Conference: ‘7th International Conference of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF7)’, Athens, September 4-6

[ELTWeekly Volume 6, Issue 15 | June 9, 2014 | ISSN 0975-3036]

From the conference organizers:

The 7th International Conference of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF7), to be held at DEREE- The American College of Greece, Athens, on September 4-6, 2014, follows the highly successful first six conferences in the series, which were held in Helsinki (2008), Southampton (2009), Vienna (2010), Hong Kong (2011), Istanbul (2012), and Rome (2013).

ELF has now established itself as a major and expanding field of academic research. Its interconnections with pedagogy and a host of other disciplines are being currently discussed, acknowledged, and investigated. Targeting English language educators who work with English language users from diverse educational and cultural backgrounds in a wide variety of settings, ELF can uniquely be interconnected with issues affecting and related to identity, language policy-making, intercultural awareness, technology, and language use at all levels facilitating human communications globally.

ELF7 seeks to explore these interfaces of ELF with pedagogy and other disciplines in the interest of the advancement of the field. In this context, the ELF7 committee members invite participants to contribute to this conference by submitting their work, reporting on current ELF research and/or participating in constructive ELF discussions on a variety of issues that would undoubtedly lead to maintaining ELF interest, increasing ELF insight, and furthering ELF research.

(more…)

Continue ReadingConference: ‘7th International Conference of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF7)’, Athens, September 4-6

Conference: ‘8th Malaysia International Conference on Languages, Literatures and Cultures’, Penang, August 12-14

[ELTWeekly Volume 6, Issue 15 | June 9, 2014 | ISSN 0975-3036]

From the conference organizers:

In academe today, doing research is salient for professional development and self-actualisation. The reverence for research is well-documented in the esteem accorded not only to publication, but also to public forum where oral dissemination of research is made possible. MICOLLAC 2014 duly acknowledges the importance of sharing research among communities in both practises.

To encourage intellectual growth, the forum provides a platform for dynamic discussion from three main trajectories, i.e. languages, literatures and cultures. While the trajectories can be treated discretely, a more complex multi-diciplinary approach is not not ruled out. The theme for the conference provides opportunities for lively paper and poster presentations that focus on relevant research in terms of:

1) the germination of new cutting edge ideas,
2) innovations that can be brought about through research studies, and finally,
3) how research in the fields impacts our lives. (more…)

Continue ReadingConference: ‘8th Malaysia International Conference on Languages, Literatures and Cultures’, Penang, August 12-14

Article: Blended and cooperative learning in EAP

[ELTWeekly Volume 6, Issue 15 | June 9, 2014 | ISSN 0975-3036]

The OUP ELT blog has published an article dealing with blended learning and cooperative learning.

Although the idea of blended learning is not new, most people now associate it with including computer or tablet and internet use in the classroom. These tools can be used to expand the range of possibilities for communication between students and teachers. Here are some ideas to experiment with.

Train your students to use internet

It may seem odd to think about training students to use technology – after all, they are digital natives. However, many students have not yet developed a critical mind-set when it comes to assessing whether or not information gleaned from websites is reliable or valid. They also may not be very adept at using key words to search for academic articles and books – resulting in either too many or too few hits or information that is not relevant to their research.

1. Teach students to recognise which sites are reliable for their purposes. Show them Google Scholar as a starting point and teach them to recognise more generally reliable URL endings: .org; .ac; .gov; .edu. Teach them to think about who wrote the page and why

(more…)

Continue ReadingArticle: Blended and cooperative learning in EAP
Newer Posts
Older Posts