“Pathways for linking actions with principles in the ELT classroom”

As a result of many decades of seeking better methods of teaching, accompanied by ever more varied ways of publishing and sharing the results within the profession, teachers now have an almost inexhaustible supply of practical techniques for teaching ELT. With this overabundance of choices, how does an individual teacher decide on suitable actions for his or her own classroom? In this paper I will talk about three alternative (but often complementary) pathways for linking classroom actions with learning and teaching principles. One way is to take concepts from broader educational theory and explore what they imply for language pedagogy. An example of this is the ‘audio-lingual method’ and its use of the principles of behaviorist psychology. A second way is to try to design a comprehensive theory of second language learning and translate it directly into classroom practice. An example is the ‘natural approach’ based on the monitor model and input hypothesis of Stephen Krashen. A third (so-called ‘post-method’) way is identify pedagogical principles which reflect universal features of second language learning but can be implemented in different ways that suit different contexts and learners. 

The present paper will adopt the third approach. It will work from three universal features of language learning:

• Learning comes from engagement (Since it is only through engagement that individuals connect with learning opportunities)
• Language must be memorized (Otherwise new material will not be available for use beyond the immediate situation of learning)
• Language learning serves the requirements of communication. (For most people, that is the main source of their motivation.)

The paper will elaborate briefly on each of these pillars and build them into a framework which, it is hoped, is based on principles which are clear and coherent enough to underpin teaching-in-action but also generative enough to stimulate creativity and innovation.

William (Bill) Littlewood worked for several years in secondary schools and teacher education in the UK. Here he was elected President of the British Association for Language Teaching and was also involved in Council of Europe projects. Since coming to Hong Kong in 1991, he has worked at tertiary institutions and is currently Professor Emeritus at the Hong Baptist University, where he also teaches on MA courses in language development and pedagogy. He has served on several government committees in both the UK and Hong Kong. His books Communicative Language Teaching and Foreign and Second Language Learning (Cambridge University Press) have been used widely in teacher education and translated into several languages. He has presented many plenary papers at international conferences and published widely on applied linguistics and language teaching.

“Developing Resilient and Innovative Educators through Actions and Innovations”

Our life and work as educators have been changed significantly due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As we cope with the many pandemic disruptions and fight against Coronavirus fatigue, educators must build confidence, skills, and strategies to face new challenges and continue our actions and innovations to be successful in the new realities that define our professional and social lives. The speaker, who has a strong research background and extensive teacher education experience in ESL and EFL settings, will discuss these questions: what are the perspectives and directions for ELT and professional development during and beyond Pandemic Times? what are the critical skills and strategies that we need to effectively serve our students and develop professionally? She will also share practices and applicable strategies to help ELT educators broaden professional horizon and deepen our understanding of those essential teaching strategies and skills during challenging times.

Yilin Sun is a tenured professor who directs faculty development programs at the Seattle Colleges in Seattle, WA, U.S.A. She has served the field of TESOL for over 30 years as a classroom teacher, program leader, teacher educator, and researcher with many higher education institutions in China, Macau, Canada, and the USA. Dr. Sun is a former president of the TESOL International Association (2013-2016). This is the first time in TESOL’s 50 years history that an Asian non-native English-speaking female ELT professional served as president of TESOL. She also severed as the founding president of Macau Association for Applied Linguistics (MAAL, 2016-2018). In 2011-2012, Dr. Sun worked as a Fulbright Senior Scholar in Taiwan. She has authored and coauthored books, book chapters, and journal articles. She is also serving as Chief Editor of the series Foreign Language Teacher Education and Development: Selected Works of Renowned TESOL Experts published by Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press. Over the years, Dr Sun has given numerous keynote/plenary and featured presentations at international professional conferences. She was with Cam-TESOL in 2014 and is looking forward to meeting all the Cam-TESOL participants in 2021. Her research interests include curriculum development, program assessment and evaluation, L2 reading, vocabulary learning, critical thinking, classroom-based action research, teacher education, ESP/EAP and non-native English speaking teachers (NNEST) in the ELT field.

“Communicating identities in the language classroom: Activities and inquiries”

In recent years it has often been suggested that language learners and teachers should examine their identities and identity changes in the process of language learning and teaching. As language teachers and language teacher educators why does identity play such a vital role in the work that we do? In this presentation I explore answers to this question. After briefly introducing the concept of identity, I present some examples of ways in which identity can be incorporated into communicative activities in the classroom. I then offer suggestions for how teachers can reflect on, as well as more systematically inquire into, their own identities in relation to classroom practices, and even beyond.

