Invited Speakers

Eunsook Shim is professor in the department of English at Sangji University, South Korea. Her research interests include genre-based L2 writing instruction, rhetorical genre studies, disciplinary discourse, and intercultural rhetoric in EAP education.

The intercultural rhetoric studies inform us about cultural factors and linguistic preferences to negotiate through written texts. The contrastive studies have integrated the study of contexts, which may be important to emphasize a specific genre and contexts in L2 academic writing instruction. This study examined the rhetorical move structure of the research article abstracts published in applied linguistics journals from a comparative perspective. A total of 60 RA abstracts were selected from the international journal, Applied Linguistics, and English RA abstracts from the national journal, Korean Journal of Applied Linguistics. The results showed that most RA abstracts included three obligatory moves: Situating the study, describing the methods, and summarizing the findings. The typical linguistic features across the three moves of the abstracts were identified. The most distinctive features in two groups were the frequent use of the situating the study move and the discussing the study move in the field of Applied Linguistics. This study may contribute to understanding distinctive academic writing conventions preferred in the applied linguistics field and developing writing materials for English for academic purposes (EAP) writing courses.

Bo-Kyung Lee is the treasurer of KATE (The Korea Association of Teachers of English) and in charge of membership management and finance. She received her Ph. D. in the Department of TESOL from Hankook University of Foreign Studies and now works at Bangmok College of Basic Studies in Myongji University as an associate professor. Her research interests include evaluation and development of ELT materials, Multimedia-Assisted Language Learning, and Digital Literacy.

oday, it seems that some ELT practitioners are struggling to utilize digital skills or multimedia materials so that they can facilitate English teaching and learning. Others may feel more comfortable with their longstanding practice and may not prefer to spend quite some time becoming familiar with digital skills. However, it is clearly true that today’s young adult learners known as digital native are less likely to pay attention to the class without some extent of digital approach. As an EFL instructor and teacher trainer for digital literacy improvement, the presenter attempts to show how useful students find digitally-driven or multimedia-assisted English class by analyzing 235 university students’ responses to the questionnaire. In addition, how some teachers try to improve their digital literacy and multimedia skills will be presented by introducing a workshop program for English teachers in Korea.

Richmond Stroupe is the current Chair of the International Language Education: TESOL Graduate Program at Soka University in Tokyo, Japan. He has worked with university and professional language-learners from Asia since 1989, and his academic interests include curriculum development, teacher training and professional development, and enhancing learners' critical thinking skills.

Implementing any language education program presents unique challenges in linguistically diverse contexts. The current research project on which this presentation is based examines how local teachers in Indonesia implement language-learning programs in the classroom, with particular emphasis placed on innovative teaching methodologies and how language of instruction and local languages can be used to enhance the language-learning environment. This presentation first focuses on what it means to be an exceptional language educator. Drawing on data collected during the current project, the presentation then focuses on exceptional examples of local teachers, and will also provide recommendations to improve some aspects of teaching methodology that have been observed. Participants attending the presentation will have the opportunity to examine their own views and beliefs, strengths and weaknesses, and can discuss strategies to improve their teaching approaches in diverse teaching contexts.

Visal SOU is the CamTESOL Conference Manager, and also a Campus Manger of ACE, IDP Education Cambodia. He has also been serving as a member of the Advisory Council for National ELT Accreditation Scheme (NEAS), Australia. He received his MEd (Hon) from the University of Hong Kong in 2011, and his International Diploma in Language Teaching Management (IDLTM) from the University of Queensland late 2015. He has been engaging in the ELT career for more than 10 years and conducted a number of research studies in this field, which have been presented in many local and international conferences. His current research interest lies in in ELT management, continual teacher professional development, technology in education, and independent learning.

Teachers’ continual professional development (CDP) plays critical roles in the delivery and assurance of quality in ELT education. Given the increasing needs of English language education globally, teachers are now pressured to keep themselves up-to-date to ensure that quality is maintained. That is, they need understand the difference students bring to the classroom, and how to cater to each individual interests, while at the same employ activities and techniques considered appropriate for the 21st century ELT. Advancement in technology makes such demand a possibility, yet comes with a price. This talk focuses on the challenges in ELT teachers’ CPD in Cambodia context, and how technologies has brought about solutions to such challenges. The talk will also cover some proven-effective practices to support CDP, including the establishment of CoP and EdCamp.

