With the growing global popularity of English, the British Council forecasts that 2 billion people would be using it worldwide in the 2020s. Accordingly, English Language Teaching (ELT) is internationally an educational and commercial activity accounting for over USD 30 billion globally.
Teachers’ contexts influence and are influenced by their knowledge and understanding of pedagogical perspectives they bring to teaching English in their classrooms. Their beliefs are fundamental to discourses on ELT and teacher education. Additionally, teaching in countries across the globe are mediated by cultural, political, and socio-economical factors that significantly impact student experiences and outcomes.
How in the world do they teach English showcases the work of an International Collective of Scholar Practitioners and ELT professionals ( IC-SPELT ) reflecting on their aspirations in, and commitments to, the field, while sharing their accomplishments and struggles in their journeys as English language educators.
Moderators: Dr. Reginald D’Silva – UBC & Dr. Daniela Coelho – Abu Dhabi University
Please see details of our upcoming and previous sessions below:
IC – SPELT SESSIONS 2024 – 25
Session 5:
The session scheduled in May 2025 is titled:
Dani’s & Telma’s Journey of Growth and Transformation in Language Education: Introducing our Edited Volume: Plurilingual Pedagogy in the Arabian Peninsula.
Abstract:
Our experience as expatriate educators in the Arabian Peninsula became a transformative journey—one that challenged us to rethink language education in this rapidly evolving region. Writing this book was not merely an academic exercise but an initiation of sorts, a coming-of-age process that reshaped how we view education as a tool for empowerment and innovation.
In this presentation, we will reflect on the journey that led to the creation of this edited volume. It is rooted in Paulo Freire’s concept of dialog, which served as the foundation for engaging with scholars, educators, and students across the region. Together, we explored the challenges and opportunities inherent in teaching English within Arabic-speaking contexts, balancing tradition with the demands of globalization.
The book reflects a collaborative effort to amplify the voices of those navigating this unique educational landscape. It aims to provide actionable insights for students, educators, and policymakers seeking to foster sustainable, bottom-up transformations in education. This presentation will outline the key themes, findings, and recommendations from our work, highlighting the urgency of rethinking language education to support the region’s immense potential for growth.
Join us as we share this story of reflection, collaboration, and innovation—a journey that we hope inspires continued dialog and action in education reform.
Presenters: Daniela Coelho (Abu Dhabi University, UAE) & Telma Steinhagen (Ministry of Education Bremen, Germany)
Presenter Bios:
Daniela Coelho is an Assistant Professor of Education. She completed her master and doctoral studies in the field of Language Pedagogy and Curriculum Development and has 20+ years of experience teaching Methods of Teaching Languages, School Curriculum, Curriculum Development and Assessment, English for Academic Purposes, English as a Foreign/Second Language in higher education in a variety of countries, such as Canada, England, Finland, Portugal and the United Arab Emirates. She has also taught other languages, namely Portuguese and French, and has worked as a teacher trainer and curriculum developer/reviewer. Her research interests include plurilingual pedagogy, intercultural competence, teacher education and curriculum development.
Telma Gharibian Steinhagen has worked for several years in the Gulf. Her research mainly focuses on multilingualism and the acquisition of English as an additional language. Her research goal is to optimize language teaching practices and, as such, she is engaged in a number of initiatives that help students foster critical thinking and reading skills.
Further details to come:
Session 4:
The session scheduled in April 2025 was titled:
Harnessing Generative AI in the language classroom: Exploring prospects, rewards and challenges of AI-Driven language education
Abstract:
Artificial Intelligence (AI) seems to have permeated most aspects of our daily lives. In the context of language education, AI appears to hold significant promise for enhancing teaching and learning experiences using innovative tools. This session will commence with a brief presentation of an overview of the challenges and opportunities associated with the use of AI in education. Following the presentation, attendees are invited to participate in a discussion focusing on the transformative potential of AI in the language classrooms, as well as the critical issues that may impede its effective implementation in language teaching and learning.