Gary Barkhuizen is a professor of applied linguistics at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. His teaching and research interests are in the areas of teacher education, language teacher (educator) and learner identity, study abroad, and narrative inquiry. His books include Narrative Research in Applied Linguistics (Ed., 2013, Cambridge University Press), Narrative Inquiry in Language Teaching and Learning Research (2014, Routledge, with Phil Benson and Alice Chik), Reflections on Language Teacher Identity Research (Ed., 2017, Routledge), and Qualitative Research Topics in Language Teacher Education (Ed., 2019, Routledge). His latest book is Communicating Identities (2020, Routledge, with Pat Strauss). In 2017, Gary received TESOL International’s Distinguished Research Award.

“Professionalizing Your English Language Teaching”

Being a teaching professional is not simply about having the right teaching credentials and being in good academic standing, it involves a commitment to being innovative and transformative in the classroom and helping both students and colleagues achieve their goals. A dictionary definition of professionalism reads as follows: professionalism is the conduct, aims, or qualities that characterize or mark a profession or a professional person; and it defines a profession as a calling requiring specialized knowledge and often long and intensive academic preparation (Merriam-Webster, 2013). However, according to Bowman (2013), professionalism is less a matter of what professionals actually do and more a matter of who they are as human beings. Both of these views imply that professionalism encompasses a number of different attributes, and, together, these attributes identify and define a professional.

In this plenary session, the presenter(s) will review the literature on professionalism and present definitions of what it means to be a professional. Other content to be covered include the myths associated with professionalism and the challenges EL educators face when being professional. General and field-specific strategies for improving one’s professionalism will also be shared.

Christine Coombe has a Ph.D in Foreign/Second Language Education from The Ohio State University.  She is currently an Associate Professor of General Studies at 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), Reigniting, Retooling and Retiring in English Language Teaching (2012, University of Michigan Press) and The Cambridge Guide to Research in Language Teaching and Learning (Cambridge University Press, 2015), Volume 8 of the TESOL Encyclopedia of ELT (Wiley Blackwell, 2018) and The Role of Language Teacher Associations in Professional Development (2018, Springer). Christine’s forthcoming books are on research questions in TESOL and Applied Linguistics and professionalism in education.
Christine has lived and worked in the Gulf for the past 27 years. In this capacity, she has served as the President and Conference Chair of one of the largest TESOL affiliates in the world and is the founder and co-chair of its Testing Special Interest Group.
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. 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). Christine received the British Council’s International Assessment Award for 2013.  Her most recent honor was being named to TESOL’s 50@50 which “recognizes professionals who have made significant contributions to the TESOL profession within the past 50 years.” Dr Coombe is the 2018 recipient of the James E. Alatis Award which recognizes exemplary service to TESOL. 

 “What teachers need to know about EdTech and Artificial Intelligence”

The impact of COVID-19 and the sudden closure of schools, colleges and universities highlighted the need for teachers to be comfortable with teaching online. Such confidence requires teachers to understand the pros and cons of EdTech and Artificial Intelligence (EdAI), and how to use them in a positive way to improve learning outcomes.  In this plenary, I will give an overview of the role of EdTech and illustrate the growing importance of AI for the future of learning, teaching and assessment.

