KSAALT TESOL Annual Conference Call for Abstracts

Dear Colleagues

KSAALT TESOL Annual Conference Call for Abstracts

Good afternoon. We hope you are all well and you are all looking forward to a relaxing mid year holiday.

Kindly find attached our call for abstracts flyer for our biggest event of the year, KSAALT TESOL Annual Conference which will be at the Hilton Hotel – Jeddah on the Friday, the 27th and Saturday, the 28th of April, 2018.

Kindly pay attention for the guidelines of submission and if you require any further details, please contact our Abstracts’ Committee Team on: ksaalttesolabs18@gmail.com

Looking forward to receiving your abstracts very soon.

Thanks

Regards

KSAALT TESOL Annual Conference Abstracts’ Committee Team

Q:Skills flashcards now available

Q:Skills vocabulary flashcards are now available.

Nabeel Muhammed Hashim, an ELC colleague and dedicated language instructor, created these vocabulary flashcards for use with the Q:Skills series of books during the academic year 2016-2017. These were well received both by teachers and students. The flashcards which are in English and Arabic, are a creative way of helping students to learn the key vocabulary needed for success in the Q:Skills series. Nabeel has been kind enough to allow us to share his excellent work, so that everyone can keep benefiting from his work. Thank you Nabeel!

These will now be available directly from the CPD Unit.

Teaching mixed-ability classes (powerpoint)

Contributed by Mr. Gamal Rabeea
BA English Language
ESL EFL Instructor – Prep Year
Taibah University, Yanbu Male Campus

Teaching mixed-ability classes is not only a norm, but a daily challenge for language instructors. Gamal Rabeea conducted a workshop on dealing with this challenge.

To benefit everyone, the powerpoint presentation is attached here.

teaching-a-mixed-ability-class

Doctoral dissertation grants – TIRF

Doctoral Dissertation Grants

Background of Doctoral Dissertation Grants

Since 2002, TIRF has supported students completing their doctoral research on topics related to the foundation’s priorities. Each year, applicants who have been advanced to candidacy in legitimate PhD or EdD programs are invited to submit proposals for Doctoral Dissertation Grants (DDGs). (By “advanced to candidacy” we mean [a] having completed all required course work, if any, and [b] having had a research plan approved by the candidate’s university committee.) Proposals are reviewed by a TIRF committee of established international researchers. DDGs are provided in the amount of up to US $5,000 per awardee.

To learn more about the findings of previously funded studies, please click here.

2017 DDG Competition Now Open

The 2017 Doctoral Dissertation Grants competition is now open. The application deadline is Wednesday, April 26, 2017 at 11:59pm Pacific Time (United States & Canada). Award decisions will be made in late August 2017 and announced on our website and via our newsletter.

• Download the 2017 DDG call for proposals
• Download the 2017 DDG application form (best viewed via Firefox)
• View the resource videos to help complete the application form
• Visit our DDG frequently-asked-questions page
• Submit your proposal/letter of support via our Application Submission Area

We would like to recognize the wonderful support of Cambridge English Language Assessment and the British Council. The efforts of these two organizations help to make possible this year’s DDG competition.

Russell N. Campbell Award

Each year the highest rated Doctoral Dissertation Grant proposal is awarded in the name of the late Russell N. Campbell. Dr. Campbell, a Past President of TESOL, was one of the founding fathers of the Foundation.

Overview of Eligibility

The following points are only an overview of eligibility to apply for a DDG. Successful applicants will read the call for proposals and carefully follow the instructions.

Applicants must

• be enrolled in a legitimate doctoral program;
• be advanced to candidacy and have had a research plan approved by a faculty committee at their university;
• write a proposal which is clearly related to TIRF’s research priorities;
• follow specific instructions located in the call for proposals; and
• have their research supervisor submit an official letter of support attesting to the applicant’s readiness to complete the doctoral dissertation.

Please note that DDG applicants do not need to be US citizens.

Research Priorities

TIRF’s current research priorities are listed below. Please click on a topic to read more about it. TIRF reserves the right to change its priority topics at any time.

