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Conversation-driven' ELT privileges classroom talk as a primary source of language learning, yet it is often unclear to what the term 'conversation' is referring. This article reports on an investigation responding to this problem in which a substantial database of language classroom recordings was analysed for the types of talk that were taking place. Activities in language lessons that were driven by conversation were analysed using classroom discourse techniques. Opportunities for language learning through the language emerging from these activities were identified, and a type of talk was specified in which learners were engaged more in exploring issues and possibilities, and less in transacting information and opinions. This study demonstrates the importance of teachers being aware of the types of talk occurring in their lessons, which they should be strategically managing. It provides teachers with a platform from which they can begin to analyse the talk in their own classrooms. This class is so different than my last one. In last term we talk and talk but never feel to learn much. In your class we talk and think. I mean you make us think and tell us how to talk and we talk and think and talk. (EFL student, author's data) Dogme ELT (Meddings and Thornbury 2009) is a movement that began at the turn of the millennium in response to the perceived misgivings of teachers' language lessons relying on materials rather than 'genuine' communication. Teaching materials are presumed to hinder such communication and take the focus away from learner language. Based on the overriding aim of foregrounding the language created by the learners during meaningful communicative exchanges, a Dogme 'syllabus' is more about this 'emergent language' and less about the content of coursebooks and other materials. Language learning episodes are claimed to have their beginnings in these social interactions, where there is a perceived or noticed need to develop the repertoire of a learner's functional linguistic system. Together, these claims have generated significant interest among many English language teachers, yet they have undergone little empirical investigation. Central to Dogme ELT is its 'conversation-driven' methodology (ibid.: 8), which is also central to the concerns of this article. Notably, the

Public exposure to significantly elevated levels of particulate matter (PM) as a result of major fires at industrial sites is a worldwide problem. Our paper describes how the United Kingdom developed its Air Quality in Major Incidents (AQinMI) service to provide fire emission plume concentration data for use by managers at the time of the incident and to allow an informed public health response. It is one of the first civilian services of its type anywhere in the world. Based on the involvement of several of the authors in the AQinMI service, we describe the service's function, detail the nature of fires covered by the service, and report for the first time on the concentration ranges of PM to which populations may be exposed in major incident fires. We also consider the human health impacts of short-term exposure to significantly elevated PM concentrations and reflect on the appropriateness of current short-term guideline values in providing public health advice. We have analysed monitoring data for airborne PM (≤10μm, PM;≤2.5μm, PM and ≤1.0μm, PM) collected by AQinMI teams using an Osiris laser light scattering monitor, the UK Environment Agency's 'indicative standard' equipment, during deployment to 23 major incident industrial fires. In this context, 'indicative' is applied to monitoring equipment that provides confirmation of the presence of particulates and indicates a measured mass concentration value. Incident-averaged concentrations ranged from 38 to 1450μgm for PM and 7 to 258μgm for PM. Of concern was that, for several incidents, 15-min averaged concentrations reached >6500μgm for PM and 650μgm for PM, though such excursions tended to be of relatively short duration. In the absence of accepted very short-term (15-min to 1-h) guideline values for PM and PM we have analysed the relationship between the 1-h and 24-h threshold values and whether the former can be used as a predictor of longer-term exposure. Based on this analysis, for PM, our tentative 1-h threshold value for use in deciding whether to close public buildings or to evacuate areas is 510μgm. For PM, 1-h concentrations exceeding 350μgm might indicate longer-term exposure problems. We conclude that whilst services such as AQinMI are a positive development, there is a need to consider further the accuracy of the data provided and for the development of very short-term guideline values (i.e. minutes to hours) that responders can use to determine the appropriate public health response.

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