Presenter: Dr. Reginald D’Silva
Presenter Bio:
Reginald D’Silva is a Professor of Teaching in the Department of Language and Literacy Education, at the University of British Columbia, with an interdisciplinary background in Engineering, Computer Science and Social Sciences. His scholarship of teaching and learning and experience are in Teaching English as an Additional Language (TEAL).
Date & Time: April 9th Wednesday night 11 PM in Vancouver, Canada / Thursday, April 10th at 10AM in Abu Dhabi
Session 3:
The session scheduled in January 2025 was titled:
Bridging Worlds: The Knowledge Pathways of Black American Women Teaching EMI in the UAE’s PreK-5 Context
Abstract:
This phenomenological inquiry dissertation study explores how five Black American women teachers in UAE PreK-primary English-medium schools brought to bear their cultural, linguistic, and professional knowledge bases while navigating institutional expectations. Grounded in personal practical knowledge (PPK) and Black feminist epistemology, the research investigates how teachers’ prior U.S. educational experiences influenced their pedagogical approaches. Through in-depth interviews, the study reveals how these educators adapted their existing knowledge to the unique cultural, linguistic landscape of UAE schools, demonstrating the sophisticated ways teachers construct professional knowledge across transnational educational contexts
Presenter: Andwatta Barnes
Presenter Bio:
Andwatta Barnes is a 25+ year English language teaching professional, who is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Michigan’s School of Education, specializing in Teaching and Teacher Education. She holds a B.A. in Elementary Education and an M.Ed. in TESOL from Grand Valley State University.
Her career spans teaching English learners in elementary schools, adult ESL programs, and universities in the Middle East, including serving as an English Language Fellow (2010–2011) at Qatar University. She has also worked as an assessment specialist for ESL teacher licensure and language proficiency exams.
Her dissertation research examines the sources of knowledge Black American women teachers working in English-medium PreK-primary classrooms in the United Arab Emirates draw on through a notion of cultural, linguistic, and professional sources of knowledge. Using personal practical knowledge (PPK) as a theoretical framework, she explores how teachers’ cultural, linguistic, and professional knowledge bases inform their pedagogical approaches in transnational educational contexts. She aims to critically advance English language teacher education by illuminating how teachers’ personal practical knowledge evolves into a sophisticated, nuanced professional resource within transnational English-medium school contexts.
Date & Time: January 8th Wednesday night 11 PM in Vancouver, Canada / Thursday, January 9th at 11 AM in Abu Dhabi, UAE
Session 2:
This session, originally scheduled for December 2024, is rescheduled for February 2025, details of Date/time below to be updated soon:
Teaching English in Armenia: Perspectives, Reality and Challenges
Summary of presentation
In this presentation, I will introduce English Language Teaching (ELT) practices in Armenian public and private schools, as well as universities. Armenia is a small and a rather homogeneous country, it has strong educational traditions and mentality shaped before and after it became a part of the Soviet Union. There has been a rise in English language learning especially during the past two decades, and the teaching curriculum, methodologies and textbooks are still undergoing regular reforms. In this presentation, I will introduce the perspectives to language teaching in Armenia based on a few key policy papers, as well as I will highlight the reality in terms of daily practices in classrooms, and the challenges schools face on their way of organizing the teaching process efficiently; such as lack of qualified teachers, quality textbooks, technology at schools, learner motivation and engagement, parent involvement and satisfaction.
Presenter: Hasmik Minasyan
Mrs. Minasyan holds a Master’s degree in English, as well as in ‘Education and Globalization’.
Currently, Mrs. Minasyan’s research interests lie in topics such as English as a medium of teaching and learning and content and language integrated teaching/learning (CLIL) methods in higher education.
Since 2017, Mrs. Minasyan has worked at the Language Centre of Tampere University (Finland) as a university teacher of English, and she also at times teaches courses on intercultural communication. Currently, she teaches academic writing in English and foundations of professional and academic English to engineering students at bachelor’s level. In addition, Mrs. Minasyan teaches working life interaction courses to interdisciplinary groups at both bachelor’s and master’s degree levels. She has also been actively involved in a number of curriculum revision projects at the Language Centre.
Prior to joining the Language Centre team in Tampere, Mrs. Minasyan had worked at the University of Oulu, Finland, as an English teacher.