Nicola is a lecturer in TESOL at the University of Edinburgh. She is co-author of two books which include EMI coverage, has published EMI research in British Council reports, The Higher Education Journal, two upcoming books on EMI and forthcoming papers. She has recently developed 2 MOOCs in collaboration with The University of Tokyo for EMI faculty development (https://utokyo-ea.com/courses/course-v1:UTokyo-PAGE+EA003+2019/about/en) and coordinates an online international EMI network (http://www.globalenglishes-emi.education.ed.ac.uk/).

English medium instruction (EMI) has become a pronounced trend in international higher education in recent years. Initial growth was in Europe, where much of the EMI research has been conducted. Successful EMI policy implementation requires careful planning to avoid unrealistic expectations and disappointment, yet EMI research is still in its infancy with provision rapidly outpacing empirical research. In this talk, I explore the driving forces behind the spread of EMI, and the motivations students have for enrolling in EMI courses. While EMI has many perceived benefits, there are many challenges to successful and sustainable macro-level EMI policy implementation at the meso and micro level. In this talk, I also draw on my own research exploring how EMI is operationalised at the institutional level and the differing conceptualisations of both the purposes of EMI and the challenges amongst key stakeholders.

Yiu-nam Leung earned his Ph.D. from the Program in Comparative Literature, University of Illinois, USA. As the president of ETA-ROC, he is Adjunct Associate Professor at the Department of Foreign Languages and Literature, National Ilan University, Taiwan. He published articles on teaching literature and Anglo-American literature. His research interests include teaching literature, writing, and Anglo-American fictions.

Literature has been widely used in ESL/EFL classrooms to enhance learners’ English proficiency. College EFL learners often misconceived that literature is too abstract, difficult, philosophical, irrelevant to their daily life experience, archaic vocabulary, sophisticated meaning, and complicated language structure.This presentation aims to dismiss EFL learners’ misconception and discuss some of strategies as well as approaches used to facilitate them to understand literary works of art.

Vance Stevens lives in Penang, Malaysia, and has produced over 425 episodes since 2010 of Learning2gether.net. His over 150 publications, many available at http://vancestevens.com/papers/, deal with students using computers to learn languages and teachers learning to teach using technology by engaging in communities of practice and in participatory cultures. He facilitates online teacher professional development through numerous communities of practice. He has helped coordinate TESOL/CALL-IS Electronic Village Online (EVO) since 2003, and has co-moderated EVO Minecraft MOOC for the past 6 years. He was recently awarded the 2019 CALL Research Conference Lifetime Achievement Award.

Learning a foreign language is in large part a matter of connecting authentically with other cultures. Nowadays technology affords opportunities to not only consume content beneficial to language learning and cross-cultural understanding, but connect directly with speakers of the target language. Online environments also allow language learners to interact asynchronously as creators of content that can be shared online to be discovered by language learners in different parts of the world. Modern day curricula seek to accommodate 21st century skills, including the “c” skills of critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and communication. In order to inculcate these skills teachers need to model them in their own teaching. How can teachers learn to do this? ... by engaging in communities of practice where other educators are modeling techniques that their peers can imitate in order to become better models for their learners. One framework that promotes this is flipped learning, where teachers prepare tutorial materials for students to prepare conceptually beforehand for a class in which the concepts can in-class be practiced and applied creatively and individually. This presentation includes a rationale for flipped learning, and an introduction to various tools for graphic, audio, and video recording, editing, and display and delivery in digital format. More importantly, the presentation discusses why and how teachers would not only want to create such content for their students but also show their students how they too can creatively employ their developing language skills in the creation of digitally enhanced content to be shared with language learners elsewhere in the world. Podcasting and webcasting are two possible end-products promoting language learning that can involve the use of such tools. Teachers and students can access blogs, podcasts, and YouTube channels that can show them how to use the associated tools, and students too can create their own podcast mini-series that can exercise their creative use of the target language. Webcasting is a tool that enables teachers to bring experts or other native speakers into the language classroom or connect their class with other classes in other parts of the world. Webcasts can be streamed live over social media, but the software that makes that possible can also capture to disk recordings of whatever is happening on a computer, opening more possibilities for language learning materials preparation, or for students to relate and record their audio-visual digital stories. On the premise that modeling is an excellent way to change behavior, this plenary is flipped. That is, materials explaining the concepts, including a slide deck and preparatory video, will be prepared beforehand and placed on open access. During the presentation, participants can follow the slides and create and share content in ways suggested in the presentation materials. Afterwards artifacts created during the presentation can be aggregated and shared online so that those present and those not present alike might be able to recall and recapitulate the presentation and continue learning from it, and thus be able to model its method of delivery and audience engagement for their students.

