Opening Keynote
Anne Burns
Thursday, 3 December 2015
1:00–2:00 pm
Teacher Tales: Context-Embedded Second Language Teacher Professional Development
To be effective, teacher professional development should be linked to and embedded within the contexts where teachers work. In this presentation, we explore the idea of context-embedded teacher development and draw on teachers’ tales about how their own classrooms have provided the impetus for profound professional insights.
Anne Burns is professor of TESOL at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, and professor emerita in language education at Aston University, Birmingham, England. She has worked with many teachers internationally and has published extensively. She is known for her work in teacher education and action research.
Keynote Speaker
Christine C. M. Goh
Friday, 4 December 2015
9:00–10:00 am
Professional Development for Teachers of 21st Century English Language Learners
Professional development (PD) for teachers is a critical factor in ensuring excellence in language instruction. PD activities allow teachers much needed time and space to reflect on their teaching and learn new skills and knowledge. In this keynote, we will discuss conditions essential for quality professional learning and suggest areas of learning that teachers preparing English learners for the 21st century would need to focus on.
Christine Goh is professor of linguistics and language education and holds a concurrent appointment as dean of graduate studies and professional learning at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. She is interested in the role of metacognition in language learning, as well as speaking and listening development and its relationship with language, literacy, and thinking development. She has published extensively in these areas.
Closing Keynote
Paul Kei Matsuda
Saturday, 5 December 2015
4:00–5:00 pm
The Presence of the Teacher: Achieving Excellence in Writing Instruction
This plenary talk will explore the not-so-obvious role of the teacher in achieving excellence in language instruction, focusing on writing instruction as an example. Drawing on both research and experience, we explain the importance of teacher presence and how it can contribute to language and writing development.
Paul Kei Matsuda is professor of English and director of second language writing at Arizona State University in Tucson, and concurrent professor at Nanjing University, Nanjing, China. Founding chair of the Symposium on Second Language Writing, he currently serves as the first vice-president and president-elect of the American Association of Applied Linguistics.