Nick Saville is the Director of Research and Thought Leadership for Cambridge Assessment English and the elected Secretary-General of the Association of Language Testers in Europe (ALTE). His current research interests include assessment and learning in the digital age; the use of ethical AI; language policy and multilingualism; the CEFR; and Learning Oriented Assessment (LOA).
Nick is a consultant for European institutions including the Council of Europe, the European Parliament & the EU Commission. In this capacity he has been involved in the development of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) since its inception, and more recently was an invited Expert for the development and validation of the Companion Volume. He has worked on educational reforms which use the CEFR as a basis in developing curricula and setting objectives for learning and objectives.
He has also worked as an advisor to many ministries around the world, including in Italy, Mexico, Vietnam, Malaysia, Japan and China. He is currently an Expert for the National Educational Examination Authority, China and Visiting Professor at Xiamen University, China.
More widely at Cambridge, Nick has collaborated with Cambridge University Press as co-founder of the Cambridge Learner Corpus (1993) and co-founder/coordinator of the English Profile Programme (2006). He lectures and supervises PhDs in Theoretical and Applied Linguistics (Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages and Linguistics), and is Joint-Director of the MSt in English Language Assessment. He sits on several University Boards, including: MEITS, an interdisciplinary research programme in Multilingualism; the Interdisciplinary Research Centre for Language Sciences; the Institute for Automated Language Teaching and Assessment; and English Language iTutoring, providing AI-informed automated systems.
Nick presents regularly at international conferences and has published widely on issues related to language assessment. He was a founding associate editor and is now on the editorial board of Language Assessment Quarterly; is joint-series editor of the Studies in Language Testing series ), previously with the late Prof Cyril Weir, and founding editor of the English Profile Studies series with Dr Michael Milanovic (both with Cambridge University Press).
Nick holds a PhD from the University of Bedfordshire in language test impact, as well as a BA in Linguistics and an MA in TEFL from the University of Reading. Before moving to Cambridge in 1989, he worked at the University of Cagliari (Facolta' di Magistero) in Italy from 1980 to 1986 teaching English. He has specialised in language testing and assessment since 1987, initially managing a test development project for Cambridge in Japan based at the British Council, Tokyo (1987-1989).

“Adapting Materials for the Remote Classroom”

With the sudden move to remote teaching many schools and teachers were left unprepared to deliver online classes and had to struggle with materials that had been developed for the face-to-face physical classroom.

In this session Nik Peachey will share some insights gained from more than 20 years of working in online education. You will leave the sessions with an awareness of the challenges of designing and adapting materials for the remote classroom. You will have links to some example materials that have been developed by Nik's company PeacheyPublications and you will see how to use some of the tools that were used to create these materials. It is the presenters' aim that by the end of the session you should have the knowhow to create your own dynamic and engaging lessons for your students.

Nicholas Peachey is Director of Pedagogy at PeacheyPublications, an independent digital publishing company that specialises in the design of digital learning materials.
He has been involved in Education since 1990 and has more than 20 years experience of working specifically with online and blended learning environments.
He has worked all over the world training teachers and developing innovative and creative products and is a two-time British Council Innovations award winner.
His customers include British Council, Eton College, Open University, Google Creative Labs and International House.
His more recent projects have included two years as pedagogical manager for a 100% online school owned by Macmillan ELT, Head of Content development for EtonX a 100% online school owned by Eton College and content developer for an English and Interfaith Dialogue course designed for the British Council and Al-Azhar University in Cairo.
His books include:
Hacking Creativity (Shortlisted for the 2020 British Council award for Innovation in Teacher resources) https://payhip.com/b/HDeb
Digital Tools for Teachers - Trainer's edition (Shortlisted for the 2018 British Council award for Innovation in Teacher resources) https://payhip.com/b/B34N

“Digital Language Teaching 5.0: ‘Brain-Computer’ Interfaces for Purposive and Inclusive Language Education”

The fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0) has brought innovations that transformed English language education worldwide (i.e., Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, Data Analytics, Internet of Things, etc.). As the world is on the cusp of the fifth one (Industry 5.0 or 5IR), the English language teaching (ELT) landscape is again set to change with new systems, paradigms and practices. According to experts, the 5IR will draw humans and machines together in the workplace, creating more ‘brain-computer’ interfaces that connect innovations to purpose and inclusivity. Facing challenges ahead, are the 21st-century English language teachers equipped with essential skills and competencies needed for the new wave of innovations that will pervade English language classrooms soon? How can they adapt with the new changes, complexities, and demands of language education under the Industry 5.0? What new skills or competencies do they need in order to stay ahead of the curve? This presentation will describe the digital innovations of the Industry 5.0, discuss how these innovations will shape the English language teaching and learning landscape, explore the new skills and competencies needed by 21st-century English teachers, and illustrate effective ways on how to develop and sustain these new skills and competencies.

Joel Meniado is a language specialist at the SEAMEO Regional Language Centre in Singapore. He teaches courses in Teaching Reading and Writing, Technology-Enhanced Language Learning, Classroom Research, and Language Assessment. His research interests include exploring innovative ways in teaching reading and writing, and using technologies to teach second language and assess language learning. For more than 20 years, he has worked as English language professor in the Southeast Asian and Arabian Gulf regions. Presently, he serves as member of the Membership Professional Council of the TESOL International Association in USA and as reviewer for renowned international professional journals.

