Anastasiia Kryzhanivska, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio, USA

The English Language Teaching Unit (ELTU) Conference was held at The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 27–28 May 2019. The conference attracted approximately 130 professionals in the language teaching field from more than 16 countries. The conference theme, “Alternative Approaches to English Language Learning and Teaching (ELLT),” included the following subthemes:

• English across the curriculum, writing across the curriculum, content and language integrated learning;
• eLearning, blended learning, mobile learning;
• peer tutoring, experiential learning, service learning; and
• learner autonomy, independent learning, community of learners, and other alternative approaches to ELLT.

Although it was only a 2-day conference, it offered participants rich content within regular sessions, poster presentations, conference workshops, keynote plenaries, and postconference workshops.

During the first keynote session, Professor Richard Andrews (University of East Anglia, United Kingdom), provided a review of e-learning and social media approaches to ELLT and shared his predictions on the future of the field. After analyzing the different phrases of e-learning development in 1990s–2019, he noted the possible decline of the English language by 2025, meaning that there will be more digital resources available in other world languages, such as Chinese and Arabic. The speaker also highlighted the changing nature of the definition of literacy and suggested that the creation of digital pages and resources by English language learners (ELLs) is included in the modern definition of literacy in its highest level. In contrast, the current understanding of the term is limited to being able to read and understand resources, with digital resources being among them. His book Multimodality, Poetry and Poetics (2018) provides more details on multimodality of literacy and composition and the ways it has been changing. This keynote speech would be especially relevant to those who consider or already use e-learning (or some of its elements) in their teaching.

The second keynote speaker, Professor Pamela Flash (University of Minnesota, United States), discussed writing-enriched curricula—a model that uses faculty perceptions on writing to promote pedagogic changes across curriculum. Specifically, Flash explained how successful writing projects differ across academic disciplines and how what is considered “good” writing in the field of geography might contrast with effective writing pieces in literature. As an example, she demonstrated how faculty from different departments defined “the ability to analyze” in different fields as one of the key outcomes of a writing project. In physics, “to analyze” means “to report unanticipated or contradictory findings,” whereas in philosophy it shows how students “explicate the logic.” The speaker also outlined how undergraduate writing plans are shaped by content faculty at the University of Minnesota and other universities across Europe and the United States and how writing can be weaved throughout every undergraduate degree. This kind of long-term initiative enables faculty to interrogate, implement, and assess field-specific writing practices, values, and expectations and, most important, puts change in the hands of unit faculty. Writing-enriched curricula can be applicable to any institution and department that is striving to ensure an intentional integration of relevant writing instruction into diverse educational programs.

The final keynote speaker, Professor David Little (Trinity College Dublin, Ireland), discussed language learner autonomy. He defined plurilingualism as “the ability of individuals to communicate in two or more languages,” and contrasted it with multilingualism, which is used to denote “the presence of two or more linguistic varieties in a society.” As a chair of the National European Language Portfolio Committee and a consultant and contributor to various aspects of the Council of Europe’s Modern Languages Projects, Little explained the centrality of plurilingualism to the Council of Europe’s work and argued that it is likely to develop if ELLs are taught with dialogic target language use, learner involvement, and learner reflection. Theoretical framework, principles, and examples used in the presentation are described in more detail in the book Language Learner Autonomy: Theory, Practice, and Research (Little, Dam, & Legenhausen, 2017). The keynote session and the book itself would be relevant to all educators who aim to develop students’ plurilingual repertoire so that their oral and written proficiency in English grows together with their home language(s) and all languages in the individual student’s repertoire are immediately available for use in speech and in writing.

Other conference sessions offered theoretical frameworks with practical suggestions for ELLT, intercultural communication with multilingual and international students, examples of writing and speaking prompts, and ways to promote writing and revision in class. Some sessions also introduced digital ELT resources, such as the Ask Me Why: Grammar Tutor website and the Language Learning With Netflix tool, among others, and discussed their pros and cons. Sessions about alternative approaches to ELT covered teaching English with manga (Japanese comic books and graphic novels) and comics, multimodal projects, and self-assessment assignments. Overall, ELTU 2019 allowed participants to meet not only successful TESOL professionals, but also ELT practitioners who work at the crossroads of different disciplines, curricula, and methods. Participation in ELTU would benefit anyone who works with multilingual and international students in the United States as well as English language learners of all levels around the world.

At the conference, I attended presentations from colleagues from other countries, as well as got inspiration for my own classroom planning and future research projects conducted at the intersection of different disciplines. The conference theme as well as subthemes were closely related to my current position at Bowling Green State University as an English Department assistant teaching professor and ESOL specialist at the Learning Commons writing center, and the ELTU Conference was of great help to me as I am balancing different projects, roles, and teaching methods linked to writing across the curriculum, a sequence of ESOL writing classes for graduate and undergraduate students, and interaction with multilingual and international students. At the ELTU Conference, I mostly attended writing-related sessions to help me prepare for my new classes. I also got an insight into cultural and educational background of Chinese and Japanese students, including their writing conventions and how they are different from those of English speakers. These sessions as well as the fact that the conference was held in Hong Kong, where working and personal relationships have conventions different from those in the United States, would be useful to anyone interested in developing expertise in the field of intercultural communication.

References

Andrews, R. (2018). Multimodality, poetry and poetics. New York, NY: Routledge.

Little, D., Dam, L., & Legenhausen, L. (2017). Language learner autonomy: Theory, practice and research. Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters.