Programme
27 October
27 October
28 October
28 October
29 October
29 October
All times quoted below for the sessions are UK time (GMT)
Tuesday 27 October
UK time (GMT)
45 mins
08.00
Motivation is an area of concern in many classrooms around the world. Teachers are always seeking ways to foster motivated, driven, and willing learners, specifically in the Academic English teaching context. In this talk, the importance of motivation and its powerful impact on the learning process will be explored. Instead of going away with a bag of tricks and activities, we examine the overarching principles behind it.
The session will uncover the strong links between appropriate content choice, strong communal ties and motivation. A variety of practical scenarios will be presented to help participants translate and apply these links to their own contexts.
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Live from the UAE
Nurturing motivated learners through suited content and strong communities • Nahla Al Malki
45 mins
12.00
The transition from writing general English to writing in an academic environment is not an easy task, either for learners or for tutors. In many cases, it feels as if 'The Essay' is the only format to teach in an academic environment; however, research shows that learners benefit greatly from learning to write shorter responses, consisting of between 70-120 words, in a concise and organised manner, as Short Answer Responses make up the majority of written production that is expected in the Target Language Domain. (i.e. students’ respective degree programmes).
This talk will discuss the rhetorical patterns to be taught for effective writing in a tertiary environment, as well as ways of going about assessing this type of production.
More information
Live from Turkey
Academic writing: the value of short answer responses
Zeynep Ürkün
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27–29 October 2020
Wednesday 28 October
Thursday 29 October
45 mins
16.00
In the leadership literature, ambidextrous refers to leaders who can implement disruptive innovations in their companies while, at the same time, supporting the current core business. In this talk, Isabela will borrow this idea of ambidexterity to discuss how we can balance assessment innovations in the EAP writing classroom with more traditional assessment practices. Isabela will start by briefly examining historical and contextual reasons for the mainstream mental models regarding assessment in many places around the world, including Brazil. She will then present new trends in assessment and demonstrate how they can be slowly incorporated into the second language writing classroom, without disregarding the need to prepare students for standardised writing exams.
More information
Live from Brazil
An ambidextrous model of assessment in the second language writing classroom • Isabela Villas Boas
45 mins
16.00
It’s easy to see why short argumentative essays are the mainstay of so many academic writing courses. Essay topics can be chosen to appeal to students from a variety of backgrounds, and to encourage spirited, non-exclusionary classroom discussion.
The essays themselves don’t take too long to write or to read, so peer and/or tutor feedback can be supplied quickly. Their content allows for the display of general academic language, believed useful in most disciplinary contexts. The problem is that this scenario is very different from the one played out beyond the academic writing class. The social purposes of the EAP classroom only partially transfer to the disciplines, where personal opinion counts for nothing without scholarly evidence, where argumentative writing does not fit a simple template, and where many writing tasks are not centred around argument at all.
While acknowledging that there are many constraints on EAP practice, this talk suggests various ways we might be able to bridge the gap between academic writing inside and outside the EAP classroom, looking towards the university genres we are preparing students to produce.
More information
Live from the UK
Classroom genres and university genres: getting the
balance right • Hilary Nesi
45 mins
12.00
Join our live panel of Academic English experts on Wednesday 28 October at 12pm (UK time) and ask them anything you want to know. Discuss aspects of teaching, common student challenges, methodology or just sit back and listen to the thoughts and ideas of fellow professionals.
More information
Ask Me Anything
Panel of Academic English Experts
45 mins
08.00
In the spring term of 2020, as classrooms made way for breakout rooms and desktops replaced desks, Peter introduced collaborative reflective practice as a key component of his EAP course. This was inspired by a collaborative autoethnographic study he carried out with a colleague during emergency remote teaching and incorporated principles of cooperative development, inquiry dialogue, and critical partnerships.
In these unprecedented and uncertain times, it has arguably never been more important for everyone - teachers and students alike - to engage in conscious reflection, helping them come to deeper and more critical understandings of their actions, their experiences, their beliefs, their context and their role within it. In this presentation, Peter will outline how he introduced his students to the principles and benefits of collaborative reflective practice, and explain the self-directed tasks that made reflection an integral part of his course.
Teachers attending this talk will go away with a better sense of the benefits of having reflective students, and a greater understanding of how they can incorporate collaborative reflective practice into their own courses.
More information
Live from Japan
Helping EAP students develop as collaborative reflective practitioners • Peter Brereton
45 mins
03.00
Since the 1990s, Extensive Reading (ER), an approach to English language teaching that asks learners to read large amounts of material that are at their proficiency level, has rapidly spread to second language classrooms around the world. Research studies have found repeatedly that ER can dramatically improve a second language learner’s vocabulary, reading speeds, and language comprehension. Currently, English language teachers from places as varied as Japan, Italy, and Southeast Asia are searching for ways to encourage their learners to participate more fully in ER within their Academic English curricula, but they are often sidetracked by problems of passive resistance, apathy, and of students searching for shortcuts.