“Qualitative Adjectives in EFL Students’ Reflective Writing Essays”

Qualitative adjectives are often used in expressive writing, including reflective writing. They express and (de)intensify feelings and emotions thereby expressing stance. However, their use in reflective writing by English language learners has not received the attention it deserves from language researchers. In this session, I will present the results of a study conducted to help bridge this gap. To this end, the adjective profiles of 60 first-year EFL students’ reflective essays were investigated. Comparisons were made between the male and female students’ data sets. Analyses were conducted considering the General Service List, the Academic Word List, and the words that do not appear in any of the preceding lists. Results indicated that qualitative adjectives accounted for 6% of the words in these reflective writing essays, and the male students used a greater number of adjectives than the female students. Results also showed that 47.5% of the adjectives used in these essays were attitudinal. There was no statistically significant difference between the frequencies with which the male and the female students generally used these attitudinal adjectives. Results will be discussed and recommendations will be made to increase students’ effective use of adjectives in reflective writing.

Tanju Deveci is an Associate Professor of English. He received his Ph.D. in Lifelong Learning and Adult Education in 2011 from Ankara University, Turkey. He holds master’s degrees in Adult Education from Ankara University and in English Language Teaching from the Middle East Technical University, Turkey. He taught English for academic purposes at Bilkent and Sabanci Universities in Turkey. Since 2012, he has been teaching English and communication skills to engineering students at Khalifa University in Abu Dhabi. He has published research and teaching articles on a wide range of topics including andragogy, learning styles, and pragmatics.

“Challenges and Benefits of Remote Teaching and Learning during Pandemic in Indonesia”

In Indonesia, schools, universities, and other education institutions began closing at the end of March 2020, leaving over 68 million students without education in the face-to-face presence of teachers due to current pandemic situation. Temporarily, the shift of face-to-face learning in classrooms and turn to remote education, using ICT, online platforms or by giving assignments using emails or messaging platforms, e-learning programs, or online classrooms bring some consequences. This study explores experiences including benefits and challenges of students in English teacher education from different districts in East Kalimantan (well-known as East Borneo) in the remote learning during the pandemic. Seven pre-service teachers were voluntary participated in this case study. They were involved in the in-depth interviews and reflection journaling using Indonesian language to allow them freely express their experiences and thoughts. Content analysis was employed to analyze the data. The findings have indicated that generally the students have more negative views about remote teaching and learning than the positive ones. They found that remote teaching is more flexible in time and place, opportunities for them to develop soft skills and ICT , more active to explore clearing materials to allow them more independent, and save money as they did not spend money for accommodation for renting. They also encountered some challenges such as Internet connection, eye sore and lack of gadget to support remote learning. They also perceived that remote teaching affect lack of interaction and it was ineffective. They also viewed they were overwhelmed with the assignment. Since this study was involved only seven participants, the findings of this study cannot be generalized therefore, future research could extent with more participants and involved the students.
Keywords: challenges EFL context, pandemic, remote teaching

Dyah Sunggingwati is a lecturer and has been teaching at English Department, Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Mulawarman University, Indonesia, since 2001. She obtained a Ph.D degree in Education from the University of Queensland, Australia. Her current research interest is ELT and professional development. She has presented her research in the national and international conferences and actively engages in English Teaching Working Group in her community.

“Smoother Conversation Practice”

Life demands conversational speaking ability, so in class students should be given time to practice conversations. However, if the only prompt we give them is a topic, the resulting conversations are short and simple. Students are often reluctant to speak with partners in English, and conversations don’t last beyond the bare minimum required by the teacher.
In this presentation, I will demonstrate my approach to daily fluency building through a set of easy to implement techniques. These include ways of stimulating engagement between students, a speed-dating style rotation system that keeps conversations fresh, and a quick and fun way to pick random students where the students feel they’re in control.
I will cover the potential pitfalls of free conversation practice - including student apathy, students being “finished” early, student fatigue - and how I’ve overcome them through years of trial, error and fine-tuning.
On the first day of the term my students spend 30 minutes having free-flowing, self-directed conversations with each other without switching to their first language, and they enjoy it. I’ll show you how to do the same.

Daniel Corks is a long-time member of KOTESOL and an active presenter. He’s currently an assistant professor at SolBridge International School of Business in Daejeon, South Korea. In addition to various TESOL courses, he’s taught courses on topics including job searching, critical thinking, and quantitative methods.
Daniel has a master‘s degree in applied linguistics specializing in second language acquisition. He has over ten years of teaching experience across public & private education settings ranging from elementary school up to university level students and adults of all ages.