Muscat: Titled "Twenty years of Oman ELT Conference: Building upon the Past, Envisioning the Future” Oman 20th International ELT Conference ( October 14-15 ) started its sessions online on Wednesday.
The conference was inaugurated by Dr Badriya al Shihi, the Vice Chairperson of the State Council and the Director of the Center for Preparatory Studies at Sultan Qaboos University. The two-day conference’s opening ceremony began with opening remarks by Dr Anfal al Wahaibi, the Conference Chair, followed by a welcome address by Dr Al Shihi. The plenary speaker of the conference this year is Dr Saleh al Busaidi , the Dean of the College of Education at Sultan Qaboos University.
In her welcome address, Dr Al Shihi said, “The year 2020 has forced educators and students to adapt to exceptional circumstances and experience new educational paradigms. This has been a huge challenge to all of us, but this experience has the potential to be a catalyst for principled, effective and inclusive change in the field of English language teaching. However, as we continue to develop our teaching during these difficult times, we must be mindful of the principles, ideals and achievements of the past.” She also added that “we must ensure that learners with special educational needs are not excluded from our vision of future learning.”
Welcoming the participants, Dr Al Wahaibi said, “Fortunately, the conference this year is intended to approach the changes as well as the challenges we as teachers, administrators, students, and parents faced in a somewhat non-traditional way, beyond the normal emphasis on materials, assessment, and traditional resources. The theme attempts to explore the opportunities that lie outside the classroom”.
In his plenary session, Dr Al Busaidi focused on the issue of humanization of English language teaching through the employment of modern technology. He also discussed the implications of this approach on curriculum developers, teachers and test developers. Other prominent speakers in this year’s conference are Dr. Joy Smiley Zabala, Dr Chris Boyle, Jonathan Hadley and Nathan Waller.
The 106 conference sessions this year cover a wide range of topics related to English language teaching, teaching methodologies, assessment, teacher professional development, inclusive education and others.
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