The 2023 Global English Education China Assembly will be held at City University of Macau from July 27th to 30th, running from Friday to Sunday. The event will be broadcast online to welcome participants who are unable to attend in person. This year's edition will focus on the theme of "Opening up new prospects in English education cooperation worldwide," and will feature nine keynote speakers who will deliver thought-provoking speeches. Read on to preview the exciting speeches!
Jun Liu
Professor and Rector of City University, and the President of The International Research Foundation for English Language Education (TIRF)
Theme: An Internationalization Agenda and Roles for English in the Future: The Case of Macao
Macao enjoys its strategic geopolitical advantages within “One country, two systems” by positioning itself as a center for international tourism and leisure, a window connecting China and Portuguese-speaking countries, and a platform for multilingualism and multiculturalism to bridge the east and west. Unsurprisingly, English retains significant roles within the language repertoires of Macao, alongside Cantonese, Portuguese, and Mandarin; however, the local roles of English may need further enhancement because Macao has recently been developing a robust internationalization agenda with goals to boost its economy. Based on research regarding “The Future of English” (British Council, 2023), with related studies and his own observation over the last few years working in Macao, Liu will elaborate on how Macao can further its internationalization agenda by utilizing English as a lingua franca.
The increasing importance of English is reliably predicted to be stable or increased world-wide for education, employment, technology, and global mobility. Increasingly, these are intertwined with other contexts beyond ‘pure’ language skills for ‘applied’ knowledge and communication, with technical skills and practical professional expertise. English as a lingua franca is thus seen as dynamic, flexible and contextualized within multilingual and professional practices. For Macao, and perhaps elsewhere in China, it seems essential to mobilize a multilingual workforce that is proficient in English, developed flexibly with linguistic and cultural sensitivity, alongside international knowledge, to boost competitiveness with confidence and harness the opportunities provided by globalization.
David Block
ICREA Research Professor at Pompeu Fabra University, Member of the Academy of Social Sciences (UK)
Theme: Emergent STEM lecturer identities: The shaping effects of EMI in action
The internationalization of higher education (HE), which began in earnest about three decades ago, and the global spread of English, which began earlier, together have motivated an exponential increase in the number of universities worldwide exhibiting their international policies while offering English-medium instruction (EMI). In this plenary, Block examines the emergent identities of three EMI lecturers working in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) disciplines in, focusing especially on how they construct themselves with regard to their disciplines and how researchers construct them based on observations of their teaching. In the first part of the plenary, Block discusses essential background information, before moving to consider identity as a key construct. Block also presents a version of positioning theory based in part on Foucault’s notion of gaze. In the second part of the plenary, he draws on the background discussed in the first part on the way to an understanding of how EMI in STEM lecturer identities. Block discusses three case-studies which show how lecturers orientate to their subject discipline, and the prospect of acting, on occasion, as English language teachers. Specifically, there is a detailed consideration of how EMI in STEM lecturers position themselves in their contacts with researchers and in their teaching; how their self-positionings are consistent or not with how researchers position them; and how self-positionings are similar or different across individual lecturers. He ends the plenary with a discussion of what conclusions can be drawn from the research findings, including what they have to say with regard to EMI in middle and secondary school education.
Icy Lee
Professor at the National Institute of Education in Nanyang Technological University and Former President of the Hong Kong Association for Applied Linguistics
Theme: Teacher Feedback Competencies in L2 Writing
Despite a plethora of research on feedback in L2 writing that generates no shortage of feedback advice in the literature, many teachers still find responding to writing a grueling and frustrating task. This could be due to practical constraints like large class sizes and heavy workload, but it is also possible that teachers lack relevant competencies to implement feedback effectively. Drawing on Richards’ (2010) language teacher competence framework, Lee examines the competencies that L2 writing teachers need for effective feedback practices. She also illustrates how these teacher feedback competencies can be used at different stages of the feedback process to benefit assessment and feedback, as well as teaching and learning. Lee concludes the presentation with implications for practice and research.
Wang Qiang
Professor at Beijing Normal University, and Director of the Steering Committee for Foreign Languages Education under the Ministry of Education
Theme: From Language Teaching to Language Education: Building a new English Curricular System for schools with Chinese characteristics —— Focusing on the new breakthroughs in the two recently revised English curricula in basic education in China
The official promulgation of the English Curriculum Standards for Compulsory Education (2022 Edition) (The Ministry of Education, China, 2022) coupled with the English Curriculum Standards for Senior High Schools (The Ministry of Education, China, 2017) have signified the beginning of a new stage of China’s English curriculum reform. The reform initiated a shift from the previous goals of developing students’ overall language ability to cultivating students’ core competencies through the English subject. The core competencies in the two curricula are composed of language ability, cultural awareness, thinking capacity and learning ability, resulting in systemic changes in curriculum goals along with the re-organization of curriculum content, selection of teaching approaches and assessment methods. The new curricula have provided a panoramic blueprint for educating future generations for the new era. This presentation, by providing an overview of the country’s continuous efforts to innovate the English curricula over the past 30 years, explores the major issues that are facing English language teachers and problems to be further tackled in order to successfully cultivate innovative talents with ideals, capabilities and responsibilities for the country’s future. The talk will elaborate, in particular, on a few key breakthroughs in the newly revised curricula and summarize the characteristics of China’s English curriculum system for primary and secondary schools along with some initial innovative practices from front-line teachers. It is hoped that the talk will help enrich our understanding of the nature of language education in schools and shed some lights to language teachers and teacher educators worldwide.
