Click on the speaker's name to be taken to their abstract and biographical sketch.
The Future of English and Teaching
Responding to a Changing World: Dialogue and Agency
Towards Teaching in Class-Centred Ways
Assessment and Instruction: Can They Have a Happy Marriage?
Foreseeing a Changing World
The Evolving Science of Learning
Energizing Learning: Engaging All Learners in the Classroom of the 21st Century
Teaching Young Learners an Additional Language: Moving Forward in the Light of Experience
Investigating the Language Landscape of Our Learners
Glocalization Should Be It!
Ten Commandments for Teaching English in a Changing World: Methodology for the Twenty-First Century
Life in Korea, a Century of Family Perspectives
Featured Banquet Speaker
Abstracts & Biographical Sketches
ABSTRACT: In my report for The British Council called 'English Next' (2006) I explore some new and rapidly developing trends in the teaching and learning of English worldwide and explain the wider economic and demographic contexts which have prompted them. For example, many countries have lowered the age at which they introduce the learning of English in schools. Where this programme is successful, national populations are becoming bilingual.
In this presentation I will explain these current trends and envisage the new world order which they are now bringing about. Will there be a need to learn any other foreign language if almost everyone in the world knows English? What kind of English will people speak when the language is used mainly as a lingua franca between non-native speakers? How can it be that the need for English teachers will decline, even as the amount of English in the world continues to grow?
David Graddol (2006) 'English Next'. London. British Council. (Free download from http://www.britishcouncil.org/learning-research-english-next.pdf)
BIO: David Graddol is Managing Director of The English Company (UK) Ltd which provides consultancy and publishing services in applied language studies. He is well known as a writer, broadcaster and lecturer on issues related to global English. David's publications include 'The Future of English?', a seminal research document commissioned by the British Council in 1997, and ‘English Next' published by the British Council in 2006. David is also the Managing Editor for linguistics books and journals for Equinox Publishing, is joint editor of the journal 'English Today', and is a member of the editorial boards of 'Language Planning and Language Problems' and the 'Journal of Visual Communication'. David worked for 25 years in the Faculty of Education and Language Studies at the UK Open University. He has undertaken educational consultancies in India, China, the Middle East, and Latin America.
ABSTRACT: How can we teachers respond to change – both local and global - in ways that empower our learners? Do we resist change, clinging determinedly to old habits? Or do we become methodological fashion-victims, trying out any and every new idea that comes along? Starting with a bit of family history, I will argue that there is a third path, neither resistance, nor innovation for innovation’s sake. This third path (or “another way of being a teacher”, as Claire Kramsch puts it) is founded on two basic principles: dialogue and agency. We respond to change best when we are responsive to our learners, and when we grant them the means to take control of their own learning in a changing world.
BIO: Scott Thornbury is based in Spain, and is currently Associate Professor of English Language Studies at the New School in New York, where he teaches on an on-line MATESOL program. His writing credits include several award-winning books for teachers on language and methodology. He is also series editor for the Cambridge Handbooks for Teachers. His website address is: www.thornburyscott.com
ABSTRACT: It is widely recognised that established classroom language teaching practices need to change in order to better prepare students for the increasingly communicative demands of the modern world. A question that arises is: what form should innovative classroom teaching take, and what moves should language teacher educators make to encourage language teachers who are mistrustful of change to modify their accustomed practices?In this session Rose Senior proposes a class-centred framework for language teacher education that emerged from an analysis of the classroom practices of more than a hundred experienced language teachers. A cornerstone of the approach is that all teachers need to alternate between teacher-centred and student-centred behaviour (varying the amounts according to local conditions) if they are to help their classes to progress collectively, harmoniously and enthusiastically towards the achievement of worthwhile learning goals. By helping teachers to understand the relationship between their teaching and class-management practices and the learning and social well-being of their classes, this framework has the potential to encourage teacher reflection and self-directed professional development. After outlining key features of class-centred teaching, Rose Senior will provide specific examples of how language teachers can teach in context-appropriate class-centred ways.
BIO: Rose Senior is a Senior Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Western Australia. She has an award-winning PhD in classroom dynamics and is the author of The Experience of Language Teaching (Cambridge University Press), winner of the 2005 Ben Warren Prize. Rose writes regularly for English Teaching Professional and travels widely, givingconference presentations and running professional development workshops.