As a beginner researcher, Mrs.Minasyan intends to pursue her academic research career at Tampere University with a possibility of international collaborations.
Date & Time: December 11th Wednesday night 11 PM in Vancouver, Canada / Thursday, December 12th at 11 AM in Abu Dhabi, UAE
Session 1:
Our session in November 2024 was titled:
Exploring English Language Teaching (ELT) in Australia: Best Practices and Global Insights
In this talk, I will explore how English Language Teaching (ELT) is delivered across various educational settings in Australia, from public schools to private language institutes and universities. Australia is renowned for its multicultural environment and diverse student body, which has influenced its teaching methodologies and curriculum design. I will highlight the key features of the Australian approach to ELT, including the emphasis on communicative language teaching, the integration of cultural content, and the role of technology in enhancing language learning. This session will also address the challenges faced by educators in Australia, such as catering to diverse learner needs and maintaining student engagement, and how these challenges are met with innovative solutions. The talk aims to foster a global exchange of ideas and practices, enriching the international ELT community.
Presenter: Dr. Collette Foster
Presenter Bio:
Dr. Collette Foster is an accomplished educational leader with over 25 years of international experience in Australia, the UAE, and other global contexts. Currently a Senior Instructor at Abu Dhabi University, she specializes in English language teaching, workplace communications, and curriculum development. Dr. Foster has a passion for fostering student success through innovative teaching strategies and has made significant contributions to educational leadership and cross-cultural curriculum development. She has worked in diverse environments, integrating global frameworks with local educational needs, and is dedicated to equipping students with the skills needed to thrive in a rapidly evolving global workforce. She holds a Doctor of Education in Mentoring from Charles Darwin University, and her professional experience spans curriculum design, teacher training, and educational project management.
Date & Time: November 13th Wednesday night 11 PM in Vancouver, Canada / Thursday, November 14th at 11 AM in Abu Dhabi, UAE.
IC – SPELT SESSIONS 2023- 24
Session 6:
Our session in May 2024 was titled:
“Back to the Future …”: The Acquisition of English as an additional Language then and now in Germany
This presentation will elaborate on the main changes in English and German language teaching that have happened over the past twenty years. It will focus on teaching English in Germany as an additional language to students whose first language is not German.
In 2004, when I started my PhD project I worked on the affective and socio-cultural aspects of language learning, a largely neglected area in academic debates in Germany at that time. My main focus was on the affective factors underlying the acquisition of English as an additional language in migration contexts. This was a relatively new area requiring systematic and fundamental research. A close look at the biographies of young migrants showed interdependencies between the many factors which are involved in bilingual and bicultural experiences. Following the coding processes proposed by Grounded Theory (Strauss/Corbin 1998) and based on qualitative data in the form of interviews I conducted with students, I developed the following metaphors: the Burnt Child Experience, the Global Player Competences, the Toolbox Language Concepts, the Lost in Translation Experiences, and the America America! Visions. I labelled each category with metaphors to illustrate its significance for teaching English as an additional language in Germany.
My PhD research project provided new insights into the interdependence of affective and cognitive factors in learning English as an additional language, criticizing the teaching of German as a second language and the English in German schools for failing to consider the diversity of the student population and its monolingual approach to learning in general.
On my return to Germany from the Middle East 20 years on, I encountered a different type of schools: in many, linguistic diversity forms now an integral part of their curriculum. A meeting with my colleague Stephan-Alexander Ditze felt like I had time-travelled. This has important implications for teaching and learning in German schools which Stephan and I want to present in more detail in this talk.
