Joint IATEFL/TESOL Web Conference
19 November 2016

This session is framed by the second language teacher education theme and focuses on how to increase opportunities for professional development through associations. By referring to the results of international research we can look at the major challenges pre-service and in-service teachers face during teaching practice and the solutions available to them. Second, how support from international organisations and their ELT events are summarized for teaching associations regarding the content, speakers and audiences. Some examples from past organisations at national level are shared with the audience so that they can replicate the process in their local context.

Joint IATEFL/TESOL Web Conference
19 November 2016

The career trajectory of teachers typically covers two broad stages – pre-service education and in-service development. Continuous professional development (CPD) of teachers after entering the profession should ideally happen through multiple avenues, ranging from top-down mandated in-service training to bottom-up individual voluntary initiatives of teachers. However, in many contexts CPD remains restricted to externally planned, large-scale in-service training and offers little scope or support for bottom-up voluntary teacher initiatives and activities. In this presentation I propose to elaborate on the role teacher associations (TAs) play in promoting and supporting CPD of teachers of English.

Joint IATEFL/TESOL Web Conference
19 November 2016

A wind of change has brought huge shifts to the educational system of Ukraine with more attention paid to the quality of learning and teaching. As a result, the role of an English teacher is getting more and more crucial: to develop new generations of learners who can learn by communicating together, thinking critically and solving problems. The British Council Ukraine has been a partner for language reforms for more than 20 years. Providing high-quality educational opportunities they have helped EFL teachers master their teaching skills and equipped them with new methods and techniques that have brought changes to their classrooms.

Joint IATEFL/TESOL Web Conference
18 November 2016

Chaired by Anthony Gaughan

Joint IATEFL/TESOL Web Conference
18 November 2016

Drawing on critical theory to provide the rationale for transformative professional development (PD) opportunities, two strategies are presented for teachers to explore their multiple identities and challenge how they negotiate their evolving identities in the field of ELT. These include 1) duoethnographic experiences involving critical dialogue between teachers from different stances to reflect on aspects of diversity and 2) autobiographical creations. These PD strategies are informed by critical language teacher education, critical pedagogy, and intersectionality. Emerging insights on the potential for more critical and transformative PD to support teachers to confront systemic inequities and enact culturally responsive pedagogies are discussed. 

Joint IATEFL/TESOL Web Conference
18 November 2016

Despite the fact that 80 per cent of TESOL teachers worldwide have a language other than English as their first, they are systematically discriminated against in terms of employment and promotion in the workplace. In this presentation, I will examine the nature and source of this discrimination and its impact on the identity of non-native speaking professionals. I will also address ways in which discrimination can be countered by professional associations such as TESOL and IATEFL.

Joint IATEFL/TESOL Web Conference
18 November 2016

I begin this presentation by drawing on reflections from a wide range of expert practitioners and researchers in the field of TESOL and applied linguistics to briefly conceptualize language teacher identity (LTI). These experts have contributed to a book on LTI by reflecting on their own experiences as language teachers and researchers. They present their understandings of the meaning of identity in their field (e.g. language teacher education, second language writing) and also look forward to suggest future directions for LTI research and reflection, including specific topics and related methodologies. This presentation summarises those and illustrates one narrative-related approach (short story analysis) to exploring LTI.

Joint IATEFL/TESOL Web Conference
18 November 2016

What is a professional identity? How can a working teacher begin to think about their own professional identity? Is it important to do so? What is the difference between an insider’s and an outsider’s view of a teacher? This talk, given from the depths of the English countryside, hence the lack of video, will be a gentle, non-academic exploration of the topic. It is given by someone attracted to the words ‘teacher’ and ‘identity’ who only knows about them from the inside. If you too are attracted to the words, from the inside, come and join me! 

Joint IATEFL/TESOL Web Conference
18 November 2016

In this workshop, we’ll explore how teachers from diverse backgrounds and contexts around the world construct identities and face challenges while struggling to develop professionally, highlighting teacher narratives collected in ongoing research. We’ll move from individual particulars to universals of the teaching life as we work to locate our own place in the global community of educators.

Joint IATEFL/TESOL Web Conference
17 November 2016

Chaired by Chia Suan Chong 
Panelists: Jennifer Jenkins, Bill Batziakas, Laura Patsko and Bob Dignen 

Joint IATEFL/TESOL Web Conference
17 November 2016

The unprecedented global demand, use and appropriation of English as an international language have complicated the notion of “English” and challenged the fundamental assumptions (in)forming ELT. Departing from this premise, this presentation aims to unpack English language learning, teaching and teacher education practices informed by the present-day global sociolinguistic order in which English plays a major role. To memorialize and honor Braj Kachru, the originator of World Englishes and the Circles of English model, the presentation will make specific emphasis on Kachru’s legacy in re-examining teaching and teacher education practices vis-à-vis the diverse uses, users, functions and contexts of English.

Joint IATEFL/TESOL Web Conference
17 November 2016

Research in the TESOL field has embraced the notions of intelligibility and World Englishes. This view is consistent with the idea that the idealized native English speaker is no longer realistic in a globalized world. However, these notions have not been widely adopted at the levels of hiring practices and materials development. The presenter will describe the theory-practice mismatch, make the case for the adoption of inclusive hiring decisions and materials development practices, and identify practices that draw on such an inclusive view. 

Joint IATEFL/TESOL Web Conference
17 November 2016 

Hailing mostly from the English-speaking Caribbean, so-called dialect-different students can easily fall through the educational cracks. Their needs differ from those typically addressed by Teachers of English as a Second Language, whose assistance they are often denied because English is their first language! Yet mainstream teachers are perhaps even less likely to be familiar with their dialects and cultures or to be equipped with pedagogical strategies to help these students to succeed in the classroom and in society. This presentation unravels and addresses key questions and concerns often raised by teachers who confront this special challenge.

Joint IATEFL/TESOL Web Conference
17 November 2016

Research into English as a Lingua Franca, or ELF for short, was originally concerned with identifying ELF features. In the early days of ELF research, it was thought that it might eventually be possible to identify and codify varieties of ELF as had been done with mother tongue and postcolonial varieties of World Englishes. At that stage, most ELF research focused on phonology/phonetics, lexico-grammar, and pragmatics. However, as the body of empirical findings grew, it became clear that ELF and World Englishes were different phenomena, and that because ELF transcends national/language boundaries rather than being situated within them, the language varieties approach of World Englishes was not appropriate for thinking about ELF. The focus of ELF research then turned to exploring how ELF communication functions across these boundaries, its essential fluidity, and the ways in which speakers from a range of different first languages negotiate meaning among themselves. Most recently, the relationship between multilingualism and ELF has been re-examined and the two have been repositioned. In my talk, I will discuss the evolution of ELF research from its beginnings to the present day, and consider the possible future of ELF, including the potential implications of Britain’s forthcoming exit from the European Union. 

Joint IATEFL/TESOL Web Conference
17 November 2016

One of the consequences of the global spread of English has been a notable increase in the culture-specific content of everyday conversation among fluent L2 speakers. Despite excellent competence in grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation, communicative breakdowns often occur when speakers of different English varieties fail to grasp the meaning of an utterance that one of them has taken for granted. The talk illustrates the kind of culture-specific items encountered, discusses the problems in current approaches, describes a fruitful taxonomy, and suggests how it might be implemented. Using the internet, the lexical-cultural identities of emerging Englishes around the world could be captured, collated, and presented as a teaching resource.