This presentation will reveal some of the key processes learners commonly bring to the ER classroom. The first fruits of a nationally funded research project in Japan using a Grounded Theory approach, participants will learn about reading processes such as story-hunting, book-mining, and stasis maintenance. By the end of the talk, you will be better equipped not only to notice these student practices, but also to respond in ways that will help guide learners towards becoming more avid readers of Academic English.
More information
Live from Japan
Challenges in extensive reading: working with what students bring to the class • Gregory Hadley
45 mins
16.00
What is ‘criticality’ in the context of higher education? It is not an easy concept to pin down. It is often synonymous with critical thinking. Look at any institution’s prospectus or website or module, it will highlight ‘critical thinking’ as one of the touchstones that measures a student’s and graduate’s worth. Yet, criticality is so much more.
This presentation will unpack the term criticality and posit higher education needs to do more than just tick the ‘critical thinking’ box. It needs to interrogate and review how criticality is taught. In today's polarised world, 'criticality' in higher education needs to encompass critical thinking, analytical reasoning, critical self-reflection and critical action (Barnett, 1997) - thinking, being and acting (Davis & Barnett, 2015) - to enable individuals to critically engage with the world, themselves and knowledge.
More information
Live from the UK
Criticality? Critical thinking? As you like it?
Kashmir Kaur
45 mins
12.00
This talk starts by setting out the characteristics of seven familiar academic listening and speaking events. We examine the roles of their participants, which may variously be termed as interpreter, recorder, and persuader. Within the cyclical, integrated and multimodal nature of the communication of ideas, the participants face many challenges including linguistic, cognitive, content-based, conventional, visual, and cultural. An understanding of such contexts and challenges in turn informs our materials development. We investigate the language, skills and tasks involved in this process, and evaluate examples of materials with a view to enhancing the effectiveness of the listening and speaking materials we use.
More information
Live from the UK
Developing students’ listening and speaking through
EAP materials • Edward de Chazal
45 mins
08.00
In this talk, we discuss the kinds of teaching methods and materials used in English for study purposes, the needs-related nature of teaching and reasons why EAP methods and materials are often distinctive from those used in general English language teaching. The topic of EAP methods and materials is important because EAP teachers are often called on to develop or adapt courses to meet the particular needs of their class of learners. In doing this, they need to consider the methodologies and materials they will use. Very often published materials are of limited relevance to their class and so EAP teachers adapt them or develop ‘in-house’ materials. Helen will provide examples of methods and materials drawing on case reports of teaching innovations in local settings as well as demonstrate ways that teaching methods and materials are often linked to the language practices, methodologies and learning styles of academic study and the learners’ targeted discipline.
More information
Live from New Zealand
Methodologies and materials in English for Academic Purposes • Helen Basturkmen
45 mins
03.00
There is plenty of evidence to show that teaching grammar works and grammar continues to have a central place in English language teaching. In addition, as teaching online has become more and more popular and necessary, there is a need to look at how we do it in the virtual classroom. Moreover, for our EAP students, being able to use a wide range of grammar accurately is important so they can manage the demands of their destination courses. Teaching and learning grammar in English for Academic Purposes has an extra challenge because of the level of accuracy complexity and precision academic English requires of students. Teachers need to work with the syllabus they have. This session will look at different strategies for teaching and learning grammar online: raising awareness, explicit rule teaching, personalisation, integration into syllabus tasks, gamification and giving feedback. It will also look at a number of online tools that can be used with these strategies in the online classroom.
More information
Live from Australia
Strategies for teaching grammar online • Gaby Lawson
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27–29 October 2020
45 mins
12.00
The transition from writing general English to writing in an academic environment is not an easy task, either for learners or for tutors. In many cases, it feels as if 'The Essay' is the only format to teach in an academic environment; however, research shows that learners benefit greatly from learning to write shorter responses, consisting of between 70-120 words, in a concise and organised manner, as Short Answer Responses make up the majority of written production that is expected in the Target Language Domain. (i.e. students’ respective degree programmes).
This talk will discuss the rhetorical patterns to be taught for effective writing in a tertiary environment, as well as ways of going about assessing this type of production.
More information
Live from the UAE
Nurturing motivated learners through suited content and strong communities
• Nahla Al Malki
45 mins
16.00
In the leadership literature, ambidextrous refers to leaders who can implement disruptive innovations in their companies while, at the same time, supporting the current core business. In this talk, Isabela will borrow this idea of ambidexterity to discuss how we can balance assessment innovations in the EAP writing classroom with more traditional assessment practices. Isabela will start by briefly examining historical and contextual reasons for the mainstream mental models regarding assessment in many places around the world, including Brazil. She will then present new trends in assessment and demonstrate how they can be slowly incorporated into the second language writing classroom, without disregarding the need to prepare students for standardised writing exams.