Joseph Lo Bianco, AM, is Professor of Language and Literacy Education at the University of Melbourne, Australia, and previously Director of the National Languages and Literacy Institute of Australia and author of the 1987 Australian Policy on Languages. He was elected President of the Australian Academy of the Humanities in 2012, the first educator to serve in this role. From 2011-2017 he led the UNICEF Language and Peacebuilding initiative in Malaysia, Myanmar and Thailand and pioneered a form of language problem solving called the Facilitated Dialogue which transforms public policy processes advancing language rights. He has more than 25 books and major reports and over 130 articles and chapters.

The theme of this conference is Harmony in Diversity: ELT in Transcultural Society. This paper will delve into literature on social cohesion and conflict related to multilingualism in diverse societies, in the context of the rapid transnationalism and economic globalisation of today. In this respect the question posed by the ever deeper global role English, with its multiple roles and resonances, invites reflection on what work languages do in the personal and social lives of individuals, and in the public lives of states, nations and economies. For TESOL educators in Asian settings the work that languages do in the private and public lives of their students and communities are constant reminders of the wider implications of the classroom. Taking a critical ecological framing of communication, the paper will discuss possible meanings of ‘harmony in diversity’ and ‘transcultural society’ and link these to messages from curriculum, teaching and attitudes to English today. I will draw on Southeast Asian research I have done on English and multilingualism in conflict affected settings to show that much greater effort of teachers in negotiating policy on language will help alleviate educational inequalities. It is vitally important for English teachers and teacher associations to come to grips with some concepts from the field of language policy and planning studies to link their work to the wider public consequences of how the communicative order of tomorrow is shaped in the interactions between learner and teacher in classrooms. In this way we can tackle persisting inequalities in educational outcomes that are often exacerbated by language policy.

Harry Kuchah Kuchah is Lecturer in Language Education at the University of Leeds, UK. He has also been involved in a range of teacher education and materials development initiatives in Africa, Asia and Europe. He is a member of the British Council ELAG and current President of IATEFL. His research interests include TEYL, EMI and Language teacher education.

The hegemony of ‘Centre’ generated ELT pedagogic practices has increasingly come under scrutiny recently, owing to the growing understanding of the influence of contextual factors on language teaching and learning. Classroom realities continue to suggest that even the ‘best’ methods are often challenged by lack of student engagement and motivation. How do we make English language learning relevant to our students and consistent with the cultural realities of their learning environment? In this presentation, I show how adopting a pedagogy based on partnerships which take account of learner and teacher agency can provide contextually appropriate solutions to local challenges. Then I suggest that collaborative teacher inquiry, involving students in both the generation of content and the design of learning activities, provides us with opportunities to enrich our and our students’ understanding of the world we are called to navigate through English language.

Professor Anne Burns is Professor of TESOL at the University of New South Wales, Sydney. She is also an Emeritus Professor at Aston University, and an Honorary Professor at the University of Sydney and The Education University of Hong Kong. Her research interests include language teacher education, language teacher cognition, genre theory in language teaching, curriculum development and change, literacy, and written and spoken discourse analysis. She is known for her work in the theory and practice of action research. Her recent book, edited with Professor Jack Richards is The Cambridge Guide to Learning English as a Second Language (2018).

Traditionally teacher training and continuing professional development have sought to induct teachers into a body of research knowledge that is assumed to equip them for operating in the language classroom. However, once they enter the teaching profession many teachers struggle to identify how and why research in ELT might be relevant to their work. Similarly, researchers may wonder why teachers do not take up more of the findings from research in their teaching. In this presentation, I consider these issues from two perspectives, both of which can be considered to involve forms of transcultural experience, knowledge and understanding. The first perspective explores what researchers could gain from expanding their experiences of teachers’ daily lives and work in the classroom; the second looks at what teachers can gain from entering the world of research and becoming teacher researchers. I will argue that crossing the boundaries between these two cultures of research and teaching has the potential to create greater harmony across the diverse field of ELT.

Soo-Ok Kweon (Ph.D from University of Hawaii at Manoa) is currently professor at POSTECH (Pohang University of Science and Technology) in Korea. Her primary research is SLA. Her articles appear in Second Language Research and English for Specific Purposes. She is an author of AsiaTEFL book series from Routledge.

