Information for Participants
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| 44th ASOCOPI Annual Conference "The Symbolic Power of English: Implications for Colombian Educational Settings" October 8 - 11, 2009 Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana - Medellín |
| From October 8th to the 11th, 2009 more than 600 attendees gathered in the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana in the city of Medellín to get information and discuss issues concerning the symbolic power of English as the foreign language that arguably occupies the most eminent place in the school system in Colombia. This main topic was directly addressed through eight plenary sessions and two panel discussions where guest speakers from Colombia and abroad shared their perspectives on the matter. |
Library at the UPB Medellín
| INTERNATIONAL GUEST SPEAKERS |
| Dr. Bonny Norton is Professor and Distinguished University Scholar in the Department of Language and Literacy Education, University of British Columbia, Canada. Her award-winning research addresses identity, language learning, critical literacy, and international development. |
| Dr. Norton's participation was sponsored by the TOEFL Program - ETS |
| Dr. Judy Sharkey is Associate Professor of and Associate Director of Teacher Education at the University of New Hampshire in the USA. Her interests include teacher knowledge and teacher research. She is currently working with Dr. Amparo Clavijo-Olarte of Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas, Bogotá, on the Community-Based Literacies Project. |
| Dr. Sharkey's participation was sponsored by the U.S. Embassy |
| Dr. Linda Waugh is professor in the Departments of French & Italian and English at the University of Arizona, and an affiliate of the Departments of Linguistics, Anthropology, and Language, Reading & Culture. She is currently Chair of the Graduate Interdisciplinary Doctoral Program in Second Language Acquisition and Teaching (SLAT) and Co-Director of the Center for Educational Resources in Culture, Language and Literacy (CERCLL). She is past President of the Semiotic Society of America, and is currently Executive Director of the Roman Jakobson Intellectual Trust. |
| Dr. Waugh's participation wass sponsored by the Universidad Distrital "Francisco José de Caldas" and by the Universidad Nacional de Colombia - Bogotá. |
| Aaron Rogers, who has an MA in Educational Technology and TESOL from the University of Manchester, has worked in the field of ELT here in Colombia for the last twelve years within teacher training programmes as well as being an ESOL examiner. At present he is coordinating the Teacher Development Unit for Pearson Longman Colombia. |
| Professor Rogers' participation was sponsored by Pearson Longman |
| Dr. Scott Stevens is Director of the University of Delaware's English Language Institute and administrator of the University's graduate program in TESL. He has been an EFL teacher trainer for twenty-four years. His areas of research include: oral intelligibility and the use of drama to teach English. |
| Dr. Stevens' participation was sponsored by the University of Delaware. |
| The opening plenary carried out by Professor Carmen Helena Guerrero (Universidad Distrital) who presented an overview of the linguistic context in Colombia as a country that went through a colonial period and the imposition of Spanish but that still retains a wealth of indigenous languages which are in danger of disappearing. According to Professor Guerrero, the policy on English teaching is having a marginalization effect as some privileged groups have easy access to the benefits of learning English as a foreign language while others are left aside. Professor Jaime Usma (Universidad de Antioquia) illustrated the issue by telling the experience from the context of the city of Medellín and the limitations of implementing a National Plan that has not taken into account local school settings. As a result, the plan fails to address the needs of a specific population and thus widens the gap between private and public schools and may potentially transform the teaching of English as one factor of social exclusion. Doctor Bonny Norton (University of British Columbia) drew important aspects from her research experience in America, Asia and Africa to tackle the issue of the individual identity of the foreign language learner who nonetheless belongs to a much wider social community and who, therefore, has to constantly negotiate between inherited and foreign cultural aspects. For Doctor Scott Stevens (University of Delaware) the analysis of two case studies pertaining the way two different countries, South Korea and Morocco, have dealt with nation-wide English language policies, might shed some light on Colombia’s approach to the subject. During the presentation of Doctor Linda Waugh (University of Arizona) the audience could get a sense the positive or negative implications of the symbolic power of English and its effects. Positive effects might include the added cultural value attached to learning a foreign language while negative effects can refer to the hierarchization of language varieties. Precisely, Professor Aaron Rogers (Pearson Longman), through the metaphor of the outer and inner circles of English, discussed how the claims on the ownership of a “correct” variety of English are starting to lose credit. From this view, non-native speakers of English are fully equipped to do the task of teaching this language and even more so when their knowledge of local context is taken into account. Professor Doris Correa (Universidad de Antioquia) reflected upon a case study of a Latino woman doing her Bachelor in Education at a University in the United States. By exploring the difficulties faced by this student in order to achieve a proper academic literacy which helped her finish her undergraduate studies, Professor Correa gave important insights in relation to possible strategies for developing such academic literacy in their students of English. Finally, Doctor Judy Sharkey (University of New Hampshire) focused her talk on “glocal development”, an approach to teacher education that has recently gained strength as an alternative to ease the tensions brought about by the encounter between global and local demands. Doctor Sharkey stressed the need for a pedagogy that goes beyond the basic requirements of a coursework in order to include constant research and enquiry on the current necessities and characteristics of a given community. |
| In addition to the plenary sessions and the panels, there were 58 one-hour workshops that were organized in 4 concurrent sessions of about 15 presentations each. During these sessions the audience could choose among research reports, demonstrations, lectures, workshops and commercial presentations that covered topics that have become relevant to the teaching of English as a foreign language nowadays, such as the use of ICTs, critical literacy, in-service and pre-service training, among many others. What made these presentations so special is that most of them are the product of research conducted directly by the presenters in their classroom contexts, something which allowed the attendants to witness first-hand the work done by their colleagues and inspire them to apply the suggestions received or to begin their own research. As one step towards the revival of the Special Interest Groups, this year’s conference offered a space for those interested in taking part in the construction of these academic communities. Prior to the event, the organizing committee made an invitation among different scholars and had selected those people who demonstrated commitment and experience in the fields covered by the SIGs to serve as coordinators. In the end, four groups held their meetings at the conference: ICTs, Teaching English to Children, Social Political Concerns and Teacher Education. A fifth group, Literacies in ELT, is also working but did not have a meeting since its coordinator is finishing his studies abroad. ASOCOPI hopes that these meetings will be the starting point of a serious job that will bring benefits to all those involved. To complement the program, time for cultural activities was also set aside. This year we had the opportunity to listen to a group of string instruments and a guitar soloist. The book exhibit was also an important part of the conference. Different publishing houses and book distributors displayed their products and services, allowing the teachers to have a direct look at what are the latest publications. Their contributions were also an important aspect that helped with the organization. It is with an air of satisfaction that the 44th ASOCOPI Annual Conference came to an end: the satisfaction of having offered an event of high academic quality, with the participation of national and international professionals whose insights on the field may instill reflection in the ELT academic community in Colombia. The organizing committee expresses its acknowledgments to all those committed people and institutions that spent their time and energy in ensuring the success of the event. |