ELTWeekly Vol. 5 Issue#43 | December 30, 2013 | ISSN 0975-3036
Confluence V will be held on February 21-22, 2014. As always, the thrust area will be Teaching and Learning English as a Second / Foreign Language.
Each year, the response to Confluence has been growing, the last count being nearly 500 delegates at Confluence IV. It has served as an excellent meeting place for students and teachers alike and has allowed participants to gain from each others’ experience and expertise.
KEY SPEAKERS
Confluence V will see globally renowned stalwarts in ESL / EFL sharing the dais. We at Confluence are proud to have them as an integral part of our program and are sure that their expertise will benefit teachers and learners of English alike.
Christine Coombe has a Ph.D in Foreign/Second Language Education from The Ohio State University. She is currently on the English faculty of Dubai Men’s College. She is the former Testing and Measurements Supervisor at UAE University and Assessment Coordinator of Zayed University. Christine is co-editor of Assessment Practices (2003, TESOL Publications); co-author, A Practical Guide to Assessing English Language Learners (2007, University of Michigan Press); co-editor, Evaluating Teacher Effectiveness in EF/SL Contexts (2007, UMP); co-editor, Language Teacher Research in the Middle East (2007, TESOL Publications), Leadership in English Language Teaching and Learning (2008, UMP) Applications of Task-based Learning in TESOL (2010, TESOL Publications), The Cambridge Guide to Second Language Assessment (2012, Cambridge University Press) and Reigniting, Retooling and Retiring in English Language Teaching (2012, University of Michigan Press). Christine’s forthcoming books are on research in task-based learning and research methods in EF/SL.
Christine has lived and worked in the Arabian Gulf for the past 21 years. In this capacity, she has served as the President and past president of TESOL Arabia and as the founder and co-chair of the TESOL Arabia Testing Special Interest Group who organize the Current Trends in English Language Testing (CTELT) Conference. Christine is also the founder and chair of the TESOL Arabia Leadership & Management SIG.
During her tenure in the Middle East, she has won many awards including: 2002 Spaan Fellowship for Research in Second/Foreign Language Assessment; 2002-03 TOEFL Outstanding Young Scholar Award; TOEFL Board Grant for 2003-04, 2005-06, 2007-08 and 2009-10 for her work in delivering assessment training assessment in developing countries. Most recently she served on the TESOL Board of Directors as Convention Chair for Tampa 2006 and was the recipient of the Chancellor’s Teacher of the Year for 2003-04. She served as TESOL President (2011-2012) and was a member of the TESOL Board of Directors (2010-2013).
REHAB RAJAB
Rehab Rajab has been involved in professional development activities for teachers in the UAE through her work with TESOL Arabia. Currently She is the President of the organization. She comes from an educational background where she worked as an ESL teacher for twelve years before becoming the Instructional Technology Senior Coordinator at The Institute of Applied Technology where she designs Educational Technology professional development courses for 600 teachers. She is passionate about sharing innovative teaching ideas and developing online learning communities. Rehab holds an MA in Educational Technology from Michigan State University; she’s an Apple Distinguished Educator and an Apple Professional Development Consultant.
Dr. Suri has over 35 years teaching, administration and instruction experience in English Language and Literature.
She has participated and assisted in the start-up of several Language Centers for the Pakistan American Cultural Center’s (PACC) extra-mural program sponsored by the United States Information Service (USIS). Having directed one of the PACC branches, she has also organized, written and presented national and regional seminars on the teaching of English as a foreign language for the Pakistan American Cultural Center in Karachi.
Besides, she has lectured for the Teachers Training College in Madinah, Saudi Arabia and Abdullah College for Women in Karachi, and has designed curriculum and performed as English Language teacher at the German Consulate School in Karachi, Pakistan.
Dr. Suri is an Advisor for the Federal Ministry of Education in Pakistan, the British Council, and the Overseas Development Administration for various seminars and workshops and currently works at the Research Institute for Languages of the Dar El Hekma College, Saudi Arabia.
DR. SONGSRI SORANASTAPORN
Dr. Songsri Soranastaporn, an Associate Professor at Mahidol University, Thailand, has earned both her BN in Pediatric of Nursing and MA in EST from Mahidol University, Thailand. She has done her Ph.D. in Educational Administration and Foundations from Illinois State University, USA, and holds a Certificate in Integrating the Internet in the Classroom from Louis & Clarke College, Oregon, USA.