This study reports a reading class that implements extensive reading (ER) program and English library to university students who are learning English as a foreign language. ER can be defined as reading in great amounts for the purpose of general understanding of the text or for the enjoyment of reading experience. Its theoretical basis is that people learn to read by reading (Eskey, 1987; Grabe, 1991; Krashen, 2004). Although implementation of ER program and library have been widely planned both in L1 and ESL classrooms (Rodrigo et al., 2007), it has not received assiduous attention in EFL classrooms, especially in Korean classroom context. The ER program reported here portrays a class that the researcher taught, using young adult literature to the university students majoring in either science or engineering with low motivation for studying English and the consequent low or intermediate proficiency level of the language. The researcher used three literary texts written for young adults to implement the ER program: Flowers for Algernon by Keyes; The Hunger Games by Collins; An Abundance of Katherines by Green. Among many popular books, these were chosen very carefully for a specific educational purpose of adult EFL learners. The researcher introduces how her ER classroom using the above-mentioned books was managed to encourage low-motivated university students and shares the curriculum design she used in her class. Students prepared for different literature circle roles to practice writing skills and later to have small-group discussions in class. Interestingly, students showed at the end of the class significant increase in not only language-skills, but affective factors including motivation and confidence in studying English. Because the well-equipped English library is essential for a successful ER program, this study also discusses practical considerations for building and implementing a library which can fit in EFL situation to guide others working on similar program or considering newly implementing ER in his/her class.

Shigeo UEMATSU is Professor at Department of Global and Regional Studies, Doshisha University, Japan. He has his Ed.D. from Temple University. He is a representative of JACET.

This is a three-year study (2016-2018) designed to investigate the long-term effects of English learning at the elementary school (ELES) in Japan. The participants were a total of 140 public junior school students in Grades 7, and 8 (about 70 students for each grade). The total hours of ELES for the graduates of A elementary school was 130 hours (10 hours for Grade 1 and 2, 20 hours for Grade 3 and 4, 35 hours for Grade 5 and 6), while 0 hours for the graduates of B elementary school. Both schools locate in the catchment of the junior high school (JHS) C. Research questions investigated were: 1) Is there any long-term effects of ELES on the JHS students’ linguistic domain? 2) Is there any long-term effects of ELES observable on the JHS students’ affective domain? A short English battery test designed to measure the English language skills of the learner’s vocabrary and grammar, reading, and listening revealed that the graduates of School A outperformed the School B students to a statistically significant degree. And the speaking test revealed that School A graduates outperformed School B graduates to a statistically significant degree on the conversational task (both in Grade 7 and 8) and the story-teling task (only in Grade 7). However, no statistically significant differences were detected upon the 23 item Motivational and Attitudinal questionnaire between the graduates of School A and School B. The author will discuss the results and figure out the possible reasons by interpreting the semi-structured and life-story interview data obtained from students and teachers from School A and JHS C.

Allison Bill started her own second language learning at the age of 5. Holding a BEd and MA TESOL, she is in the EdD dissertation stage (Anaheim University). Allison has taught FSL (Canada) and EFL (France and South Korea). Originally from Ottawa, Canada, she has lived in Korea since 2000.

This presentation will share the results of studies on the teacher beliefs and identity of teachers in Korea. It will compare the beliefs of pre-service Korean English teachers and novice Native Speaker English teachers in Korea. As these students and teachers prepare to enter the classroom and start to face the challenges of lesson planning, classroom management, etc., how will their beliefs about teaching, and their perceptions of who they are as teachers develop and transform? The results come from reflective journal entries and interviews. The presentation will conclude with an opportunity to discuss attendees’ experiences in other teaching contexts.

Dulip Singh has taught English in rural and urban schools. He has worked with schools, state education departments, teacher training colleges and also the CDC of Malaysia as an English language Key Personnel. Singh has presented papers on TESOL as well as published them nationally and internationally.

The English language verb is an area of difficulty for most learners. They seem to be constantly confused when it comes to deciding on which verb form or “tense” to use in a given situation. McEldowney (1992) says that the main communicative purposes in language are instruction, description and narration. These communicative purposes usually determines the form of the verb and its function. This paper aims to introduce the Communicative Purposes Language Learning Cycle proposed by McEldowney (Ibid). It will exemplify these communicative purposes in authentic texts by identifying the verb forms and their purposes. It is hoped that this exposure will benefit English language teachers in identifying the different types of communicative purposes. They can then design a controlled methodology for the teaching of verb forms and function.