Presenters: Drs. Stephan-Alexander Ditze & Telma Gharibian Steinhagen
Presenter Bios:
Stephan-Alexander Ditze was born in 1972. He studied English and Politics at the University of Vechta, Germany, and graduated from teacher training college in Bremen, where he was certified as a CLIL instructor. He currently works as a grammar school teacher at Max-Planck-Gymnasium Delmenhorst in Northern Germany. Apart from English, he teaches politics and economics as part of his school’s bilingual (CLIL) branch. In addition, he is part-time lecturer in EFL pedagogy at the Faculty of Linguistics and Literary Studies at Bremen University, where he also pursues his postdoc research writing a study titled “On the Road to Genotopia: Approaching Literary and Cinematic Representations of the Biotechnology Revolution in Anglophone Fiction and Film”. He received his PhD at the University of Vechta for a thesis on the image of America in postwar British Fiction. His research and teaching interests in literary studies focus on utopian and dystopian fiction, literary imagology as well as on representations of science and scientists in fiction and film. His work on EFL pedagogy centers around the teaching of literature as well as Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL).
Telma Gharibian Steinhagen has worked for several years in the Gulf. Her research mainly focuses on multilingualism and the acquisition of English as an additional language. Her research goal is to optimize language teaching practices and, as such, she is engaged in a number of initiatives that help students foster critical thinking and reading skills.
Date & Time: May 8th Wednesday night 11 PM in Vancouver, Canada/ Thursday, May 9th at 11 AM in Abu Dhabi, UAE
Session 5:
Our session in April 2024 was titled:
Decolonizing educationscapes: A spotlight on English-medium UAE higher education.
This presentation explores the postcolonial legacy of unequal Englishes in relation to an English-medium university educationscape in the United Arab Emirates. Findings will be shared from an ethnographic study which explored Emirati students’ interpretations of their university linguistic and semiotic landscapes as ‘intertextual products’ connected to identities and levels of belonging. Four key themes include the dominance of English, side-by-side bilingualism, bottom-up translanguaging as well as ‘third spaces’ and ‘sticky places’. It is argued that along with the ‘critical trans era’ in classrooms, translanguaging and third spaces can be more actively promoted in English-medium universities for increased belonging and to counter monolingual ideologies. Practical ways to decolonize English-medium educationscapes will be discussed.
Presenter: Dr. Sarah Hopkyns
Presenter Bio:
Dr. Sarah Hopkyns is a Lecturer at the University of St Andrews, UK. Her research interests include global Englishes, language and identity, language policy, translingual practice, linguistic ethnography, linguistic landscapes, and English-medium instruction (EMI). Sarah is the author of The Impact of Global English on Cultural Identities in the United Arab Emirates (Routledge, 2020) and the co-editor of Linguistic Identities in the Arab Gulf States (Routledge, 2022).
Date & Time: April 10th Wednesday night 11 PM in Vancouver, Canada/ Thursday, April 11th at 11 AM in Abu Dhabi
Session 4:
Our session in February 2024 was titled:
Navigating the nexus of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Decolonization (EDID) efforts in higher education: Challenges and opportunities for educators in the Canadian context.
Educational institutions in Canada are seeing increased efforts in promoting Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Decolonization (EDID). Implementation of these important social justice goals comes with challenges at all levels of the institution. Through discussions on the barriers and tensions in navigating EDID efforts in educational spaces, this presentation aims to spur dialogue on challenges and opportunities for educators in creating inclusive communities and learning environments. Integrating EDID practices in language teaching in Canadian higher education contexts will also be discussed.
Presenter: Dr. Reginald D’Silva
Presenter Bio:
Reginald D’Silva is a Professor of Teaching in the Department of Language and Literacy Education at the University of British Columbia and currently in the role of Equity Lead in the Faculty of Education. Teaching English as and Additional Language (TEAL), and education of international students are among his research and scholarship of teaching and learning interests.
Date & Time: February 14th Wednesday night 11 PM in Vancouver, Canada/ Thursday, February 15th at 11 AM in Abu Dhabi
Session 3:
Our session in January 2024 was titled:
Native English Bias in Pronunciation Training Programs for English Learners in India
India has one of the largest English-speaking populations in the world. In India, English is not only used as a lingua franca but is also the most prominent language of business, bureaucracy, judiciary, national media and higher education. Despite this prominence of Indian English and the call for recognizing and valuing dialectal variations of English by several scholars, pronunciation training in India, both for academic and career success, often focuses on achieving native-like pronunciation. With reference to the literature on Global Englishes and attitudes to phonological variations, this presentation examines the practicality and desirability of learning to speak in a native English accent and reviews a few implications for practice.