ABSTRACT: We as language teachers always use assessments in our English classes. In fact, in many East Asian countries including South Korea, assessments, and standardized tests in particular, have exerted a very strong influence on the teaching and learning of English. However, standardized tests are not the only kind of assessment available to us. Recent policies also increasingly have emphasized various other types of assessments including classroom observation, portfolio assessment, self-assessment, and so forth. In this talk, I would like to explore how we can make assessment more useful for teaching. Drawing from examples from my own research on assessment in East Asia, we will discuss a number of factors that teachers must consider in order to make assessment more useful for their instruction as well as for measuring their students’ performance.
BIO: Yuko Goto Butler is an Associate Professor of Language and Literacy in Education at the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her research interests include assessment and the role of awareness in learning and teaching, especially among young learners.
ABSTRACT: Driven by the convergence of trends such as globalization, the rapid development of information technologies, the emergence of China as a world power, and demographic forces such as population aging, the Korea TESOL community faces new threats and challenges as well as new opportunities. In a free-ranging talk encompassing these and other forces, Futurist John Cashman will present a set of provocative forecasts designed to explore potential futures. The forecasts will push the audience to consider what might happen outside of the “same as usual” mindset. This includes potential discontinuities or disruptive events that could shake the foundations of the organization. By exploring the future in this manner, KOTESOL as an organization as well as its individual members can better prepare themselves for the critical uncertainties that lie ahead.
BIO: John Cashman currently heads Social Technologies’ office in Shanghai, China, where he reports on change in one of the fastest-changing countries on the planet. A professional futurist since 1996, John’s primary interest is identifying and interpreting for clients the emerging forces that change how people live around the globe. John received his MA in Political Science from the University of Hawaii and a BA in Government from the University of Maryland.
ABSTRACT: Almost daily, brain studies, technological advances, and research in psychology are giving us a better picture of how learning occurs. In concordance with this burst of research, a growing movement called “brain-compatible teaching” offers insights into why we need to develop teaching practices and materials that focus less on language and more on how people learn languages. So, what language teaching methods and approaches are brain-compatible? How can the fundamentals of learning be used to shape the fundamentals of teaching, and how can these be translated into best practices and effective materials? Once we recognize that the brain is not at all like a computer – it is a survival mechanism on legs; once we recognize that our brains are changing shape all the time – some consider the discovery of our extreme neuroplasticity the most important of all; and once we recognize that emotion plays a greater role than logic in cognition, then it becomes apparent that we should be fostering active learning, task-based approaches, and high degrees of personal relevance.
BIO: Popular speaker and writer, Curtis Kelly (EdD) is a Professor of English at Osaka Gakuin University in Japan. He has spent most of his life developing learner-centered approaches for “3L” English students, students with low ability, low confidence, and low motivation; he believes learners should be pulled into English study rather than pushed. He has published 17 books, including Cengage’s new series, Active Skills for Communication, and made over 200 presentations at academic conferences on adult education, teaching writing and speaking, motivation, theories of learning, and storytelling. He has also hosted weekly television and radio shows in Japan.
ABSTRACT: What is the classroom of the 21st century? Who are our learners and what do they require today that is radically different from their peers of the last decade or even the last five years? What responsibility do teachers have today to prepare students not only to gain communicative competence, but also to develop skills to think critically and competently about “local and global” issues and concerns? How do new technologies support both teachers and learners to improve both language and thinking proficiency? A content-rich classroom which challenges students to engage with dynamic ideas and experiences through a variety of media can energize today’s classroom. Activities which provide solid practice not only in thorough skill development but also in critical thinking can effectively foster language acquisition. These creative tasks motivate learners to express themselves as they explore ideas and collaborate with each other. The presentation will provide the rationale behind teaching thinking alongside language, as well as specific strategies for engaging learners in the process.
BIO: Sherry Preiss is the Vice President of Adult and Multimedia Publishing for Pearson Longman ELT. Prior to this position, Sherry worked for many years as an EFL/ESL teacher, administrator, and international educational consultant for Longman delivering presentations and workshops on topics such as motivation, technology in the language learning classroom, web-based learning, authentic assessment, content-based instruction, brain-based learning, and critical thinking. She has been the plenary speaker at major conferences in the U.S., Europe, Latin America and Asia. Sherry also teaches a graduate course on Learner Assessment for the New School University in New York and is the author of one of Longman’s best selling textbooks, NorthStar: Advanced Listening and Speaking. She received her Master’s degree in TESOL from the School for International Training in Brattleboro, Vermont.