She works as a researcher, trainer, lecturer, reviewer and as a consultant for ESP, writing research papers and materials development. She teaches English to professional nurses around Thailand.
She is the author of the book chapter, Video Games in Thailand, for which Mark J.P. Wolf of the Communication Department, Concordia University, Wisconsin, USA, is an editor. She has published nearly 30 papers and has some 45 presentations to her credit.
She is a Founder and Secretary of ThaiSim (Thai Simulation and Gaming Association) and an Executive Board Member of e-Learning Association of Thailand. She serves on the Editorial Board of 5 journals in Thailand.
MOUHAMAD MOUHANNA, Lecturer, UAE University, Al Ain
Mouhamad Mouhanna is an English Language lecturer at the UAE University in Al Ain. He is currently enrolled in the doctorate program at Exeter university and has interests in bilingualism and student development. He has conducted many research papers in the areas of L1 use in the classroom and teacher research in ELT. A well-traveled academic, he has been invited to many conferences as a speaker and has been the Keynote speaker at Confluence once before.
PROF. MUSTAPHA AHMAD ISA
Prof. Mustapha Ahmad Isa of Bayero University, Nigeria, holds a masters’ and a doctorate from Indiana University, USA. He has been with the Department of English and Literary Studies, Bayero University, since 1994. He has co-authored 9 books and published 29 articles in university based journals and books. Some of his works were published in the USA, Germany, Poland and the UK.
Prof. Isa’s areas of expertise are Morphosyntax, Word Formation, Semantics, Pragmatics, Media English, Critical Discourse Analysis, Applied Linguistics, and the Teaching of English as a Second Language.
In addition to teaching and research, Prof. Isa has also served as consultant to several organizations and institutions in Nigeria. He is currently the Editor of two journals, namely Bayero Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies and Mambayya House Journal of Democratic Studies.
MICK KING
He has been active as teacher, lecturer, manager and researcher in the field of TESOL for 24 years. He is currently a lecturer on the MA TESOL and the MA Education programmes at Middlesex University Dubai, UAE, and also teaches researching and presenting to University access students.
His previous work has taken him to Germany, Spain, the Netherlands and Qatar where he has fulfilled a number of roles and managed projects including the development of a university semester programme at Stenden University Qatar and a revision of the MA TESOL Educational Management module offered by Aston University, UK.
Mick holds a PG Cert in Higher Education from Middlesex University, an M.Sc. in Educational Management in TESOL from Aston University, UK, and a provisional M.Ed. in Practice-based research as part of his doctoral studies with the University of Exeter, UK.
Other professional development activities have included reviewer work for two UAE-based journals and the TESOL Arabia Conference, committee membership of the TESOL Arabia Teacher Training and Development Special Interest Group and coordination of the TESOL Arabia conference discussions thread. Mick also publishes and presents regularly in the Arabian Gulf region and beyond.
His professional areas of interest include educational management and English as a medium of instruction (EMI). He is currently conducting research into higher education teacher views on the use of EMI in the UAE context for his doctoral thesis and this will form the basis of his presentation at Confluence V.
CALL FOR PAPERS
Proposals/ Abstracts for Confluence V are now being accepted. Following is a list of topics researchers may choose from.
TOPICS FOR RESEARCH
- Resource Material Development
- Innovations in CATs (Classroom Assessment Techniques)
- Contextual Vocabulary Acquisition vs. Vocabulary Expansion
- Grammar Redundancies among ESL / EFL learners
- Should Englishes of the World share an accent?
- ELT and Culture Communication
- Role of ICT in ELT
- Language Teaching in Technical Institutes
- Networking for Teachers: The Role of Teachers’ Associations and Organizations in Career Advancement for English Language Teachers
- Teacher Training for ELT
- Students’ Perspectives on learning English as a Second Language
- Innovative Teaching Tools and Techniques
- Challenges in Teaching ESL / EFL to Very Young Learners
- New Approaches and Methodologies
- Anxiety as a Deterrent to Second Language Acquisition
- Learner Variables and Curriculum Design
- Distance Education
- English for Specific Purposes
Confluence V – The Fifth Annual International Conference on ESL/EFL