Presenter: Dr. Richa Goyal
Presenter Bio:
Richa Goyal works at Abu Dhabi University as Senior Instructor in the Department of Languages. She has a PhD in English, MPhil in English Language Teaching, MSc in Applied Linguistics and a Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults. Richa has been teaching English literature, stylistics and academic writing to learners at tertiary level for eighteen years. Her research publications are in the fields of contemporary British and Indian fiction, linguistic study of literary texts, gender representation in textbooks and pedagogical approaches to teaching English language in university settings.
Date & Time: January 18th Wednesday night 11 PM in Vancouver, Canada/ Thursday, January 19th at 11 AM in Abu Dhabi
Session 2:
Our session in December 2023 was titled:
English as a medium of instruction in schools and colleges in Sierra Leone:
Some challenges
In this presentation, I discuss the challenges of teaching English as a second language in the schools and colleges in Sierra Leone, a multilingual country located in the West Coast of Africa. I demonstrate that even though English is the only official language, and hence the social, political and economic bedrock (i.e. the surest means to a better life in Sierra Leone), its status as a medium of instruction in Sierra Leone is mired in numerous difficulties, including inadequate teaching resources, apathy of students, first language interference and poor management of academic institutions.
Presenter: Dr. Sullay Kanu
Presenter Bio:
Sullay Kanu holds a PhD in Linguistics from the University of Alberta in Canada. He has experience in teaching English Language and Linguistics courses in universities in Sierra Leone, Canada and the United Arab Emirates. He started his career as an English Language instructor in the high schools in Sierra Leone. He is currently the Chair of the Department of Languages in Abu Dhabi University. His research interests include morphology, syntax, language documentation and revitalization and Atlantic languages, particularly Temne.
Date & Time: December 13th Wednesday night 11 PM in Vancouver, Canada/ Thursday, December 14th at 11 AM in Abu Dhabi
RSVP here to receive Zoom link: https://ubc.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_832xvnQ7Dsrk9P8
Session 1:
Our session in November 2023 was titled:
Beyond Language: Empowering EFL Learners Through EAP Courses
English for Academic Purposes (EAP) holds pivotal importance in shaping the educational journey of graduate students in China, serving as a bridge that connects language proficiency with academic success. This presentation navigates the multifaceted landscape of EAP education within the context of a Chinese university, focusing on approaches aimed at reconstructing students’ identities from language learners to proficient language users. Additionally, the presentation explores strategies designed to foster students’ critical thinking abilities, empowering them to become effective communicators in both academic contexts and beyond. During the presentation, these approaches will be explored alongside specific activities and student feedback, demonstrating the transformative processes within the EAP classroom and their potential applicability in diverse language teaching contexts worldwide.
Presenter: Dr. Yanning Dong
Presenter Bio:
Yanning Dong is a teacher, researcher and academic coordinator of graduate studies at the Language Centre of Tsinghua University in China. Before joining Tsinghua University, she taught academic English and TESL courses at UBC where she completed her doctoral program in TESL. She has been recognized with excellent teaching awards at both universities. Her research focuses on second language writing, critical thinking, English for Academic Purposes (EAP), and international education.
Date & Time: November 8th Wednesday night 11 PM in Vancouver, Canada/ Thursday, November 9th at 11 AM in Abu Dhabi
IC – SPELT SESSIONS 2022- 23
Session 7:
Our session in May 2023 was titled:
Addressing social justice in English language teaching
During more than 50 years of sociopolitical unrest in Colombia, extreme violence has been mostly translated to marginalized students in public schools in Colombia. Teaching practices typically address these issues in the history and social studies classes but are not much discussed in the second language classroom, therefore an urgency to create a curriculum to address these issues has been paramount in the last few years. This presentation will describe a critical ethnographic case study and how it looked at a social justice and peacebuilding curriculum (SJPBC) in a marginalized English language classroom in Bogota, the capital of Colombia. I will present how classroom practices helped potentialize students to learn English skills that allowed them to discuss in/out of school violence to address social problems that affect their communities. The fieldwork was carried out with three English teachers and their young students while utilizing classroom observations, interviews and focus groups as sources of data. Findings revealed how the teachers countered neoliberal narratives of English teaching by negotiating the curriculum with the students to promote social cohesion that benefits language learning and encouraged students to become social agents of change.
