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Conferences
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AzETA 5th International ELT Conference
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Better Learn, Better Teach
Dr Adrian Tennant, Prof. Dr. Birsen Tutunis, Ragsana Mammadova, Prof. Richard Orem, Dr. Mario Rinvolucri
AzETA held its 5th International ELT Conference on 8-9 November 2008 at Baku Slavic University, Baku, Azebaijan.
The plenary speakers of the Conference were:
Dr Adrian Tennant from the UK who is a freelance teacher, teacher trainer and writer. He also teaches at an FE college in Nottingham and writes extensively for Macmillan and onestopenglish.com. He also has a regular column in IATEFL Voices. He is on the Executive Committee of IATEFL
He has run workshops, given papers at conferences and run training courses in almost 40 countries around the world (in the past year that includes: Serbia, Pakistan, Poland, UK, France, Saudi Arabia and Nepal.
In the last few years he has written materials for Move, Inspiration, Inside Out, onestopenglish as well as writing two workbooks for Straighforward, co-authoring two coursebooks for children in Saudi Arabia and co-authoring a 4 level course - Synergy - for Asia. He is also the co-author and advisor on a five level course - English Matters - for schools in Uzbekistan.
The title of his plenary talk was: Learning to teach, teaching to learn where he talked about what kinds of things shape us as teachers, our awareness of our beliefs and attitudes, and, how these beliefs and attitudes affect us as teachers, and, how we change.
AzETA acknowledges bmi for offering complimentary ticket to Dr Tennant to attend the conference.
Prof. Dr. Birsen Tьtьnis from Turkey. She has been working in ELT for years as an instructor, lecturer and administrator at various institutions. She has publications on a variety of topics related to ELT. Her recent interest lies on learner training.
She is in the Board of IATEFL and a Co-ordinator of INGED (English Teachers' Association of Turkey) for IATEFL. She has been a plenary speaker given presentations at different international ELT Conferences. She was a presenter at AzETA 3rd International ELT Conference in 2006 and a plenary speaker at AzETA 4th International ELT Conference in 2007.
The title of her plenary talk was: Learner Training for Reading and Writing Skills where she talked about how teachers can train their learners to learn beter and how to be successful in foreign language reading and writing skillson the basis of the examples of classroom applications.
AzETA acknowledges Prof Dr Tutunis for attending the conference at her own expenses. AzETA covered her in-country costs.
Dr Mario Rinvolucri from the UK. Mario frequently contributes to THE TEACHER TRAINER and to HUMANISING LANGUAGE TEACHING (www.hltmag.co.uk)
Mario works as a teacher and teacher trainer for Pilgrims, UK. His most recent teacher resource books are:
Imagine that!, with Jane Arnold and Herbert Puchta, Helbling Languages, 2007
Creative Writing, with Christine Frank, Helbling Languages 2007
Unlocking Self-expression through NLP, with Judy Baker, Delta Publishing, 2005
Multiple Intelligences in EFL, with Herbert Puchta, Helbling Languages, 2005
Using the Mother Tongue, with Sheelagh Deller, Delta Publishing, 2002
Humanising your coursebook, Delta Publishing, 2002
The title of his plenary talk at the Conference was: What Multiple Intelligence theory and practice (Gardner) has to offer EFL teachers
Apart from the plenary talk, he also gave a workshop titled: Dictation in ways you never thought of.
Dr Rinvolucri also gave a two-hour workshop for the teachers of Baku Slavic University (BSU) on 11 November with the request of AzETA. This workshop was a great contribution to AzETA-BSU relationship.
AzETA acknowledges Pilgrims UK for funding Mario's participation at the Conference.
Prof. Richard A. Orem, Presidential Teaching Professor at Northern Illinois University, US. Before that he was Professor, Literacy Education and Adult & Higher Education; Director of Office of Research, Evaluation, and Policy Studies, College of Education; Assistant Chair of Department of Literacy Education; Chair of Faculty of Adult Continuing Education, Northern Illinois University and Faculty member of Adult Continuing Education, Northern Illinois University.
Prior to working at the Northern Illinois University he was Project Director of Family Services and Manpower Opportunities Project, Athens, Georgia; Instructor (ABE/ESL) at Adult General Education Program, Athens, Georgia; English Teacher at Atlanta (Georgia) Public Schools; Peace Corps Volunteer (English Instructor) at Bourguiba Institute, Tunis, Tunisia and Teacher Corps Intern at Atlanta Public Schools.
He was the Executive Director of TESOL in 1989-1990 and obtains life membership of TESOL since 1991. He has chaired conferences, gave presentations at the conferences both in the US and overseas. He is the author and co-author of ELT textbooks. His articles were published in different periodicals, books, journals in the US and abroad.
The title of his plenary talk at the Conference was: Challenging the Norms: Preparing Teachers of English Language Learners in the 21ST Century
The plenary talk provided an overview of some major issues that have shaped the speaker’s own vision of the profession of teaching English language learners, and to challenge the audience to reflect on their own vision of the field. At the beginning of the 21st century, new issues and new challenges are faced on to how prepare English language teachers at all levels and in many countries. Based on his experience in higher education and in professional associations, the plenary speaker offered his own view of what makes a good teacher of English language learners and the role of professional associations, the university, and the state in preparing these teachers for the next century
Apart from being a plenary speaker at the Conference, Prof. Orem also visited all AzETA branches on 10-18 November to give workshops for the AzETA members who were unable to attend the conference due to personal reasons.
AzETA acknowledges the US Embassy for funding his visit to Azerbaijan.
The Conference mainly focused on the following issues:
- Teaching Civic Education through ELT
- Methods and Teaching Skills
- Using Technology for Teaching English
- English for Specific Purposes
- Materials development
- Testing and Assessment
- Teaching English to Young Learners
- Online Projects
- Involving learners in extra-curricula activities
It was a two-day conference which started with an opening session attended by ELT providers of the country, followed by a plenary talk. The 1st day continued with the concurrent sessions of the ELT professionals from Azerbaijan and other countries, as well as a plenary talk after lunch break.
The day ended up with the report of the AzETA President Ragsana Mammadova on AzETA activities in 2007-2008 and next steps, followed by the elections to the Executive Board.
Day 2 started with a plenary talk followed by the concurrent sessions and another plenary talk after lunch break.
As in the previous Conferences, our main partners were Baku Slavic University, British Council - Azerbaijan, Ministry of Education, Peace Corps Volunteers, US Embassy in Baku.
About 200 teachers, teacher trainers, educators, ELT managers both from Azerbaijan and from other countries, including the UK, US, Turkey, Russia, Iran, Georgia, Ukraine attended the conference.
For their selfless contribution and invaluable support, some AzETA members were awarded with the name of the Member of the Year, Honorary Member. Member of the Year nomination allows the winner to enjoy complimentary membership in the next 1 year, to join all AzETA SIGs for free and complimentary registration for the 6th AzETA International ELT Conference to be held on 14-15 November 2009. Honorary Membership award is a rare award and allows the winner to enjoy life-long complimentary membership.
One of the sponsors of the conference, Pilgrims Ltd. UK offered a complimentary registration to an AzETA member for its summer training courses in the UK in 2009. The prize was included in the items for the raffle held at the closing session. The winner of the prize was an AzETA member from a northern region of Azerbaijan.
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