Plenary Speaker

Professor Andy Kirkpatrick

Chair Professor of English

Hong Kong Institute of Education

China

Sponsored by:

 

“Learning English in ASEAN: Myths and Principles”

More than one billion people now use English as a second or additional language, largely to communicate with other second language users with whom they do not share a cultural and linguistic background. While some may debate whether English is really as important for all as is claimed, the widespread demand for English is here for the foreseeable future. Without exception, Ministries of Education throughout East and Southeast Asia have decided that English is a vital skill that must be learned by their citizens from as early an age as possible, if their respective countries are to modernise and to be able to participate in today’s globalised world.

In this paper Professor Kirkpatrick will discuss the teaching and learning of English by these multilingual users, and consider the challenges that the desire to learn English places on the learner and the curriculum. His context will be on schools in the Southeast Asian region and his focus will be on the relationship between English and local languages in the school curriculum. Is, for example, the relationship between English and local languages complementary or competitive?

Professor Kirkpatrick will consider ways in which English might be taught which would help maintain and nurture the learner’s mother tongue as a basis for the acquisition of multilingualism on the one hand, and allow the learner to develop an understanding of English as a pluricentric language on the other. This will require arguing that many well-accepted beliefs about the learning of languages are, in fact, myths. New principles will be proposed to replace the myths. These principles will more easily allow the teaching and learning of English alongside local languages.

Andy Kirkpatrick is Chair Professor of English at the Hong Kong Institute of Education and Director of the Institute’s Research Centre into Language Education and Acquisition in Multilingual Societies. He has taught in the fields of Applied Linguistics and Language Teacher Education in Australia, Burma, China, Singapore and the UK.

His first degree is in Chinese Studies from Leeds and he has a Postgraduate Diploma in Modern Chinese Literature from FudanUniversity in Shanghai, an MA in ELT and Linguistics (York, UK) and a PhD (The Australian National University) in Chinese Linguistics.

His research interests include the development of regional varieties of English and the history of Chinese rhetoric. He is the sole editor of Routledge’s forthcoming Handbook of World Englishes. “World Englishes:implications for international communication and ELT” was published in 2007 by Cambridge University Press. “English as a Lingua Franca in ASEAN: Roles, Features and the Multilingual Model of Language Teaching” will be published in early 2010 by Hong Kong University Press.

Plenary Speaker

Dr Joan Kang Shin

Director of TESOL

Professional Training Programs

University of Maryland, BaltimoreCounty

The United States of America

Sponsored by:

“On Becoming Interculturally Competent in English”

As English is used internationally to communicate across cultures, English as a foreign language (EFL) classes must take responsibility to build students’ intercultural communication skills in order to prepare them to be effective speakers of English in global contexts. An important first step is to build a “sphere of interculturality” (Kramsch, 1993) in the EFL classroom that promotes a healthy process of learning about cultural difference through reflection of one’s own culture. However, encountering cultural difference skillfully is not a simple task. So it is important for EFL teachers to help learners develop intercultural sensitivity as a starting point for improving intercultural competence in English. Milton Bennett’s (1993) Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (DMIS) provides a useful framework to conceptualise intercultural sensitivity in developmental stages, which can help EFL teachers guide their students toward greater intercultural competence. Applying Bennett’s DMIS to the EFL context, the presenter will describe developmental strategies that promote students’ growth in intercultural sensitivity and share examples of culturally-based language activities that improve students’ intercultural communication skills in English.

Dr Joan Kang Shin is the Director of TESOL Professional Training Programs at the EnglishLanguageCenter at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). In this position at UMBC she administers, in consortium with the University of Oregon, the U.S. Department of State’s E-Teacher Scholarship Program, a fully online teacher training program for EFL teachers around the world.

Dr Shin is also the Project Director of the US Department of Education (USDOE) funded STEP T for ELLs Program (Secondary Teacher Education and Professional Training for English Language Learners) in the Education Department at UMBC.

In addition, she keeps herself busy as an English Language Specialist for the Office of English Language Programs (OELP) in the U.S. Department of State and has conducted EFL teacher training programs with teachers in Libya, Egypt, Morocco, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, India, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Peru, Taiwan, Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand.