ABSTRACT: ELL (Early Languages Learning) is now a global phenomenon and in many countries has become a major component of international and national policies for education at school. There are excellent reasons for introducing children to the learning of an additional language in pre-school or school education from an early age, but experience in many countries shows that although there have been real successes, progress is by no means always smooth. There can be problems of various sorts, particularly if the development in a particular country or region is large-scale. Drawing on international research and on personal experience in several different countries, the talk will identify the sorts of problem which can and do occur in terms of ELL planning, implementation and evaluation. However, the emphasis throughout will be positive and forward-looking, as befits the title of the conference, and a range of strategies for overcoming these potential problems will be identified and illustrated which have been put in place with some success. While the talk will not presume to suggest in any detail what a ‘way forward’ for Korea should be, it will seek to illustrate and exemplify a range of ‘ELL good practice and underlying principles’ which international research and professional experience suggest should desirably be taken into account if the undoubted benefits of an early start are to be realised. In so doing it will seek to address the interests of different groups of ELL stakeholders, such as national policy-makers, school management, classroom teachers, parents, pupils and local communities, all of whom have an important role in any country in moving ELL forward beyond the position which it presently occupies.
BIO: Professor Emeritus Richard Johnstone was for many years Director of Scottish CILT (Centre for Information on Language Teaching & Research), based at the University of Stirling, which is the national government-funded centre of language-learning expertise in Scotland. He has conducted a large number of research projects on various aspects of ELL, including a foreign language at primary school and also early total and early partial immersion. He writes an annual review of international research on languages teaching, learning, policy and use which is published by the Cambridge University Press and has authored many research reports and other texts for public policy bodies such as the government in Scotland, the European Commission, the Council of Europe, the British Council and the Spanish Ministry of Education. In recent months he has given talks on ELL in many countries, including Ireland, Japan and India (where he gave the opening talk at the IATEFL Young Learners SIG conference in Bangalore, January 2008). Although retired from full-time employment, he is still actively engaged in conducting research projects, supervising PhD students, and writing articles.
ABSTRACT: One of the ways our world is changing is the ever increasing mix of English and indigenous languages in 'local' contexts. This has led to investigations into the nature of 'language landscapes' - how languages are used in everyday contexts, in advertisements, shop signs, street names and food labels for example. Korea presents many examples of such mixing of languages, though many other countries also provide examples of this globalisation process. I shall present some examples from studies undertaken in a variety of countries including Thailand, Japan, Brazil and Greece including positive and negative attitudes of users to this spread of English. I shall then suggest some ways in which we might be able to involve our learners in investigating their own local landscapes and their own culture and languages.
BIO: Professor Chris Kennedy has worked as teacher, trainer, adviser, and academic in Africa, the Middle East, South-East Asia, and South America. His research and publications focus on Language Policy, Curriculum Innovation, and English as Global Language, with interests also in Primary ELT, Professional Communication and Applied Corpus Linguistics. He is a Past President of IATEFL. He is Director of the Centre for English Language Studies at the University of Birmingham UK, which runs Masters and PhD programmes, including a distance Masters in TEFL/Applied Linguistics which is offered in Korea.
ABSTRACT: “ppali ppali” (Hurry up!) and “Fighting!” (Go go!) are probably the two most frequently and widely used words in ‘Dynamic Korea,’ where you can experience a diverse changes and surprises. ELT in Korea has also gone through a lot of changes, challenges, and paradigm shift during the past two decades, driven by globalization and the emergence of English as a global language. Educational goals and approaches have been reshaped for enhancing communicative competence and a lot of innovations have been made and implemented in ELT contexts: Elementary English education has started; New curricula, instructional methods, textbooks, and teaching and learning materials have been developed; English camps and villages have been established; Along with Teaching English in English (TEE) and Content-based instruction (CBI), English immersion education is on the debate. English language teachers are demanded to keep abreast of these recent developments on the one hand and to fight against all the ELT-related myths and fallacies deep-rooted in their own teaching contexts and cultures on the other hand. Now what is and should ELT in Korea for? In order to meet the current and future challenges actively and successfully, critical thinking and creative minds seem to be the two most important things to develop through ELT and glocalizing Korean ELT seems to be the way to do so: Teaching Korean learners of English, catering to Korean-specific needs, expectations and responsibilities for them to live in a global era.
