ELTWeekly Issue#23, Worldwide ELT events
By Tarun Patel
Children’s Literature in Language Education, International Conference, Hildesheim University, Germany, February 25-27, 2010
Hildesheim University and the Young Learner & Teenager SIG, IATEFL, are organising an exciting and innovative international TEFL conference on children’s literature which will cover a wide area in English language teaching, from the youngest learners to advanced language students. We are delighted to have secured plenary speakers of international renown for each one of the strands. We invite proposals for
PRESENTATIONS – which will be grouped into one of the following STRANDS 1, 2 AND 3, and WORKSHOPS/READINGS – by authors and storytellers in STRAND 4.
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STRAND 1. |
EFL extensive reading – reading for pleasure Plenary: STEPHEN KRASHEN, Professor Emeritus University of Southern California |
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STRAND 2. |
Original fiction for young adults, graphic novels and graded readers Plenary: multi-award-winning author (NN) |
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STRAND 3. |
Picture books, poems, nursery rhymes and non-fiction for children Plenary: Prof. Dr. EVA BURWITZ-MELZER, University of Giessen |
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STRAND 4. |
Workshops with storytellers, illustrators and writers for children Plenary: Dr. ALAN MALEY & ANDREW WRIGHT on The Power of Story and Poetry |
The International Conference Children’s Literature in Language Education – from Picture Books to Young Adult Fiction intends to disseminate information and provide a forum for the exchange of ideas and experiences on the power of literature for the young; approaches to children’s literature and young adult literature as a bridge to reading beyond school; gender considerations – the different attitudes of different readers – and the resulting consequences with regard to the canon of literary texts for EFL; and the debate around original children’s literature and graded readers.
For further details and pre-registration, please visit: http://www.childrenslit.de/
Supporting the advanced bilingual learner, St Marylebone school, Westminster
St Marylebone school, Westminster, is organising a conference jointly with the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust in order to help tackle communication as a barrier to learning.
In many London schools pupils new to English are increasingly well provided for, however, are the more advanced bilingual pupils being pushed and challenged? Is their English language acquisition reviewed and prioritised? Or are our bilingual pupils considered to no longer need support once their oral fluency reaches an acceptable level? Advanced Bilingual Learners do benefit from further support to help them achieve their true potential however without more information on how best to support, challenge and encourage them their needs will continue to go unnoticed. The conference will explore:
- Current research on providing for Advanced Bilingual Learners
- Issues in recognising and challenging Gifted and Talented EAL pupils
- Ways to develop your own school’s provision for Advanced Bilingual Learners
Speakers at the conference: Lynne Cameron is professor of Applied Linguistics at the Open University. She began her career teaching English in Tanzania with VSO and then in Bradford. After various kinds of teaching and teacher training, she moved into higher education, where she has carried out research into writing in English as an additional language. Her other research interest is in how people use metaphor. Ian Warwick is Senior Director of London Gifted and Talented and also Director of The REAL Project, a national project for the Department for Children, Schools and Families which works to improve the provision of G&T education for BME and EAL students. His chief areas of interest are urban education, disadvantaged and underachieving students, e learning, exceptional ability, critical thinking, professional development and the issues surrounding BME and EAL education. He is also a consultant editor for Gifted Education International and is a member of the Tower Group, an independent, worldwide think tank of G&T experts. For more information email eca@ssatrust.org.uk or download the flyer.
International Conference on Content Based Instruction (CLIL) for Young Learners: Breaking through Traditional Boundaries, Brazil, July 8-10
This conference has three main aims: to spread the idea of TEYL (Teaching English to Young Learners) through content; to provide a good forum for debate, information exchange, and dissemination of good practice for those who already use content-based instruction; and to contribute to the improvement of the level of TEYL in Brazil. The participants will include teachers from the private and public sectors, school coordinators, directors, and policy makers.
The structure of the conference will be a little different from what is generally done. There will be plenaries, workshops, and six-hour courses on relevant topics. Participants will choose their course as they register for the conference. We believe that these courses can contribute to the participants’ wider range of knowledge. Our intent is to make this event as fulfilling and memorable as possible, both professionally and personally.
Plenary Speakers
Dr. ROY LYSTER Roy Lyster is Professor of Second Language Education in the Department of Integrated Studies Education at McGill University in Canada. He has a PhD in Applied Linguistics as well as a B.Ed. and M.Ed. from the University of Toronto, and an MA from the Université de Paris VII. His research focuses primarily on immersion and content-based classrooms, including both observational and experimental studies of teacher-student interaction, form-focused instruction, and corrective feedback. He is past president of the Canadian Association of Applied Linguistics and author of Learning and Teaching Languages Through Content: A Counterbalanced Approach, published by Benjamins in 2007.
PEETER MEHISTO Has researched factors contributing to successful CLIL programme development, as well as potential barriers to the implementation of CLIL initiatives. Peeter Mehisto is the author of several textbooks, trainer of teachers and administrators, CLIL programme initiator and manager, as well as former CLIL educator. He has taught at the elementary, secondary and university levels and is the winner of several awards in education. He has extensive experience working with teachers in the classroom to support the implementation of best practice in CLIL methodology. He has also worked on the development of CLIL training materials, a major CLIL-related website, parent and other public relations materials and a handbook for teachers and administrators of immersion programmes. Peeter Mehisto is a frequent presenter at CLIL conferences.