Dr. Sterling M. Plata advocates for Education for Sustainable Development. She trains teachers and school leaders on how to integrate the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals ) in the curriculum through problem-based approach and through service learning. She has a Specialist Certificate in Language Testing and Assessment from RELC SEAMEO (Singapore).

The sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are an ambitious set of 17 goals defined and developed through a collaboration of UN member states, civil society, the private sector, local authorities, and other stakeholders. Localizing these goals ensures that community and national problems are addressed in a synergistic way by and for locals. This paper describes the localization process that engages students enrolled in a College English course entitled Purposive Communication, the university Social Action (COSCA), and partner communities through Service-Learning. It explains the Service-Learning framework of the university and its role in developing the communication skills of students, their awareness of SDGs, and their social engagement. The remainder of the paper focuses on the assessment of the process, including reflection and evaluation recommendations.

Khoon Ee LOKE was a teacher educator (28 years), after teaching in a secondary (5 years) and primary schools (over a year). She has been a PELLTA (Penang English Language Learning & Teaching Association) committee since 1998 and is very happy to share and exchange ideas for teaching and learning.

Pop songs are easily memorised . Thus they can be fantastic teaching and learning materials for practising listening, speaking, reading and writing skills. Some can be used to teach new vocabulary or grammar structures. These are experiential or learning centred activities followed by a simple reflection form.

Diah Kristina, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics at the English Department, Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Sebelas Maret University Surakarta, Indonesia from 1986 up to now. She has been hired as a trainer on Listening and Pronunciation for the Pre-professional government officials (PPPI) since 2012 by the Indonesian Ministry of National Secretary. She was also hired by the Indonesian Agency for Creative Economy (Bekraf) as consecutive interpreter for the ‘Digitization and Monetization of the Audiovisual Archives’, 25-28 September 2019 in Surakarta. She completed her Doctoral degree in Applied Linguistics from Universiti Utara Malaysia, 2011.

As an interdisciplinary discipline, interpreting requires learners to master different kinds of knowledge and skills embedded in the profession. These traits include comprehending theme and topics, understanding client’s and audience’s expectations, recognizing atmosphere of event, having sufficient knowledge of discourse and ability in discourse creation, showing considerable fluency in verbal and non-verbal rendering of information, having considerable speed of understanding the gist of information, exposing well-informed mastery of general knowledge, having reliable techniques and strategies of public speaking, showing a strong memory on details, having sufficient stress tolerance, self-confidence and ability to work in team. In the context of Indonesian adult learners of the pre professional class, discourse creation will be the most challenging skill unless the learners have enough exposure to interpreting work before joining this specific educational recharging. The stress that learners might have when practicing interpreting adds to the problem need to be solved by the trainer.

Dr. Yinlin Sun is a tenured professor who directs Faculty Development at Seattle Colleges (USA). She is a former president of TESOL International Association (2014-2015) and the founding president of MAAL (Macau Association for Applied Linguistics). Dr. Sun is the author and co-author of books, book chapters, and research papers in refereed professional journals and has frequently given plenary and featured speeches at national and international conferences.

This session is an inquiry into the feasibility of Differentiated Instruction (DI) in EFL settings. It is also an attempt to examine this approach within the context of increasing academic diversity and shed some light on the underlying principles, including the 6 Principles that TESOL is vigorously promoting to ensure the success of the DI in EFL settings. The speaker who has strong research background and extensive teaching experience in ESL or EFL settings will share DI practices and applicable strategies to help attendees broaden their professional horizon, deepen their understanding of DI and its strengths and challenges. Resources and practical tips will be provided.

Dumrong Adunyarittigun is an associate professor in the Department of English and Linguistics, Faculty of Liberal Arts, Thammasat University in Thailand. His research interests include comprehension, reading strategies, self-perception and motivation to read, language assessment and critical literacy to promote peace.

Conflict is now commonplace in many diverse societies, where “taken-for-granted” ideologies such as “us” versus “them” proliferate. A key approach in tackling such beliefs is critical literacy, which is a strategic instructional practice which aims at teaching students to be critical and socially conscious (Shor, 1987; Hagood, 2002; McLean, 2006). In light of such a practice, the classroom becomes an important context for advancing world citizenship and cultivating peace (Eisler & Miller, 2004; Wong & Grant, 2009; Mulcahy, 2011). Consequently, it is with this in mind that in this presentation, I will share my research study by exploring how critical literacy instruction was implemented for college-aged students in an EFL reading class. The research findings reveal how the students in this study responded to conflict and their conception of resolving conflict. The talk concludes with how we can raise students’ critical and social consciousness through problem posing, dialog, and critique of social and political problems.