Her first degree is in Economics from Cornell University and she has an M.A. in ESOL/Bilingual Education and a PhD in Language, Literacy and Culture from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

Featured Speaker

Dr JoAnn (Jodi) Crandall

Director of PhD Program in Language,

Literacy & Culture

University of Maryland, BaltimoreCounty

The United States of America

Sponsored by:

“What's in a Word? Teaching and Learning Vocabulary”

This presentation will explore some of the reasons for the growing importance of vocabulary in language teaching and learning, as well as some engaging ways to teach it. We will talk about how to decide what language to teach as well as four general approaches to use, depending on the vocabulary involved. Several frequency lists, including the Academic Word List and the General Service List of frequently used words will be presented, as well as a number of websites that can analyse the vocabulary in any written text, to help determine what language to teach. We will discuss activities for teaching and learning vocabulary including word games, word analysis, pre-/during-/and post-reading vocabulary activities, the use of dictionaries, and a number of other activities for students of all ages. A number of websites for teaching and learning vocabulary will also be presented.

JoAnn (Jodi) Crandall directs the Language, Literacy & Culture PhD Program at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), where she also teaches in the MA TESOL program. She has written more than 100 books and articles and spoken in more than 30 countries on teacher education, program design and educational policy, with a special focus on content-based instruction, writing and cross-cultural communication. Dr Crandall was President of TESOL and WATESOL and of the American Association of Applied Linguistics (AAAL). She received a BA in English and Spanish from Ohio University, an MA in American Literature from the University of Maryland College Park and an MS and PhD in Sociolinguistics from Georgetown University.

Featured Speaker

Pamela Humphreys

IELTS Manager

Griffith Test Centre

Australia

Sponsored by:

“Exit Testing: a Whole-of-University Approach”

This session will give an overview of the research into and implementation of exit testing at Griffith University, Queensland, Australia, using the IELTS test.

Exit testing is one component of a whole-of-university approach aimed at supporting international students throughout the student lifecycle. Known as the Griffith English Language Enhancement Strategy and led by the Deputy Vice Chancellor, it aims to meet the Australian Government’s Good Practice Principles for International Students in Australian Universities. The findings and implications of a trial into exit testing in 2008 will be presented, along with an overview of further research currently underway in this area.

This presentation will be of particular interest to those considering proficiency exit testing in tertiary institutions. Additionally, those involved in the delivery of EAP, Direct Entry Programs or concurrent support for students in English-medium degree programs will find the results of pedagogical interest.

Pamela Humphreys is currently the IELTS Manager at the Griffith Test Centre and a member of Griffith’s English Language Working Party. She has held a variety of positions in the ELT industry over the last two decades including teacher, teacher trainer and Director of Studies. She is the author of the IELTS Express workbooks (Cengage), a materials writer and examiner for Cambridge ESOL and Assistant Principal Examiner for IELTS.

Featured Speaker

Sou Boramy

Lecturer

Royal University of Phnom Penh

Cambodia

“Using Directive and Facilitative Feedback to Improve Student Writing: a Case Study of a Higher Education Setting in Cambodia”

This paper discusses how two feedback strategies (directive and facilitative) were conducted in two essay writing classes (6 students participated from each class) in the English Language Support Unit (ELSU), at the Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP). The study investigated the effects of the two strategies in two types of essay: (1) classification; and (2) comparison and contrast, and examined the types of student errors and explored their causes. The student writing data were enhanced through follow-up interviews with each of the participants, and through triangulation with the evaluations of a second teacher. The findings of this study show that facilitative feedback is more effective in improving revisions of essays. These results may be useful for university instructors, teachers, trainers and senior high school teachers who wish to improve their students’ writing.

Sou Boramy is an English lecturer in the English Language Support Unit (ELSU) at RUPP. Her special interest is in designing curricula and preparing supplementary materials for textbooks. Currently, she teaches “Essay Writing”, low intermediate and elementary English classes. She earned an MA in English language teaching from Assumption University in Bangkok (2003) and an MA in Russian Language and Literature from Moscow Pedagogical University (1993).