Yang Yanning
Professor and Dean of the School of Foreign Languages at East China Normal University
Theme: From learning English to learning through English: The construction of educational knowledge in China English textbooks
L1 English learners have experienced a two-level process from the common-sense knowledge of daily life to the educational knowledge in school. L2 English learners in China are not engaged in this process because their upper-level knowledge is already acquired in Chinese. Thus, the authors of English textbooks in China have to consider how to construe the learners’ educational knowledge in English. This study investigates the construction of educational knowledge in China English textbooks on the basis of a corpus of textbook materials. The corpus consists of all the discourses included in three full series of primary school English textbooks which have been annotated to enable analysis of critical elements of educational knowledge. The analysis framework used for this research is developed within the theories of Systemic Functional Linguistics. This study indicates that there are a number of deficiencies in these textbooks even if the authors have accumulated a set of approaches and techniques to transfer educational knowledge. The deficiencies are largely engendered by the lack of linguistic strategies and the superficial comprehension of discourse in textbooks.
David Nunan
Professor Emeritus of Applied Linguistics at the University of Hong Kong, Distinguished Research Professor at Anaheim University, and Former President of TESOL (1999-2000)
Theme: Paradigm shifts in language education
We live in a fast changing, unpredictable world. The unpredictability over the last decade or two has been unprecedented. We needn’t even go back that far. Just think back to 2019. Who could have predicted Covid and the impact it would have on every person on the planet? How about the destabilizing effect of resurgent inflation on economies around the world? Computer software (e.g. chatGPT) that can write essays an anything, convince you that you are conversing with a real human being, and much else. The global shift of millions of people as a result of famine and civil wars. How do these factors impact our work as language educators? Nunan will come back to this question at the end of my talk. In the talk, he wants to look at imperative for change; at those that facilitate change, and what stands in its way. He will argue that education in general, and language education in particular, are curiously resistant to change. He will frame the talk in terms of paradigms and paradigm shifts. He will look at paradigm shifts in relation to: the purpose of education; the nature of language; the role of the teacher and the nature of teaching; the role of the learner and the nature of learning; the organizing principle for syllabus design and methodology; contexts for learning; and the impact of technology. In concluding the presentation, he will make some general statements about why it takes so long for paradigms to shift in education, about an expanded role for language teachers in an unpredictable global world, and the potential of technology to be a force for positive change.
Lawrence Jun Zhang
Professor and Associate Dean of the Faculty of Education and Social Work at the University of Auckland
Theme: Understanding the importance of collective contributions of self-Efficacy, grit, enjoyment, and work engagement to teacher well-being
Foreign language (FL) teachers often face high levels of emotional exhaustion and job demands, leading to burnout and attrition, which can hinder FL learning process. In the existing literature, work engagement is usually viewed as a potential way for teachers to reduce negative emotions and experiences to become less vulnerable to stress, burnout, and attrition Engaged teachers are understood to be less likely to leave the profession and are more likely to perform well. Work engagement is particularly important in English as a foreign language (EFL) contexts in the Covid-endemic world because EFL teachers often face unique challenges, such as teaching learners with diverse language backgrounds and limited exposure to the target language outside the classroom. Additionally, since there is a high demand for English worldwide, identifying factors that contribute to FL teacher work engagement is crucial for improving the quality of language instruction, promoting positive student outcomes, and, equally significantly, to teacher well-being. In this plenary presentation, the speaker addresses these important affective variables and their potential role in enhancing teacher well-being. Zhang will conclude by reporting a study on the reciprocal associations between teachers’ grit, foreign language teaching enjoyment and work engagement, together with the role of teacher self-efficacy in foreign language teaching.
Mao Sihui
Professor and Dean of the College of Liberal Arts at Shantou University and Vice President of the Sino-American Comparative Culture Association of China
Theme: Cultivating active global citizenship for China’s TESOL: Challenges and strategies
With an increasingly popular adoption and acceptance of AI and new media technologies across the globe, the ever more rapid flows of information, ideas, images and people together with the worsening of geopolitical conflicts and ecological crises present unprecedented challenges and assaults on the national and psychological boundaries, socio-political beliefs, cultural values and systems. Undoubtedly this has tremendous implications for today’s education in China, especially the cultivation of “Active Global Citizenship” (AGC) in the world of TESOL. By making use of both theoretical and popular texts, this presentation first looks at different levels of cross-cultural communication and then (re)defines what “AGC” really means and its importance in TESOL. Holding the view that the English Language is not just a lingua franca or medium for global communication but also a repository of culture, identity, values, politics and dominance, the presenter focuses on various specific challenges facing both TESOL professionals and students before proposing some strategies for the cultivation of AGC. It concludes that the enhancement of AGC presents itself as one of the most essential tasks for TESOL not only for China but may also have referential value for TESOL practitioners in the rest of the world.
Stephen Krashen
Emeritus Professor of Education at the University of Southern California
Theme: “Study” versus pleasure reading: Is language teaching “applied linguistics”?
Until recently it was assumed that direct teaching was the only way to teach and acquire language, strengthened by amazing work in grammatical theory. But the research shows that acquisition via comprehensible input, especially pleasure reading, is a consistent winner when compared to the study of grammar. This is a relief to most language students, but a disappointment to grammar-lovers as the speaker.
We invite you to join the 2023 Global English Education China Assembly, a “must-attend” event for English educators and professionals. There are limited quotas available for attendees, so interested individuals are encouraged to scan the QR code to register. For inquiries about registration, please contact the organizing committee at (853) 8590 2786 or email tesol@cityu.mo.
Source: Official website of the 2023 Global English Education China Assembly at https://tesol.i21st.cn/2023/.