BIO: Dr. Joo-Kyung Park, former President of Korea TESOL (1996-1997), is an Associate Professor at the Dept. of English Language and Literature, Honam University. She received her MA in Linguistics from Seoul National University, Korea and Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction, specializing in ESL/EFL/Bilingual Education from Texas A&M University, USA. Her teaching and research areas include teacher education, speech/pronunciation, intercultural communication, English immersion programs and critical pedagogy. She has been involved with teacher education programs for elementary and secondary teachers of English in Korea for about 15 years as teacher trainer and program coordinator. She has been an invited speaker (and SINGER) at major conferences in Japan, China, Taiwan, Russia, and Korea. Currently, she is External Executive Director of Asia TEFL and Vice President of Global English Teachers Association (GETA) in Korea.
ABSTRACT: Perhaps we can agree that our task is to enable those we work with to use English as a vehicle of communication, using an English natural to the speaker (i.e., a Korean English) but an English comprehensible to the greatest number of persons who do not share the speaker’s origins.
BIO: Doctor Bland is truly a world citizen, as well as a language scholar/teacher. He studied in both France and the US, and taught school in California. As a U.S. Foreign Service officer he served in Ghana, Zaire, Madagascar, Guinea, Pakistan, Australia, and Washington (DC); he was a visiting professor at universities in the Congo, Pakistan, Pennsylvania, Vietnam, Malaysia, Morocco, Guinea, and Konyang University in Korea. He was the Founder and Executive Director of the Pakistan-American Cultural Center (current EFL enrollment: 28,000); and school board member in Pakistan, Guinea, and Madagascar. Dr. Bland has spoken at a number of language conferences including FEELTA in Vladivostok, and the TESOL affiliates in Virginia and West Virginia.
ABSTRACT: For many, the issues of being "a foreigner in Korea" are entirely one-sided, and based largely on personal experiences. This is true for both the expatriate, and the Koreans they meet. Those who have the benefit of longer-term experiences, however, start to understand the issues in different ways, however. As the great-grandson of one of the earliest missionaries in Korea, growing up in a household with four generations of long-term residence in Korea and Korean-educated himself, Dr. Linton is custodian of remarkable insights into life in Korea. He is not only the family doctor for thousands of foreign residents here, but an important cultural guide for foreigners and Koreans alike. Dr. Linton's presentation will address life-skills and learning experiences that will be of interest to both Korean and expatriate teachers.
BIO: Dr. John Linton is an American who was born, raised and educated in Korea. He also happens to be the only foreigner licensed to practice medicine in Korea. Dr. Linton is the medical director of the International Health Care Center of the Yonsei University Medical Center. John’s great-grandfather, Eugene Bell, was a Presbyterian missionary who went to Korea in 1895. His grandfather, William Linton, also served in Korea, beginning his service in the year 1912. His father, Hugh Linton, served in Korea from 1954 until his untimely death in 1984. John’s mother has served in Korea for 40 years as the director of Soonchun Christian Tuberculosis Rehabilitation Center. John holds a Ph.D. and a master’s degree from Korea University and an M.D. from Yonsei University’s College of Medicine.
Featured Banquet Speaker
ABSTRACT: Mary Rose O'Reilley intrigued me with the title of one of her books, "The Peaceable Classroom" as did her notes regarding the title of the book. She asked herself something like this: "is it possible to teach so that people stop killing each other?" This talk will allow us all to look at the pedagogies of peace and to unearth and examine some of the inherent violences of education, educational systems and teaching practices. My main goal is to share with you my thinking about how teaching and education has the responsibility to uplift and uphold core human values and growth. Learning should be an uplifting and empowering experience! Let's talk about this!
BIO: Marti Anderson is a teacher and teacher trainer. She has worked internationally through the School for International Training and as an independent consultant extensively throughout the world. Marti loves working with, training and supporting teachers. She views teaching as one of the most important professions because of the life-long impacts that education and educational processes have on people. Marti's interest and experience explore the inner dymanics of teachers and how they use their intentions and beliefs about teaching to have the best possible outcomes for their learners. Marti is currently on leave from SIT and is teacher training and education consultant living in Thailand.