Sandie Mourão Sandie Mourão is a freelance teacher, teacher trainer, consultant and materials designer based in Portugal. She specialises in pre-school and lower primary and is particularly interested in the use of free play and children’s literature to promote language acquisition. Sandie has presented widely in ELT conferences and also contributes to a number of ELT and academic journals. She has worked on writing projects with Scholastic USA, Mary Glasgow Scholastic, OUP and Macmillan Mexico. She is also co-author of the national guidelines for English in Portuguese primary education. At present she is completing a doctorate at the University of Aveiro in Portugal, her research involves investigating the role of picture book illustration in foreign language acquisition.
For further details and pre-registration, please visit: http://www.cbiintlconferenceyl.com.br/conference_information/
June 27th, 2009
ELTWeekly Issue#18, Worldwide ELT events
By Tarun Patel
*** 2009 EUROCALL: New Trends in Computer Assisted Language Learning, Gandia, September 9-12 ***
After 13 years EUROCALL returns to Valencia. Some of the more senior members of EUROCALL will recall the 1995 Conference which took place in September that year, hosted by the Department of Modern Languages. Although e-mail was only slowly emerging at the time, EUROCALL ‘95 was one of the first conferences in Spain to digitise and publish the abstracts of all the presentations on the web. An emerging world wide web that seemed revolutionary at the time. For anybody who might be nostalgic, the 1995 abstracts can still be accessed athttp://eurocall.webs.upv.es/euro95/home.htm. The proceedings of the ‘95 conference are also a valuable witness of what was prominent at the time in relation to CALL and TELL. Looking back we can see that some of the concerns in the mid nineties are still valid today, for example issues such as integrating CALL into the language curriculum, incorporating speech recognition tools into language courseware, parser analysers, interactive learning environments and so forth.
EUROCALL 2009 will also be hosted by the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, but this time it will take place at the Higher Polytechnic School of Gandia, also known as the UPV Gandia Campus site. The Gandia campus is located in one of the most privileged Valencian regions known as “La Safor” where the Mediterranean Sea and a historical agricultural tradition meet. Well known for its wide golden beaches, Gandia is also historically renowned for its 14th Century Palacio Ducal, house to the Borgia family.
The 2009 EUROCALL conference will focus on New Trends in Computer Assisted Language Learning with a special emphasis on innovative ways of collaborating and working together in the advancement of language learning and teaching. The conference sub-themes are an example of the numerous branches that have grown out of the CALL tree and is an illustration, we think, of the roots that this area has planted in a collective will to actively contribute towards better understanding and improving language learning with the assistance of information and communications technologies. CALL researchers, developers and practitioners are therefore invited to submit proposals relating to any of the following subthemes which, we think, summarise current interests and concerns in CALL:
- Curriculum development for CALL
- Assessment, testing, feedback and guidance in CALL
- Pedagogical change in technology integration
- Catering for Less Widely Used and Taught Languages in CALL
- Research in new language learning environments
- Innovative e-learning solutions for languages
- Building national/international partnerships for networked language learning
- New role of writing as a tool for communication
- New developments in multimedia courseware design
- Networked language learning in adult education
- Learning Management Systems
- Mobile Learning
- Virtual Worlds
- Corpora
- CALL supported Content Integrated Language Learning (CLIL)
- Computer Mediated Communication (CMC)
- Computer Assisted Translation
- Formal and informal language learning
The keynote speakers for the conference are (alphabetically arranged):
Professor Guy Cook, The Open University
Professor Hossein Farhady, American University of Armenia
Professor Alastair Pennycook, University of Technology Sydney
Professor Barbara Seidlhofer, University of Vienna
Professor Henry Widdowson, University of Vienna
Pre-conference workshop (September 25):
Alternative assessment, by Dr.Christine Coombe, Higher College of Technology, UAE
The deadline for abstract submission is June 14, 2009. Notification of acceptance will be sent by July 10. Early registration deadline is August 5.
For submitting an abstract, click here.
For further details and pre-registration, please visit: http://www.appliedlinguistics.ir/
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*** Language policy and learning: University of Limerick, June 2009 ***
The Irish Association for Applied Linguistics / Cumann na Teangeolaíochta Feidhmí will host this large international conference immediately after a meeting of the AILA Executive Board and International Committee in the university.
The conference is concerned with all aspects of language policy and the learning of languages. It will address the status and form of languages as well as acquisition policies pertaining to their teaching and learning. It will welcome papers, posters and panels on promoting and managing language policy and research on the development, implementation and effects of language policy in all regions of the world. The organisers will particularly welcome studies that contribute to language policy theory, both in regard to language learning and other domains.
The organising committee looks forward to welcoming delegates to the University of Limerick, which is located on extensive scenic parkland spanning the two banks of the River Shannon in western Ireland. The plenary speakers will be:
- Jennifer Jenkins, University of Southampton
- Kendall King, University of Minnesota
- Muiris Ó Laoire, Institute of Technology Tralee
- Mark Sebba, Lancaster University
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The conference will be innovative, reflective, and stimulating based on the theme “New Horizons in Language Education”. It will be jointly organized byTeaching English Language and Literature Society of Iran (TELLSI) and Yazd University and will be hosted by English Department at Yazd University, IRAN. We are looking forward to an interesting program and invite abstracts for papers, posters, as well as workshops and colloquia covering different aspects of Language Education and English Literature as outlined below.
Abstracts are invited for talks or posters on the following major (but not limited to) themes of the Conference:
- Language Teaching & Learning/ Second Language Acquisition
- Teacher Education
- Sociolinguistics/ Discourse analysis/ Psycholinguistics
- Curriculum and Materials Development/ English for Specific Purposes
- Language Testing and Assessment
- CALL/ Multimedia and ICT in Language Classroom
- Language and Literature
- English Translation.
For further details and pre-registration, please visit: http://tellsi7.com/english/
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FAAPI 2009 IN BAHÍA BLANCA, September 24-26