Digital Technology in Language Education

English as a Medium of Instruction

Language Assessment

Language Planning and Policy

Language Teacher Education

Plurilingualism in Business, Industry, the Professions, and Educational Contexts

Students’ Age and Effective English Language Education in Schools

GlobalELT 2017 Conference

http://www.globeltconference.com/

 

Dear Colleague, We are proud to be organizing The GlobELT 2017: The Third International Conference on Teaching and Learning English as an Additional Language in Ephesus, Selcuk, Turkey on 18-21 May 2017. The conference is organised under the supervision of scholars from Hacettepe University, ELT Department in collaboration with INTESOL Turkey and Informascope. The GlobELT conference aims to provide a large number of scholars and presenters with a friendly stimulating atmosphere where they can exchange ideas and get constructive feedback on their work. The conference will be convened at the beautiful Palm Wings Ephesus Hotel, Ephesus – Turkey. We believe the venue and timing of the event is as charming as the idea of sharing and disseminating our work. The conference hotel is a gorgeous five star luxurious resort, operating on an all-inclusive basis for our presenters’ joy and comfort. Ephesus and the region should also be extremely pleasant and fragrant in this merry month of May. We believe our participants will be able to find plenty to do in their free times. We have so far been fortunate to secure four important keynote speakers: Brian North, Hacer Hande Uysal, Alistair Henry and Steve Mann, who are all prominent scholars in our field. Invited speakers, we believe, will turn the whole event into an inspiring and memorable experience. As well as our international keynote speakers, we also hope to host many local and international ELT researchers at our annual event. Proposals for presentations are invited on the following (but not limited to) themes: Applied Linguistics and Language Education Approaches and Methods in English Education Bilingual English Education Culture and Literature in English Education Early English Education English as an International Language English for Academic Purposes English for Specific Purposes English Language Curriculum and Teaching Materials Intercultural Communication Language and Peace Education Language Learning and Acquisition Language Policy Language Testing and Evaluation Life-long Language Learning Distance Language Education Multimedia and ICT in English Education Teacher Training and Education Translation Studies & Language Teaching Types of Presentations Participants are invited to submit abstracts of papers, workshops or posters to the conference program committee. All types of presentations will be in English. Speakers can choose to do an oral presentation, a poster presentation, or an online presentation. For all types of proposals, speakers are expected to submit a structured abstract through our proposal submission system until February 13, 2017. All proposals will be blind-reviewed by at least two members of the editorial and advisory board for scope and quality. Oral Presentations & Online (Virtual) Presentations Participants are kindly invited to give presentations on any of the themes listed above. The paper presenters are required to restrict their presentations to 15 minutes followed by 5 minutes for discussion and/or Q&A. Each session will last for a total of 20 minutes. Workshops Workshop sessions include active audience participation through experiencing and discussing tasks provided by the workshop facilitator. Workshop sessions will generally last for 45 minutes. Posters Posters are invited on any of the themes listed above. Posters may be any size up to a maximum of A1 (594mm x 840mm) or equivalent made up of separate sheets. Free attendance and accommodation at our joint conference “The International Conference on Teaching Languages to Young Learners” We are pleased to announce that the first 100 registered international participants of the GlobELT 2017 Conference will be granted free attendance and accommodation at The International Conference on Teaching Languages to Young Learners on 16-18 May, 2017, Palm Wings Hotel, Ephesus, Turkey. All-inclusive accommodation and registration fees will be fully covered by EU Funds, thus making attending GlobELT and The International Conference on Teaching Languages to Young Learners an enticing 2-in-1 academic feast. Further information on our joint conference can be found at http://www.sbateyl.org/ I hope you will not miss on this golden opportunity in a unique venue. Publication of Papers We truly hope to provide a far-reaching outlet for our participants’ work. We are pleased to announce that we have already published past GlobELT conference proceedings in Elsevier’s Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences – SBSPRO (ISSN: 1877-0428). The content of the GlobELT 2015 conference is available at  http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/18770428/199 and while the GlobELT 2016 is accessible at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/18770428/232. For the GlobELT 2017, however, we have decided to take a different route for the publication of GlobELT papers as Elsevier HAS CEASED accepting new proposals for Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences – SBSPRO.  This year, alternatively, we have contracted with two journals that are prepared to publish manuscripts emerging from the conference after a review process. International Online Journal of Education and Teaching-IOJET(http://iojet.org) and Eurasian Journal of Applied Linguistics-EJAL (http://ejal.eu) will give priority to the review of papers from the GlobELT 2017 and publish a special GlobELT issue in their Autumn issues in 2017.  Both journals are indexed in international indices. We sincerely hope that this conference will create a friendly occasion for all of us to share perspectives and research findings from a wide variety of educational contexts. We also dearly value possible friendships and partnerships made and insights gained at the conference and hope they will go beyond your participation in the conference, leading to better understanding and appreciation of our profession from an international stance. We, therefore, are looking forward to welcoming and hosting you at Palm Wings Ephesus Hotel, Selçuk, İzmir-Turkey on May 18-21, 2017. Organizing Committee

Call for Papers KSAALT Tesol 2017

KSAALT TESOL is accepting abstracts for the Tenth Annual Conference to be held at

Prince Mohammad Bin Fahd University, Al Khobar, on Saturday May 6, 2017.