Saksit Saengboon teaches fundamental English and Global Englishes at School of Language and Communication, the National Institute of Development Administration (NIDA) in Bangkok, Thailand. His research interests include Global Englishes, TESOL and teacher development

The study of English in Thailand receives comparatively little attention in the world of Englishes scholarship despite a complex and dynamic linguistic landscape. Like many countries in the region, English is used in predictable contexts, such as schools and at work. However, English is being increasingly used as a contact language among Thais and non-Thais, requiring much needed empirical attention. This study aims to address this neglected issue by examining how Thais perceive and use English in contemporary Thai society. This study explored the ways in which English has been used in public signage, mass media, especially about Thai food, and perceptions of Thais (N = 80) regarding English. Findings indicate that English in Thailand is used in a complicated manner portraying both standard and non-standard English. Thais still hold a static or traditional view of English, making it impractical, if not possible, to have Thai English as an established variety.

Dr Suwichit Sean Chaidaroon teaches in the Department of Communications and New Media, at the National University of Singapore. Previously, he has held full-time teaching positions in USA, UK, Australia, and Thailand.

Digital literacy is one of the core competencies educators hope to establish in the 21st century curriculum. Language classrooms, in particular, could serve as a site for learners to develop their digital skills as “it is increasingly difficult for us to separate language from the digital environment in which it is being used (Hockley, 2012, p. 110).” This presentation extends the concept of digital literacy and highlights the fact that ELT instructors can educate their students to be digitally literate about ‘fake news’ and misinformation. The presentation will cover three main parts. First, dimensions of digital literacy will be discussed to fully capture the digital skill sets language learners can achieve. Second, the concept of fake news and misinformation will be explained with the aim to address what language learners can do to identify misinformation in fake news. Finally, pedagogical implications and teaching ideas for ELT instructors will be provided.

Sureepong Phothongsunan is currently an Associate Professor at the Theodore Maria School of Arts, Assumption University. He received his B.A. in Business English, M.A. and Graduate Diploma in TESL from the University of Central Missouri, USA. and doctorate in TESOL from the University of Exeter, UK. His particular interests are in teaching English for Academic and Specific Purposes. In addition, he has frequently contributed to writing book chapters in co-authored texts.

Examining the attitudes of international students at university level towards native English speaking teachers and non-native English teachers in a Thai context, the study explored how the attitudes held towards these two groups of teachers shaped the participants’ perceived learning behaviours and motivation to learn English. Two research instruments; the open-ended questionnaire and the semi-structured interview were employed. The questionnaire was the primary data collection tool. The interview conducted afterwards served as a supplementary data. The findings indicated significantly differing attitudes towards native English speaking teachers and non-native English teachers in many areas. These areas comprised teaching methods and styles; the understanding of students’ problems; grading and marking; language proficiency; personality, classroom discipline; and ability to communicate and interact with learners. Most participants, if given a choice, had a strong preference to study with native English speaking teachers. There appeared to be a strong positive relationship between studying with native English speaking teachers and the participants’ reported behaviours and motivation to learn English. Implications are made regarding teacher training for language teachers to have EFL teaching experience.

Dr. Mae-Ran Park is a professor at Pukyong National University, Korea. Her research interests include ELT methodology, materials development, and teacher development. She is a former president of PKETA. She has given numerous presentations in Japan, Australia, Malaysia, India, Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Russia, Indonesia, and Macao.

In the era of globalization, intercultural awareness is one of the essential elements to consider when it comes to the teaching of foreign languages in middle schools. The current Korean National Curriculum acknowledges the importance of including cultural content in English language classrooms to facilitate learning between the learners’ culture and that of the target language. The purpose of this presentation is to analyze the content of cultural activities in the middle school English textbooks and categorize them by the types of culture (Bierstedt, 1970), cultural backgrounds (Lado, 1957), and cultural topics based on the 2015 Korean National English Curriculum. For the research method, nine different types of textbooks out of 13 types of middle school English textbooks for the middle grade (i.e. year 2 textbooks) were examined with regard to the above three perspectives. Then, the results will be discussed in depth and the findings will be drawn. Finally, suggestions will be made and educational implications will be covered as to how to teach intercultural awareness not only in middle school English classrooms in Korea but also in other parts of Asia.

