Why Go to an ELT Conference?

Gwangju News, No. 265, pp. 30-32, March, 2024

Attending a convention with explicit professional development purposes can optimize this experience for EFL teachers. This paper aims to explore the reasons why teachers who participated in this study attended a professional convention in Mexico, what they experienced while attending and what they said they would do with the knowledge acquired during the event when they returned to their personal contexts. The questionnaire answers showed that it is a challenge for the conference organizers to meet the needs of all teachers attending a convention. These teachers might have different needs as they go through different stages in their teaching careers and they might have both individual and institutional expectations. It also offers some ideas for teachers and coordinators to maximize the benefits of attending a convention and to take some actions regarding professional development when participants return to their teaching contexts. Resumen Los maestros de inglés como lengua extranjera pueden optimizar su asistencia a una convención si tienen objetivos explícitos de desarrollo profesional para esta experiencia. Este estudio explora las razones por las que los maestros que participaron en el estudio asistieron a una convención profesional en México, su experiencia durante el evento y lo que dijeron que harían con lo aprendido cuando regresaran a sus contextos personales. Las respuestas a un cuestionario mostraron que satisfacer las necesidades de todos los asistentes a convenciones puede ser un reto para los organizadores de estos eventos, ya que los maestros pueden tener diferentes necesidades de acuerdo a la etapa de su carrera docente en que se encuentren y a tener variadas expectativas individuales o institucionales. El artículo ofrece también algunas ideas para que los maestros y coordinadores obtengan mayores beneficios al asistir a una convención y tomen acciones concretas en cuanto a su desarrollo profesional cuando regresan a sus contextos educativos.

2020

While conferences have always been seen as an indicator of professional activity, very little is known in an ELT context regarding how teachers perceive these experiences as contributing to their sense of professionalism. The purpose of this article is to address this knowledge gap and to examine teachers’ perceptions and experiences of ELT conferences in order to determine the role which conferences play in professionalism. Based on the literature, a practice-based perceptual definition of professionalism is adopted and operationalized in this study as pertaining to the concepts of Continuing Professional Development (CPD), Community and Professional Identity. Seventeen teachers who had attended face-to-face conferences were interviewed and the data analysed through content analysis. The results suggest that conferences have a valuable contribution to make to English teachers’ sense of professionalism because they offer a rich source of CPD, provide a strong sense of community and ...

International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching and Research, 2021

This study was an attempt to evaluate the attitude of Iranian conference participants regarding the effect of ELT conferences on their professional development and teaching practices. To this end, an appropriate questionnaire was administered to 192 conference participants selected through convenience sampling. The collected data was statistically analyzed, and the obtained results revealed that the participants believed that ELT conferences in Iran have positive effects on the participants' professional development and teaching practices in terms of familiarity with the existing trends in the ELT, motivation for conducting further studies and application of conference materials in their teaching. The results also showed that the participants noted a number of drawbacks in such events, including the low quality of papers and presentations, attendance just for the sake of getting a certificate, and theoretical rather than practical orientation, which might be the cause of demotiv...

Journal of education and training studies, 2016

Around the world many professionals attend conferences. The professionals working in the field of English language teaching (ELT) are not exceptions. Along with two major international conferences organized for ELT professionals, TESOL and IATEFL, there are a great number of other conferences organized by affiliated professional associations in many countries around the world. Given the time and money invested in conferences by attendees and organizers, research into this professional endeavor is almost absent in literature in this field. The present study endeavors to discover the conference attendance motives of Turkish ELT professionals, why they attend, what they are engaged in doing during conferences and what they take back home. The data for the study were collected through a questionnaire designed in four parts. A total of 83 Turkish ELT professionals who attended the 16th International INGED Conference participated in the study. The findings of the study revealed that Turkish ELT professionals attend conferences essentially to obtain new information. However, keynote speakers seem to be another major motive behind their final decision to attend a conference. Although the majority of participants stated that they spend most of their time at sessions the number of sessions that they generally attend was found to be only between 4-6. As for post-conference results, the participants were found to feel more confident, more motivated to attend conferences, and were inclined to integrate the information they obtained into their classroom practices. The study also revealed that the participants have budget-related concerns and this constitutes a major challenge with regard to conference attendance.

Universal Journal of Educational Research, 2019

Teacher training and education is a very difficult and demanding process. Training qualified and elite teachers require even greater efforts. Today, training qualified and elite teachers cannot be achieved only by implementing the curricula to the letter. Curricula must be constantly supported with programs such as high level seminars, symposiums, workshops, etc. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of such activities on the professional development of students. As part of a project called 'Community Leaders Are Coming' (CLC) conducted in cooperation between the Dean's Office of the Faculty of Education of Middle East Technical University (METU) and Çankaya Rotary Club, a series of seminars on education, science, arts, painting, music and sports were held in the past six weeks. In the seminars, 14 high level speakers specialised in their respective areas offered a total of 41 hours training that included visits to historical sites, opera and ballet performances, leadership training and practices. 136 students in the faculty of education joined the project, and 60 of them received a certificate after evaluations. Following the seminars, a 5-point Likert type questionnaire with 30 questions was administered to the participants to assess the project. The Cronbach's alpha internal consistency coefficient for the questionnaire was 0.82. To analyse the data, the study used descriptive statistics, the Mann-Whitney U test and Kruskal Wallis test. The study found that the prospective teachers achieved significant professional learning outcomes through such activities and hoped that these programs would continue while they all agreed similar programs should be held also for students in other education faculties.

Springer , 2018

This chapter presents an analysis of the themes English Language Teacher Associations (ELTAs) have used for their annual conferences in the past 5 years (2013–2017) and their alignment with research findings and recommendations in the areas where these themes are focused. For this analysis, two big ELTAs were chosen: TESOL International Association and IATEFL. The chapter is divided into three parts. The first part discusses these themes and the research areas they covered. The second part looks at the research basis for these themes and their relevance to both TAs’ research agendas. It also explores the progress and the development in the selections of themes over the last five years. The last part presents a comparative analysis of the two ELTAs’ conference themes.

The Academic Leadership Journal, 2010

Recent Trends in English Language Teacher Education and English Language Teaching, 2019

Research shows that professional in-service teacher development activities carried out in form of lectures were found to have little effect on teachers’ behavior at work while falling short in catering for their internal and external needs. So far, various new applications have been proposed and put into practice to minimize the negative effects of such shortcomings experienced in traditional professional development activities. Among many, language teacher communities (LTC) have revealed promising results in and for teacher development around the world. Hence, in this chapter, I review research focusing on LTC in the context of English as a second or foreign language teaching. Furthermore, I suggest some tips for establishing, organizing, and working within LTC. In order to do that, I review the relevant literature available and brainstorm some ideas while building onto our knowledge of the practice of establishing and maintaining LTC.

Journal of Teaching English for Specific and Academic Purposes

The study highlights 20-year experience of organizing international student conferences in foreign languages as a framework for holistic development of academic communication skills. Conventional ESP syllabi suggest passive learning strategies, which replicate those of general English courses. Students are offered pedagogic materials which aim at reiterating the knowledge that instructors and textbooks provide. However, there exists a substantial gap between reproducing academic knowledge and becoming an independent actor in the selected field of expertise. In this sense it seems crucial to outline a framework for active independent learning for budding professionals to achieve academic autonomy at a reasonable pace. To reach this objective, we have been organizing international student conference for the LSP students at RUDN university, which is not a standalone event, but a part of ESP curriculum. Conference preparations are designed as multiple interventions aimed at developing l...