Dear HLT Readers,
welcome the June issue of HLT. It is co hosted by Mexico, and to be precise mainly by Tec de Monterrey. My co-editor in this issue is Kym Acuña the director of the Secundaria Tec de Monterrey in Zacatecas, Mexico. She has been an ESL teacher for over 13 years and previously served as the language coordinator at the Zacatecas campus of the Tec de Monterrey. So I hand over to her to introduce the articles from Mexico. ( NB. In this issue the articles have been colour coded in the contents page, so you will see that the articles from Mexico stand out)
The Tec de Monterrey, Campus Zacatecas is proud to be co-hosting the June edition of Humanising Language Teaching. You can see that a significant contribution to this issue of HLT has been made by Mexican teachers. You will also notice that the articles have been written by teachers from junior high school, high school, university, and the language center of our institution. I believe that we have put together an interesting group of articles, lessons and poems that express my particular vision about teaching English. I hold to the belief that to have well-rounded English speakers and well-rounded students, one should use an eclectic approach.
Many might ask what exactly I mean by an eclectic approach. It does not mean just taking a bit of pedagogy from here and a few activities from there and slapping them together. What I really mean is coming at language learning from different angles. One can do this by seeking to stir students’ existential side as suggested in the article Waking Minds Up: What makes us who we are. Another angle is to make a concerted effort to include technology in the language classroom as discussed in the article ICT in English Teaching. A totally different vision includes holistic learning and character development described passionately in the article Teaching Values in the Classroom. Our edition also delves into the use of song, music, poetry and culture in the articles: Lessons on Song and Culture and Poetry in the English Classroom. Add to this a few vocabulary and grammar lessons, a tried but true vocabulary exercise and a reflection by a 9th grade student about the role English and language learning has in his life, and it seems you have a fairly complete picture of the idea we would like to paint.
I hope that you enjoy this issue and are in some way informed, inspired or at least interested in this idea of using all the tools, ideas, and resources around us to continually better our teaching in order to positively impact our students’ live.
Once again thank you Kym.
|
The 6th International Language Conference on
The Importance of Learning Professional Foreign Languages for
Communication between Cultures
Conference Announcement and Call for Abstracts
19 – 20 September 2013
The Faculty of Logistics, University of Maribor, Celje, Slovenia
Globalisation and intercultural communication are the two important phenomena that characterize contemporary society and labour market. Consequently, good command of foreign languages has become an essential competence of professionals from all walks of life. In response to the ever increasing need for good foreign language skills, researchers and practitioners constantly strive to enhance the teaching and learning process as well as adapt it to the current needs and trends.
Logistics being intrinsically global in its nature, The Faculty of Logistics at the University of Maribor with the support of domestic and foreign researchers and practitioners strives to foster the exchange and dissemination of expertise and good practice in foreign language teaching and learning. To this end we are organising the 6th International Language Conference on the Importance of Learning Professional Foreign Languages for Communication between Cultures, which will take place at the Faculty of Logistics in Celje from 19 to 20 September 2013.
Practitioners, researchers and postgraduate students interested in joining the discussion on current and emerging trends in foreign language teaching and learning are welcome to submit proposals for papers or workshops or join the conference as a listener.
Details on the conference will be published on our website http://fl.uni-mb.si/.
For more information, please contact:
Polona Vičič
Faculty of Logistics, University of Maribor
Mariborska cesta 7, Si-3000 Celje, Slovenia
Tel.: +386 3 428 53 12
Fax: +386 3 428 53 38
E-mail address: int.conference@fl.uni-mb.si
|
When I was writing the April editorial I was just about to go to IATEFL in Liverpool. There I contacted many prospective authors of articles for HLT, and also Jessica MacKay who is the winner of the Humanising Language Teaching scholarship sponsored by OISE. You might consider applying for the HLT scholarship for 2014, so keep an eye on the IATEFL website, the scholarship section.
At IATEFL I also talked to publishers whose books I will be reviewing in HLT like in Short Book Reviews, and I talked to authors who will present their own books like in the article Auto-review of Life: A Six-level Course Series For Adult Learners by John Hughes.