Pimyupa W. Praphan is a lecturer of English and Teacher Education at Mahasarakham University in north-eastern Thailand. She had the privilege of studying with Braj B. Kachru, who encouraged her to write about Thai English. She was granted several scholarships including Fulbright and the Royal Thai government for her graduate studies. Believing in paying it forward, she now works actively to seek scholarship opportunities for her students. One of her main projects is supervising the English Access Microscholarship program sponsored by the US government. This program offers free English lessons to underprivileged secondary school students in her hometown.

This talk will first present the concept of World Englishes dating back to the publication of the seminal book “The Other Tongue: English Across Cultures,” and the legacy that Braj B. Kachru left to the field of Linguistics and English Language Teaching. Then, the discussion will focus on the existence of Thai English or lack thereof based on various studies including the analysis of the first Thai English author’s book, and the subsequent publications. The analysis is carried on to the new era of Information Technology when Thai English is seen in the advertising discourse on webpages. The talk continues with the discussion of the attitudes of learners and teachers toward Thai English and the other Englishes in Kachru’s three concentric circles. The talk concludes with the debate of how the field of World Englishes can contribute to the teaching of English to speakers of other languages in the diverse and ever-changing world today.

Peter De Costa is an Associate Professor in the Department of Linguistics and Languages and the Department of Teacher Education at Michigan State University. His research areas include emotions, identity, ideology and ethics in educational linguistics. He also studies social (in)justice issues. He is the co-editor of TESOL Quarterly.

While earlier debates within World Englishes (Kachru, 1991) and SLA (Firth & Wagner, 1997) have established the need to look beyond native speakerism, calls to bring together the subfields of Global Englishes and SLA (Jenkins, 2006; Schneider, 2012) have met with limited success. An interdisciplinary alliance between Global Englishes, which includes World Englishes and English as a Lingua Franca (ELF), and SLA researchers would also be consistent with recent moves to bridge the gap between cognitive and social approaches to SLA (Hulstijn et al., 2014). In a similar vein, a crossing of the borderlands of Global Englishes and SLA is made possible by several developments that have taken place over the last decade. First, both applied linguistic subfields have experienced a practice turn as seen within Global Englishes (Canagarajah, 2013; Park & Wee, 2015) and SLA (DeKeyser, 2007; Young and Astarita, 2013). Next, dynamicity and complexity have been examined in World Englishes (cf. Schneider’s [2014] Dynamic Model), ELF (Mauranen, 2012; Seidlhofer, 2011), interactionist approaches to SLA (Gass & Mackey, 2015), and usage-based linguistics (Ellis, 2015), all of which recognize the emergent nature of language. Third, scholars from both spheres of applied linguistics have advocated an expansion of their respective research agendas. Moving beyond instructed SLA settings toward naturalistic inquiry, Bayley and Tarone (2012) called for an investigation of the widest possible range of social settings and learner types. Relatedly, there has been a notable shift to explore the development of pedagogy for EIL (Matsuda, 2012) and ELF (Bayyurt, 2015). Working on the premise and promise of greater collaboration, this position paper argues and illustrates how a dialogue and a common research agenda can and should be established between Global Englishes and SLA researchers in order to better account for the multilingual realities of language learners today (Ortega, 2015).

Paul Kei Matsuda is Professor of English and the Director of Second Language Writing. His research centers around second language writing, a transdisciplinary field of inquiry that integrate theoretical and methodological insights from both language studies and writing studies. He is a former president of the American Association for Applied Linguistics and founding chair of the Symposium on Second Language Writing. He has also chaired the CCCC Committee on Second Language Writing and the Nonnative English Speakers in TESOL Caucus. He has edited numerous books and special journal issues on second language writing. He is also the series editor of Parlor Press Series on Second Language Writing.

Today, we live in a global multicultural society where people from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds occupy the same space—personal, academic, professional, and civic—together. To function in such a society students need to develop the ability to negotiate cultural assumptions and practices as they communicate. In this presentation, the speaker will share examples of writing activities that are designed to foster cross-cultural awareness and understanding through collaborative learning experience. He will then lead a discussion on how to conceptualize and implement similar activities in various educational contexts in Asia and beyond.

Dr Roby Marlina is a Language Specialist at SEAMEO-RELC. His works appear in various international journals including International Journal of Educational Research, World Englishes, Asian Englishes, and Multilingual Education. He is the author of a monograph, Teaching EIL: Implementing, Reviewing, & Re-Envisioning World Englishes in Language Education (2018, Routledge).

