MUSCAT: The fourth English Language Teaching (ELT) symposium on ‘Current and future trends in ELT’ addressed the challenges and changes that have impacted the institutional teaching landscape in recent times.
The symposium was hosted by the English Language Centre (ELC) at the University of Technology and Applied Sciences (UTAS), Salalah via Zoom platform.
Muna bint Salim Kashoob, chair of the symposium’s organising committee gave a brief introduction of the event and the committee’s commitment in providing continuous support and professional development opportunities for the ELC staff, including interactions with other academics across Oman.
The Head of ELC at UTAS-Salalah welcomed the symposium attendees. In his opening remarks, Saeed bin Salim al Mashiki urged the participants to keep abreast of the current and future trends in ELT while addressing the challenges and repercussions brought by the pandemic. He also thanked the Vice Chancellor of UTAS for honouring the event, and the symposium partners, namely, the National Geographic Learning, Galfar Gases and Labelle for extending their support.
Gracing as the patron of the symposium, Dr Al Rubaie spelled out the university’s responsiveness, resilience and compliance to ensure that the core work of teaching and learning at UTAS remains undiminished. The V-C expressed his appreciation to the management and the staff of UTAS-Salalah for their continuous efforts in aiding the University to achieve greater heights of success.
The first keynote speaker, Dr Ali al Balushi, dwelt upon ‘Empowering language teachers as reflective and transformative intellectuals: Teachers creating their own theory of practice’. He is the current Director of the Centre for Community Service and Continuing Education at Sultan Qaboos University.
His research areas include English language teacher professional development, language teacher education, task-based language teaching, computer-mediated communication and reflective practice.
Dr Peter Watkins from the University of Portsmouth, UK, was the second keynote speaker on the topic ‘Five ways to improve the teaching of reading’. His main interests relate to teacher education and ELT material writing. Among his renowned publications are ‘Teaching and developing reading skills (Cambridge University Press, 2017); Extensive reading in ELT: Why and How?’ & ‘Extensive reading for primary in ELT (both Cambridge University Press, 2018). He also published ‘Learning to teach English (Delta Publishing, second edition 2014, first edition 2005)’.
The third keynote speaker, Alex Warren from the National Geographic Learning, talked on ‘Visible thinking routines in the English language classroom’. He is s a DELTA trained teacher trainer with over 15 years of experience of working in ELT as a teacher, academic director and teacher trainer. A firm believer in a communicative approach to language learning and student-centred learning, he enjoys working with innovative, thought-provoking materials and presenting on a wide range of ELT-related topics, all while being driven by his passion for developing teachers on a global scale and helping them to reach their true potential.
“Engaging students through shared classroom decision-making – How can it be done?’ was the last keynote topic presented by Dr Andrew Littlejohn, an Associate Professor of Language Education and Deputy Dean (Research) at the Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah Institute of Education, University of Brunei, Darussalam. His framework for the analysis of language teaching materials is widely used in classroom and materials research. He has spoken at numerous international conferences as an invited plenary speaker.
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