The deadline for submission is: March 5, 2017

 

The conference theme is:

KSAALT TESOL@10: A Decade of Excellence and Innovation

The sub-themes are:

Ø  Innovative Use of Technology

Ø  Excellence in Teaching: Concepts and Methods

Ø  Faculty Education and Professional Development

Ø  Language Acquisition and Bilingual Innovations

Ø  World Englishes and Implications

Ø  Applying Theory to Practice in Language Education

Ø  Language and Identity

Ø  Content and Language:  Integrated Learning

 

To submit your proposal, please send the files as email attachments to the following email address: abelvadi@uod.edu.sa

All other inquires related to the conference, please contact Malikah Sisay at msisay@pmu.edu.sa

Please see the attached file for further infomation:

call-for-papers-ksaalt-tesol-2017

 

 

 

ELC Digest

Sohaib Sandhu (Editor)

The ‘ELC Digest‘ was a magazine produced by the ELC under the guidance of Dr. Waleed Al-Amri, and managed and edited by Dr. Fauzia Shamim from 2011 onwards for approximately 2 years. It contained selected ELT information (articles, websites etc.) as well as news about conferences, new books/articles etc.

There were numerous topics that were no doubt of interest and beneficial, many of which related to the Middle Eastern context.

Rather than let this valuable resource ‘gather dust’ and disappear in the ‘vast canyon of lost knowledge’, we have decided to share the magazines with our colleagues.

We have for this week uploaded two of the first editions which cover topics such as:

• To use or not to use L1 in the classroom
• An Action Research Toolkit
• An article on how to improve teaching through action research
• Book Reviews
• Ten tips for classroom management, and much more.

It’s possible that some of the links do not work as they are old. We will try to rectify this problem. In the meantime, enjoy the read.

We have dedicated a separate page for the ELC Digest so you can refer to this any time you like.

Here’s the link:

https://elcpd.wordpress.com/elcdigest/

 

The use of the mother tongue in Saudi EFL classrooms

Contributed by Ms. Hanan Abu Zaid
BA English Language and ESP Diploma
ESL EFL Instructor – Prep Year
Taibah University, Yanbu Female Campus

Numerous studies have been conducted to investigate the topic of using L1 (mother tongue) in the EFL/ESL classes. Actually there are opposing views on using it. We find  many teachers and experts advocate using it. They believe it helps low level students to acquire and learn English in an easy way. They think that it is the most popular English language teaching method. It helps motivate students  and reduce their anxiety, too.

In contrast to this argument, other experts have opposing opinions. They say that  using the mother tongue will harm the progress of the L2 learner.  These experts assert that using L1 is a great obstacle on the students’ way to acquire the language correctly.  They indicate that teaching English should be monolingual and through native teachers.

In this article (see link below), the researcher conducted his study on Saudi students. He investigated the opposing attitudes depending on some teachers and students’ views.  By reading this study, I hope you can determine which trend you can follow to improve your students’ levels in learning English as a foreign language.

The Use Of The Mother Tongue In Saudi EFL Classrooms | Alshammari | Journal of International Education Research (JIER)

 

Free resource of references and bibliographies – fast forward your research career!

Sohaib Sandhu (Editor)

 

If you are thinking about doing some research or are looking for a topic for your MA or potential PhD it’s essential that you start reading. However, quite often, we may not know where to begin.

The International Research Foundation for English Language Education (TIRF) has an excellent resource of references categorised by topic. To take a look at it, go to:

http://www.tirfonline.org/resources/references/

You will literally find lists of research articles categorised by a vast array of topics. Reading these will quickly bring you up to standard on a particular area. This is a treasure trove. Don’t miss this great opportunity to springboard your research career.

The TIRF also provides research funding and is particularly interested in researchers from the Middle East. If you are interested in finding out more, go to:

http://www.tirfonline.org/grants-prizes/

To subscribe to their monthly newsletter, go to:

http://tirfonline.us13.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=cf79d0e7850633394ec4b1855&id=767dc83b92

Happy researching!!

 

Students and Stress at Exam Time

Contributed by Mr. Ahmed S. Jawarneh
MA Applied Linguistics
ESL Instructor – Prep Year
Taibah University, Al-Ula Male Campus

A very interesting presentation was led by Ahmed Jawarneh on the issue of student stress relating to exams.

The presentation discussed the stress students suffer from, before and during exams times. The presentation brought to light the problems students encounter, often not recognised by teachers.

A variety of reasons were presented that cause student exam stress, including issues such as the desire of low level learners to just to gain a pass, in contrast to high achievers who set themselves extremely high goals, as well as the impact of irrational fears, the lack of control over the exam system and parental expectations.

The attached power point is worth looking at to glean more information about this rarely discussed topic.

stress-free-exams