As numerously asserted by various ELT scholars, the ultimate goal of language education in the 21st century is to professionally guide students to be competent users of English in today’s communicative contexts that are pluricultural and plurilingual in nature. A wealth of variationist empirical studies has revealed that encountering linguistic and cultural practices that may be different from one’s own in the aforesaid contexts is common and inevitable. Thus, Kubota (2015) suggests that a language education programme should aim towards promoting respectful communication across differences; one that engages learners in learning to establish harmonious intercultural contacts. As Global Englishes Language Teaching or GELT (Rose & Galloway, 2019) has recently led to a paradigm shift in ELT, this paper explores how GELT and its underlying assumptions can help develop classroom practices that aim to equip students with the ability to communicate respectfully and harmoniously across diverse Englishes and cultures in today’s transcultural society.

Dr. Sudaporn Luksaneeyanwin is a senior consultant of the Graduate Program in English as an International Language, Chulalongkorn University. She got her degrees in Education from Chulalongkorn University, another degree in Phonetics from Leeds University, a PhD. in Linguistics, and a Postdoctoral Fellow in Speech Technology at Edinburgh University. She was former Chair of the Linguistic Department, and former Assistant to the President for Research Affairs at Chulalongkorn University. Her supervision ranges in various areas of Linguistics. Her main contributions to the Thai society are the Thai TTS and STT, and the application of Social Constructivism to teaching and learning.

The threshold concept for successful communication in this dynamic transcultural world is “Accommodation”. Learning to accept and to be accepted in the vast communication contexts is natural in human communication. Awareness of varieties in language for transcultural variation is one of the main concepts in Firthian Grammar or the London School of Linguistics (J.R. Firth 1890-1960). Key factors that govern communication are, culture, situation, participants. They are all etic that are related to the space and time of communication. First language learners learn and acquire their grammars either the grammar of the standard variety or other varieties such as the regional, the dialectal, the creolized, or the pidginized variety of their mother tongue. In schools we need to start our language education with the standard variety. It is the variety of educated people. The learners need to be aware of this variety as the unmarked one that they can use either in writing or speaking without being marked with any regional or social markers. In English language education teachers need to be aware that the diversity of English is very vast. The learners of English as a Second Language- ESL or speakers of the outer circle (Kachru 1982) may have acquired English as their native tongue and it is used orally in everyday conversation. Their varieties of English may be well accepted socially and psychologically. However, they need to learn the standard variety when they come to school to be educated. The learners of English as a Foreign Language-EFL have less chance to fully acquire the English language. Their grammar is full of errors identified as interlanguage that still needs to be learned and not fossilized on the way. Their input language can be a big problem if their teachers are not qualified with constant use of broken English. Their only option is to acquire the standard variety first. With more exposure to other varieties of the language through extensive authentic materials they will learn to diversify the varieties due to the context of communication and become the master of the language. This talk is to raise the awareness that successful communication in a native language, a second language, or a foreign language that we, language teachers, need to understand deeply is that "Acceptability" does not come from one variety of language. Harmony in communication needs different degrees of mitigation and politeness. Acceptability could be social or psychological and it is always from the perspective of the perceivers, the readers, the listeners and only in a certain context of communication. Diversity with Harmony only emerges from the acquisition of various varieties starting from the standard variety before spreading their wings to other varieties through extensive exposure of English. That is what we expect from quality language education.

Francisca Maria Ivone is a lecturer at the Department of English, Faculty of Letters, Universitas Negeri Malang, Indonesia. Graduating from Indonesian and Australian universities, she develops interest and expertise in ELT, teaching listening, extensive listening, computer-assisted language learning, technology-enhanced language learning, instructional media, autonomous learning, self-directed learning, and blended learning.

It is generally believed that engagement and motivation determine language learning success. Learners who are engaged in language learning activities are most of the time more motivated, enthusiastic, busy on task, and committed to performing the tasks and thus more successful than those who are not engaged. Learners may look busy performing a task, but they may not be engaged in it. In fact, many learners are on tasks but are not necessarily engaged in the learning activities because they merely comply with the task at hand or because the tasks are not engaging. Thus, they are easily distracted or bored when performing language learning tasks, even when technology is present and used during the learning process. The presentation will explore the potentials of using technology to engage learners of English by orchestrating language learning activities, normalizing the use of technology in language learning, and optimizing teacher’s roles in language learning. Some forms of low technology and high technology are discussed and examples provided.