Classroom-based teaching has traditionally played a central role in how learners develop their abilities in a second language. However, the learning environment of today’s learners has changed due to advent of the World Wide Web and as a consequence of the advent of mobile technology and Artificial Intelligence or AI. In this presentation I want to look back to the past, to review how language teaching was carried out prior to the digital age, and then to consider how the new affordances provided by technology and the internet and AI are influencing both present and future practices in language teaching.

Biography:

Professor Jack C. Richards has had an active career in the Asia Pacific region and is currently an honorary professor in the faculty of education at the University of Sydney. He has written over 150 books and articles on language teaching as well as many widely used classroom texts. His recent publications include articles on language teacher identity and English Medium Instruction.

Professor Jack C. Richards has been awarded an honorary doctorate of literature by Victoria University, Wellington, for his services to education and the arts and also received the Award for Patronage from the Arts Foundation of New Zealand. The International TESOL organization honored Professor Jack C. Richards as one of the 50 TESOL specialists worldwide to have made a significant impact on language teaching in the last 50 years.

When you look at the title of my talk Preparing successful learners: Bringing real language into the classroom, did you think, Hmm, I wonder where I’ve heard that before? Of course you didn’t. You’re more likely to be wondering why I chose the theme of the conference as my title and whether I’m going to tell you everything you ever wanted to know about how to prepare successful learners and how you can bring real language into your classroom. If I could give you answers you could all go home at the end of my talk. The other speakers on the program can relax: What I want to focus on is not the how, but the what. What counts as a successful learner? What is real language? What constitutes a classroom? Only after we’ve dealt with the what, can we address the how and the why.

Biography:

David Nunan is Professor Emeritus at the University of Hong Kong, and President Emeritus and Distinguished Research Professor at Anaheim University in California. He is also a Trustee at The International Research Foundation (TIRF) and a Director of the Foundation Board, at the University of NSW, Sydney. He has held substantive positions at Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, the South Australian College of Advanced Education (now the University of South Australia), the Regional Language Centre, Singapore, and Macquarie University in Sydney. He has published over 100 scholarly books and articles on teacher education, curriculum development, classroom-based research, and the teaching of grammar in the communicative classroom. Recent book publications include Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages: An Introduction; (with J. Richards) Language Learning Beyond the Classroom; and (with J. Choi) Clarity and Coherence in Academic Writing: Using Language as a Resource.

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Biography:

Professor Chan Narith Keuk is the head of the Department of English of the Institute of Foreign Languages (IFL), Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP), Cambodia. He obtained his PhD in Linguistics from Macquarie University, Australia, in 2015. His research interests include the variety of English used in contemporary Cambodia, the study of English language teachers and English language teaching education in an EFL context, ELT teacher research, teacher reflective practice, and blended learning.