You might want to find out about the Language Learner Literature Awards: Finalists 2013 or to read on-line a review of a recent Pilgrims teacher trainers’ publication “The Company Words Keep” at
http://edition.tefl.net/reviews/esl-vocabulary/the-company-words-keep/
There is a lot of Pilgrims news, too. First of all Pilgrims will run summer courses in Turkey. If you find it difficult to come to the UK or you would like to enjoy a Pilgrims course in Izmir in Turkey for a change, read Pilgrims in Turkey. The Pilgrims flavour and unique experience are reflected in two articles in this issue: Feedback from Pronunciation Course Taken in August 2012 with Adrian Underhill by Thelma Marques, and Tense Experience: A Pilgrims Training Session by Emmanuelle Betham by Peter Clements.
Critical thinking and thinking skills have been the focus of recent conferences I have attended or followed on-line. In this issue of HLT there are three articles on this subject: Promoting Critical Thinking in the Language Classroom by Yaser Khajavi and Nooshin Shahvali, Towards Imaginative Understanding: The Use of Film in Language Teaching by Michael Tooke, and Logic for Language Learning 2 by Simon Mumford.
If you are interested in psychology don’t miss: Psychology and ELT: Changing Attitudes. A Beginner’s Guide to Persuading Yourself! by Nick Michelioudakis, and The Hostile Student by Louis I. Butto.
|
SAKARYA UNIVERSITY ORGANIZES ICQH 2013 CONFERENCE
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON QUALITY IN HIGHER EDUCATION
ICQH 2013
Sakarya/ TURKEY
12-14 December 2013
www.icqh.net
Call for papers
International Conference on Quality in Higher Education (ICQH) aims to provide a multinational platform where the latest trends in quality in higher education is presented and discussed in a friendly environment. Prospective presenters are encouraged to submit proposals for papers and posters/demonstrations that offer theoretical contributions of research results. Presentations should be in Turkish or in English and should address both theoretical issues and research findings.
Furthermore if the presenter is unable to attend the oral presentation, the virtual presentation or video presentation options are available. For further information on how to submit video/virtual presentation, please refer to the Paper Submission section on our website. For paper guidelines, please refer to the Paper Guidelines section.
ICQH 2013 conference is supported by Sakarya University and Governers State University and will take place on December 11-13, 2013 at Sakarya University, Sakarya, Turkey. All full paper presentations will be published in an online proceedings book of ICQH 2013.
We would like to invite you to share your experience and your papers with academicians, teachers and professionals.
Conference Language
The official languages of the conference are English and Turkish. Proposals can be sent and be presented in either language. But all submission proccess will be done in English. Please, submit your proposal according to the following presentation category descriptions in paper guidelines.
Deadlines
Abstract Deadline : December 01, 2013
Full Article Deadline : December 30, 2013
Registration Fee Deadline : December 05, 2013
|
Then there are two articles for those of you who teach young learners Designing a Scenario-Based Syllabus for Young Learners by Adam John Simpson, and Task-Based Learning: The Building Blocks for the Young Language Learner by Christina Nicole Giannikas.
This editorial does not mention all the articles in the June issue of HLT so there is much more for you to discover for yourselves.
Hope to see some of you at Pilgrims in Canterbury or in Izmir this summer
|
The MATSDA/University of Liverpool 2013 Conference
Enjoying to Learn: the Best Way to Acquire a Language?
July 13th-14th, 2013 at the University of Liverpool
Plenary Speakers
Dave Allan Mark Almond Annie Hughes Thom Kiddle
Alan Maley Hitomi Masuhara Brian Tomlinson Jane Willis
Venue
The University of Liverpool, Mathematical Sciences Building, Peach St, Liverpool, L69 7ZL
Times
Registration: 09.00 on July 13th and 14th
Conference: 09.30-17.00 on July 13th; 09.30-16.30 on July 14th
Fees (to include lunch and coffee)
Students: £95 (£55 for one day)
MATSDA members: £120 (£70 for one day)
Non-members: £145 (£85 for one day)
MATSDA Membership
Contact Susie Pearson at
Booking, Accommodation Enquiries and Payment
Contact Filomena Saltao ; Tel - (44) 0151 7953129
Offers of Papers
To offer a paper for a forty five minute presentation contact:
Brian Tomlinson
SEE YOU IN LIVERPOOL
|
Enjoy the issue
Hania Kryszewska
HLT editor
hania.kryszewska@pilgrims.co.uk
|
