simple communication a requirement for U.S. government institutions.

That moment showed something powerful: plain language isn’t just a nice idea - it can be a legal standard.

The initiative came from members of PLAIN - Plain Language Association International, who wanted a day to celebrate clear communication and raise awareness about how we can make information more accessible.💬✨

01/10/2025

Today I had the pleasure of lecturing on Plain English to about 150 law freshers at Akademia Leona Koźmińskiego - Kozminski University.

The session introduced the key ideas behind Plain English. To spark curiosity (and measure learning), I opened with a short pre-test and wrapped up with the same five questions as a post-test.

The results?
Knowledge scores jumped from 2.7 to 4.4 in under 90 minutes – a great reminder of how quickly students can grasp the value of clarity in legal language.

Curious to try the test yourself? It’s short, anonymous, and available here: https://forms.office.com/e/1JV1cQY5UB

26/09/2025

Teaching with case studies has been part of the English for Specific Purposes (ESP) classroom since I can remember. Next week I will be celebrating the 28th anniversary of my very first Business English lesson I taught at Akademia Leona Koźmińskiego - Kozminski University. And still, I often feel that case studies published in coursebooks can be tricky to use effectively.

The demands excellent preparation and flexibility from the teacher. Yesterday’s Harvard Business Impact Education Case Method Workshop at Akademia Leona Koźmińskiego - Kozminski University reminded me that - with creativity and effort - any case can be adapted to different contexts, including ESP. For ESP, I find Harvard Quick Cases especially valuable: https://lnkd.in/dGwsFZbF

Have a look, get inspired, curate, adapt, or even write your own.
Thank you to everyone involved for such an inspiring day - and special thank you to my team Kozminski Language Centre for joining!

23/09/2025

Last weekend I had the pleasure of speaking at the IATEFL Poland - Stowarzyszenie Nauczycieli Języka Angielskiego w Polsce Poland Conference in Łódź.

My session, “Innovative Synergies: Combining Design Thinking and Emergent Collaborations in ESP Teaching”, looked at how we can reshape Business and Legal English courses to meet the needs of today’s students – the so-called Gen C/Pandemials.

I shared:
🔹 insights from my survey with university professors on what they expect from BBA students,
🔹 how design thinking and student personas help us empathize with learners and redesign courses,
🔹 examples of emergent collaborations, AI-curated case studies, and action-oriented projects.

The key message: our students live in a BANI world (brittle, anxious, nonlinear, incomprehensible). To support them, we need empathetic, flexible, and digitally integrated teaching that balances linguistic skills with teamwork, problem-solving, and career readiness.

A big thank you to IATEFL Poland and to all the colleagues who joined my session and shared their perspectives.

I left a reminder in Łódź that when teachers and AI collaborate, the classroom becomes a true laboratory of innovation.

04/07/2025

Gen Z students are not very keen on writing comments about classes they attend unless, I guess, something went wrong.

That’s why I truly appreciate everyone who took the time to share feedback or send me a message.

Whether it's praise or constructive criticism, these insights are invaluable. They help educators like me grow, adjust our teaching, and better understand the new generation of learners.

The image of baby kestrel you can see in the slide below has been painted by my students and handed to me as a gift at the end of our two-year legal English course at Akademia Leona Koźmińskiego - Kozminski University

This proves that an image sometimes speaks louder than words.

PS
Kestrel is an English word for the Polish word "Pustułka" which is the name of my app for teaching and learning legal English and business English. It now has a collection of over 400 public exercises for everyone to use at https://pustulka.edu.pl/

Thank you to all my students for your recognition and appreciation of my work.

29/06/2025

17/06/2025

𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝘀 𝗖𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 (𝗦𝗶𝗖!) – 𝗕𝗼𝗼𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗔𝗜 𝗮𝘁 Akademia Leona Koźmińskiego - Kozminski University

Yesterday, our Kozminski Language Centre community of practice, Sharing is Caring (SiC!), held another inspiring meeting at Akademia Leona Koźmińskiego. Our SiC! began during the COVID lockdown as my long-planned initiative for foreign language teachers. What started as an experiment has grown into a vibrant, supportive network where collaboration and professional growth go hand in hand.

This time, our theme was Boosting Your Creativity with AI. Although, in the beginning, it wasn’t easy to convince everyone that sharing and collaboration can create a powerful synergy, yesterday we spent almost three full hours exchanging practical ideas for using AI in the language classroom. The session proved once again that when we give, we also gain.

Our meetings are regular – at least once per semester – and they consistently show that even experienced teachers benefit from coming together, learning from one another, and building a real sense of community.

Although I could only join online this time, due to testing positive for COVID, I want to extend a heartfelt thank-you to all my colleagues who attended in person, came prepared, generously shared their insights, and left with renewed energy and appreciation for the spirit of collaboration.

Let’s keep the conversation going.

PS Today's image is a picture of graffiti in Athens.
Taken by me.

!

05/06/2025

𝗪𝗲 𝗼𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝗱𝗶𝗴𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝗻𝘀 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗪𝗶-𝗙𝗶 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗮 𝗱𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗰𝗲.

But digital equity is much broader than that. It’s about ensuring students have the skills, confidence, support, and understanding to benefit from what digital education offers.

As university teachers, we play a key role in making this happen.
Here’s how we can help:
• Develop our tech skills
• Teach students how to use digital tools ethically and critically
• Guide them through risks and opportunities in the online world
• Adapt our teaching to support students with limited access or skills.

Digital inclusion isn’t automatic - it’s something we build, step by step.
So, start today if you may be the only one in your classroom who is excluded. 🦭

***e

02/06/2025

✨ Recently, I attended a conference on the use of generative AI in universities. One speaker cautioned that AI-generated outcomes are often mediocre. They replicate existing knowledge, and that's why he questioned its role in boosting creativity. He pointed out that AI rarely offers novel activities beyond standard formats like multiple-choice questions, implying it doesn't truly enhance our creative potential.

🤔 While I agree that AI builds on existing information, I believe it can spark creativity. Most educators (myself included) don’t have a monopoly on creative teaching methods. By engaging with AI, we can discover fresh ideas and integrate new techniques into our teaching practices. AI doesn't replace human ingenuity; it amplifies it by offering a springboard for new approaches. Let's embrace AI as a partner in innovation, helping us evolve and enrich our classrooms!

***e

25/05/2025

This week I am attending an ERASMUS COALITION Conference on Inclusive Student-centered Pedagogies at the University of Crete.

One of the topics discussed was how to spark students’ interest in your lectures?

Let me share some of my notes.

Keeping attention in a classroom isn’t easy - but it’s not magic either. Here are a few research-informed strategies to trigger curiosity and engagement:

1. Be interesting as a teacher (yes, delivery matters!)

2. Make students think – ask a big question, present a puzzle or a real problem

3. Show them why it matters: connect content to relevance and usefulness

4. Introduce something surprising or counterintuitive

5. Match the difficulty level to your students’ current abilities

And here’s one simple question that can help you reflect and improve your teaching after every session:

What was the most interesting moment during the lecture?

Ask your students - or ask yourself. The answers may surprise you!

22/05/2025