ALC Newsletter - 02/17/2017 (Plain Text Version)
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THE CENTRAL AMERICAN AND CARIBBEAN BASIN REGIONAL GROUP CONFERENCE 2016
The 13th Central American and Caribbean Basin (CA&CB) TESOL Regional Affiliates Conference took place in Managua, Nicaragua, 7–8 July 2016. Five TESOL affiliates from the region were represented, and three speakers and participants from three other regional nations attended. Approximately 700 English language teachers and students in degree or teacher training programs attended the conference, which took place at the spacious and beautiful installations of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Nicaragua (UNAN), the main Managua campus. The president of Nicaragua TESOL (NicaTESOL and ANPI, Asociación Nicaraguense de Profesores de Inglés), Franklin Tellez, welcomed the attendees and oversaw the organization of the event, which was sponsored by both the UNAN and the American Embassy in Nicaragua. The vice-rector of the UNAN and the U.S. ambassador to Nicaragua presided over the opening ceremony. Approximately 65 speakers gave many workshops and lectures during the 2-day conference on the theme “New Directions in ELT: Create – Collaborate – Engage – Communicate.” There were two main plenary speakers. Mary Scholl (Centro Espìral Mana – SIT, Costa Rica) gave a plenary titled “Connecting and Learning Through Dialogue: Tsunamis, Ripples or Flow?”, and Cyrus Konstantinakos (Boston University, USA) gave a plenary titled “Transmitting Central American Culture to the World.” There was a presentation of the TESOL affiliate representatives during a third plenary panel. The CA&CB TESOL affiliates in attendance were Honduras TESOL, Panama TESOL, Puerto Rico TESOL, Mexico TESOL, and, of course, Nicaragua TESOL. Representatives from Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, and the United States were also in attendance. The Asociación de Maestros de Inglés de Guatemala (AMIG) also participated in the panel and conference. They hope to formally become a TESOL affiliate in time for the Seattle 2017 TESOL convention. There was also a business meeting of the CA&CB affiliates and friends. It was decided to hold the next conference in Tegucigalpa, Honduras in 2018, probably in August. Grazzia Mendoza, the president of HELTA-Honduras TESOL, is already working on preliminary preparations for the event, seeking the collaboration and participation of TESOL International Association, the American Embassy in Honduras, and the British Council. If you live in the region or are planning on visiting in 2018, mark the dates in your calendar and attend and contribute to the growing professional ELT field in the region. About the CA&CB Regional Group The CA&CB group was formed in 1990 and held its first
joint conference in Puerto Rico that year, and then in Mexico in 1992.
In 1994, a formal agreement among the participating countries and TESOL
was signed at the TESOL Baltimore convention. The biannual conference
has been held every 2 years since 1990, and a renewed interest and
impetus for the group took place during the Cancun, Mexico 2010
conference when 10 TESOL affiliate representatives and representatives
from other regional teachers’ associations and countries came together.
The group also schedules a meeting at the annual TESOL International
Association convention. So if you are interested in attending the
meeting in Seattle, please contact me or one of the CA&CB
affiliate representatives. The Facebook page is: CA & CB Regional Group; click on “join”. Ulrich Schrader is the academic consultant for MEXTESOL and the senior advisor to the Central American and Caribbean Basin Regional Group. |
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