Presenter: Dr. Yecid Ortega
Presenter Bio:
Yecid Ortega is an Assistant Professor of Applied Linguistics and TESOL at Queen’s University Belfast in Northern Ireland (United Kingdom). He finished his doctoral program in Language and Literacies Education (LLE) with a collaborative specialization in Comparative International, and Development Education (CIDE) at OISE – University of Toronto (Canada). He has over 20 years of international experience (Colombia, the USA, Canada and the UK) in the field of language education and plurilingualism. He explores how globalization, capitalism and neoliberalism influence educational policy decision-making processes and their effects on classroom practices and students’ lived experiences from critical and decolonial perspectives.
Date & Time: May 5th, 2023, Friday, 7 AM, Belfast UK Time – 9 AM in Helsinki or Finland, 10 AM in Abu Dhabi & Thursday 11 PM in Vancouver
RSVP here to receive Zoom link: https://ubc.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0PPhv1B0FlkdURo
Session 6:
Our session in April 2023 was titled:
Teaching English as a Foreign Language in Iran: Methods, Mediums, and Modes.
Offering an overview of approaches to Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) in the context of Iran, this presentation discusses methods, mediums, and modes of EFL instruction in the country’s private sector, along with their pertinent affordances and drawbacks. To contextualize the educational approaches, examples of pedagogical practices in a private language school will be presented for the follow-up discussions.
Presenter: Dr. Nasrin Kowkabi
Presenter Bio:
Nasrin Kowkabi is a lecturer and academic coordinator in the Department of Language and Literacy Education at the University of British Columbia. She has over twenty years of experience teaching English as an additional language in Iran and Canada. Her scholarship focuses on Second Language Writing, Socio-pedagogical and Critical Approaches to Literacy, Language Assessment, and International Education. In her teaching and research contexts, she is committed to inclusive and demarginalizing education.
Date & Time: April 7th, 2023, Friday, 9-10 AM, Pacific Standard Time (PST) – Vancouver, Canada time.
RSVP here to receive Zoom link: https://ubc.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0PPhv1B0FlkdURo
Session 5:
Our session in March 2023 was titled:
Rethinking monolingual practices of ESL classroom in higher education in Finland.
This presentation on translanguaging will discuss practices and potential uses of plurilingual pedagogy, demonstrate examples of translanguaging approach used in ESL classrooms at a tertiary level, and suggest further areas for research, which could illuminate theoretical understandings of translanguaging and plurilingual pedagogy more generally.
Presenter: Dr. Galina Dubova
Presenter Bio:
Galina Dubova is a teacher educator and a researcher at Tampere University, Finland. She completed her master and doctoral studies in the field of English Philology. She also holds a Master’s degree in education. She has 25+ years of experience teaching Academic Professional Communication English courses, Academic Writing, English for Academic Purposes, Intercultural Communication, Intercultural Workplace. She has experience in supervising Bachelor theses, working as an International coordinator, trying and implementing new digital pedagogy. She has taught Russian as a second language and has experience in curriculum development. Her research interests include migrant hierarchy of multicultural communities, plurilingual pedagogy, English as a Medium of Instruction, English as a lingua franca, cultural spaces and global Englishes.
Date & Time: March 3rd, 2023, Friday, 9-10 AM, Pacific Standard Time (PST) – Vancouver, Canada time
RSVP here to receive Zoom link: https://ubc.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_1Uj1veIJPoUytJI
Session 4:
Our session in February 2023 was titled:
Foregrounding global citizenship in EFL classrooms in Portugal: an exploration of pre-service teachers’ practices and discourses.
The English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom has long been deemed a preferential space to promote global citizenship and intercultural understanding. Yet, as evidenced by research, teachers often feel unsure about the most appropriate approaches and pedagogies to address global issues and steer away from treating global issues in class because of their sensitive nature. Addressing this context, in a first part of this presentation, I will provide an overview of EFL teaching and learning in Portugal and of recent educational reforms. Then, drawing on the results of a case study, I will show how global citizenship issues have been introduced in the primary EFL curriculum through analyzing pre-service teachers’ discourses and practices.
Presenter: Dr. Mónica Lourenço
Presenter Bio:
Mónica Lourenço is a researcher and teacher educator at the University of Aveiro, Portugal. She has a PhD in Didactics and Teacher Education and over 15 years of experience teaching and supervising students in the field of language education and early language learning. She is co-convenor of the Special Interest Group on Teacher Education of the Academic Network on Global Education and Learning (ANGEL) and founder and coordinator of the community of practice FOCO CG – Formar e Colaborar para a Cidadania Global (Educating and Collaborating for Global Citizenship). Her main research interests include global citizenship education, teacher education, linguistic and cultural diversity, plurilingualism and early language learning.
Date & Time: February 3rd, 2023 Friday, 9-10 AM, Pacific Standard Time (PST) – Vancouver, Canada time.
Session 3:
Our session in January 2023 was titled:
Translanguaging Practices in English Language Teaching in Bangladesh: The Case at a Bangladeshi High School
A growing number of studies (e.g., Ali & Walker, 2014; Hamid, 2011; Islam, 2018) have questioned the adaptability and applicability of the communicative language teaching (CLT) approach in English language teaching (ELT) in Bangladesh. Given the ineffectiveness of the CLT approach and monolingual policies and practices in the classroom, there is a strong need to rethink this language teaching approach and reform the ELT curriculum in Bangladesh. Drawing on a case study conducted at a high school in Bangladesh, the presentation discusses how translanguaging as a pedagogical tool can support teachers to localize the CLT approach and create multilingual spaces in EFL classes.
Presenter: Dr. Asma Afreen
Date & Time: January 6th, 2023, Friday, 9-10 AM, Pacific Standard Time (PST) – Vancouver, Canada time.
Session 2:
Our session in December 2022 was titled:
The English as Medium of Instruction model in the UAE: approaches, challenges and successes for local and expat English learners and teachers.
With 88% of its population being expats, the UAE offers the majority of their schooling based on an English Medium Instruction (EMI) model. Despite the internationalization advantages of the model, it also brings some challenges for both learners and teachers when we consider the level of proficiency of some of the learners in English. An overview of some of the successful strategies used in the country to tackle these challenges in EMI is going to be covered in this short presentation.
Presenter: Dr. Daniela Coelho
Presenter Bio:
Daniela Coelho is an Assistant Professor of Education. She completed her master and doctoral studies in the field of Language Pedagogy and Curriculum Development and has 20+ years of experience teaching Methods of Teaching Languages, School Curriculum, Curriculum Development and Assessment, English for Academic Purposes, English as a Foreign/Second Language in higher education in a variety of countries, such as Canada, England, Finland, Portugal and the United Arab Emirates. She has also taught other languages, namely Portuguese and French, and has worked as a teacher trainer and curriculum developer/reviewer. Her research interests include plurilingual pedagogy, intercultural competence, teacher education and curriculum development.
Date & Time: December 9th, 2022, Friday, 9-10 AM, Pacific Standard Time (PST) – Vancouver, Canada time.
Session 1:
Our session in November 2022 was titled:
Opportunities, challenges, and future directions of International English as an Additional Language (EAL) Programs: The Case at a Western Canadian University
An overview of EAL programs and activities at a Western Canadian university will be presented, followed by a discussion of the challenges, rewards, and future priorities for such programs in the post-covid global educational landscape.
Presenter: Dr. Reginald D’Silva
Presenter Bio:
Reginald D’Silva is an Associate Professor of Teaching in the Department of Language and Literacy Education, at the University of British Columbia, with an interdisciplinary background in Engineering, Computer Science and Social Sciences. His experience and expertise are in the areas of international education and Teaching English as an Additional Language (TEAL).
Date & Time: November 4th, 2022, Friday, 9-10 AM, Pacific Standard Time (PST) – Vancouver, Canada time.