Wow! Reflecting on CELT 2007
Priya Honeyman Livengood, pree@pobox.com
Wow! That's how I'd like to begin my reflections on the Christians in English Language Teaching (CELT) 2007 conference. CELT 2007 was held in Seattle, Washington, on March 20, right before the TESOL convention, on the beautiful campus of Seattle Pacific University, a lovely setting for the powerful experience that many people had that day. As a firsttime CELT attendee, I consider myself privileged. I am incredibly grateful to God for the gift of professional development. The conference theme was "Spirituality and Professionalism," but three additional themes seemed to recur throughout the various sessions that I was able to attend. The first was social justice, the second concerned personal character and being other-centered, and the third was more philosophical, but involved moving away from seeing God and faith from a modern/enlightenment viewpoint to one that may not be traditionally western, but may be as close or even closer to the heart of God. In this brief reflection I'd like to share my experience at this wonderful conference.
In the morning the first session I attended was a report with lessons from an experience with "International Teacher Collaboration on the Thai/Burma Border." Mary Wong and her graduate students Chen-Ju Chen, Yu-Hsin Lin, Chia-Pei Lin, and Hsiang-Chun Liu challenged us to ask ourselves if we are working only with the elite, or if we are using the skills God has given us to serve the poor. They also called us to serve local teachers and not to disrupt their way of doing things when we go to serve them. This presentation was a great reminder to ask ourselves if we are connecting to God's heart for the poor and oppressed as we serve Him in our daily lives.
The second session I attended was by Cherie Rempel on "Mentoring Volunteer Teachers." Although none of the themes I mentioned really flowed through this session, it was still one of the more powerful for me because it was very practical. Cherie included an outline of the training that she takes her volunteer teachers through before they go to teach. I plan to mentor many volunteer teachers as my husband and I serve overseas, so I appreciated the training framework that Cherie provided.
The first plenary speaker, Suresh Canagarajah, blew me away. Through him God was speaking and tapping into the very fiber of who He has created me to be. This plenary was a fabulously woven together, jam-packed presentation of a non-Western, quasi-postmodern faith expression that was beautiful. I have a lot of respect for Dr. Canagarajah and am thrilled that he is editor of TESOL Quarterly. Wow. He really challenged us to ask ourselves questions in light of certain biblical mandates. Justice, love, and truth—what is our teaching and pedagogy like in light of these things? He also talked about world Englishes, which is something I've thought very little about and appreciated the exposure to. I enjoyed hearing his discussion of the concepts in linguistic terms that are acceptable to all linguists, Christian and non-Christian alike, although I found myself personally translating ones such as "the Babel myth" into phrases more in keeping with my spiritual beliefs. His presentation was done humbly with humor that was disarming. Although he may have ruffled a few feathers, I think he dealt with potentially controversial issues incredibly skillfully.
After lunch, in the afternoon I attended a session by Carolyn Kristjansson on "Social Justice, Identity, and Language Learning." Although I felt that it was over my head, this presentation connected with my first theme, social justice, and I wish I had understood more. I then attended Dana Ferris' talk on "Living Out Your Life Mission Statement in a Secular Classroom." It was great to be reminded about issues of character and playing favorites in class, as well as to consider integrating who God has created me to be with who I am as an English teacher. The next session I attended was Brad Baurain's on "Interrogating TESOL Professionalism From a Christian Perspective." What I took away from that session was a challenge to see professionalism as involving not just attending conferences, subscribing to journals, observing classes, and so on, but also as seeing ourselves as professionals in our "beingness" as well. He encouraged us to see our faith and character as part of professionalism, which was a good point.
Finally, David Smith was the second plenary speaker, and once again the presentation was fabulous. I loved the intentionality with which he discussed "Viewing Language Learners As Spiritual Beings." His use of narrative and a real person's story as a foundation for language teaching is powerful as his students encounter the soul of a real person in their language journey. Later his students are required to go out and interview an elderly person for more language use. The concept is great, and I would love to use something like that in my class sometime. The conference ended with a brief worship service and short homily—a great end to a great day.
Overall, about 120 people attended the conference, which offered 21 concurrent sessions by some 26 presenters, two plenary talks, a ministry fair, and a forum discussion. Perhaps as a first timer I am a little "green" around the ears, hence my overwhelming enthusiasm. Even so, I believe that God speaks to us, and if we have ears to hear we just might learn something. The themes that surfaced for me were the ones that God wanted me to hear, and CELT 2007 provided the opportunity. So let me express my thanks to conference chair Kathryn Bartholomew and coordinators Gena Bennett and Kevin Gibbons, and all the presenters and volunteers. Well done!
Priya Honeyman Livengood has taught in China and currently works at The Language Institute in Pasadena, California. She is an MA TESOL student at Biola University and enjoys working with short-term team projects at her church, hiking, catching up with friends, going to concerts, and participating in other refreshing activities in her free time.