More information
Live from the UAE
Nurturing motivated learners through suited content and strong communities
Nahla Al Malki
45 mins
03.00
Since the 1990s, Extensive Reading (ER), an approach to English language teaching that asks learners to read large amounts of material that are at their proficiency level, has rapidly spread to second language classrooms around the world. Research studies have found repeatedly that ER can dramatically improve a second language learner’s vocabulary, reading speeds, and language comprehension. Currently, English language teachers from places as varied as Japan, Italy, and Southeast Asia are searching for ways to encourage their learners to participate more fully in ER within their Academic English curricula, but they are often sidetracked by problems of passive resistance, apathy, and of students searching for shortcuts.
This presentation will reveal some of the key processes learners commonly bring to the ER classroom. The first fruits of a nationally funded research project in Japan using a Grounded Theory approach, participants will learn about reading processes such as story-hunting, book-mining, and stasis maintenance. By the end of the talk, you will be better equipped not only to notice these student practices, but also to respond in ways that will help guide learners towards becoming more avid readers of Academic English.
More information
Live from Brazil
An ambidextrous model of assessment in the second language writing classroom
Isabela Villas Boas
45 mins
08.00
In the spring term of 2020, as classrooms made way for breakout rooms and desktops replaced desks, Peter introduced collaborative reflective practice as a key component of his EAP course. This was inspired by a collaborative autoethnographic study he carried out with a colleague during emergency remote teaching and incorporated principles of cooperative development, inquiry dialogue, and critical partnerships.
In these unprecedented and uncertain times, it has arguably never been more important for everyone - teachers and students alike - to engage in conscious reflection, helping them come to deeper and more critical understandings of their actions, their experiences, their beliefs, their context and their role within it. In this presentation, Peter will outline how he introduced his students to the principles and benefits of collaborative reflective practice, and explain the self-directed tasks that made reflection an integral part of his course.
Teachers attending this talk will go away with a better sense of the benefits of having reflective students, and a greater understanding of how they can incorporate collaborative reflective practice into their own courses.
More information
Live from Japan
Challenges in extensive reading: working with what students bring to the class
Gregory Hadley
45 mins
12.00
Live from Turkey
Academic writing: the value of short answer responses
Zeynep Ürkün
45 mins
16.00
It’s easy to see why short argumentative essays are the mainstay of so many academic writing courses. Essay topics can be chosen to appeal to students from a variety of backgrounds, and to encourage spirited, non-exclusionary classroom discussion.
The essays themselves don’t take too long to write or to read, so peer and/or tutor feedback can be supplied quickly. Their content allows for the display of general academic language, believed useful in most disciplinary contexts. The problem is that this scenario is very different from the one played out beyond the academic writing class. The social purposes of the EAP classroom only partially transfer to the disciplines, where personal opinion counts for nothing without scholarly evidence, where argumentative writing does not fit a simple template, and where many writing tasks are not centred around argument at all.
While acknowledging that there are many constraints on EAP practice, this talk suggests various ways we might be able to bridge the gap between academic writing inside and outside the EAP classroom, looking towards the university genres we are preparing students to produce.
More information
Live from Japan
Helping EAP students develop as collaborative reflective practitioners
Peter Brereton
45 mins
03.00
There is plenty of evidence to show that teaching grammar works and grammar continues to have a central place in English language teaching. In addition, as teaching online has become more and more popular and necessary, there is a need to look at how we do it in the virtual classroom. Moreover, for our EAP students, being able to use a wide range of grammar accurately is important so they can manage the demands of their destination courses. Teaching and learning grammar in English for Academic Purposes has an extra challenge because of the level of accuracy complexity and precision academic English requires of students. Teachers need to work with the syllabus they have. This session will look at different strategies for teaching and learning grammar online: raising awareness, explicit rule teaching, personalisation, integration into syllabus tasks, gamification and giving feedback. It will also look at a number of online tools that can be used with these strategies in the online classroom.
More information
Live from Turkey
Academic writing: the value of short answer responses
Zeynep Ürkün
45 mins
08.00
In this talk, we discuss the kinds of teaching methods and materials used in English for study purposes, the needs-related nature of teaching and reasons why EAP methods and materials are often distinctive from those used in general English language teaching. The topic of EAP methods and materials is important because EAP teachers are often called on to develop or adapt courses to meet the particular needs of their class of learners. In doing this, they need to consider the methodologies and materials they will use. Very often published materials are of limited relevance to their class and so EAP teachers adapt them or develop ‘in-house’ materials. Helen will provide examples of methods and materials drawing on case reports of teaching innovations in local settings as well as demonstrate ways that teaching methods and materials are often linked to the language practices, methodologies and learning styles of academic study and the learners’ targeted discipline. Helen Basturkmen
More information
Live from the UK
Classroom genres and university genres: getting
the balance right
Hilary Nesi
45 mins
12.00
This talk starts by setting out the characteristics of seven familiar academic listening and speaking events. We examine the roles of their participants, which may variously be termed as interpreter, recorder, and persuader. Within the cyclical, integrated and multimodal nature of the communication of ideas, the participants face many challenges including linguistic, cognitive, content-based, conventional, visual, and cultural. An understanding of such contexts and challenges in turn informs our materials development. We investigate the language, skills and tasks involved in this process, and evaluate examples of materials with a view to enhancing the effectiveness of the listening and speaking materials we use.
More information
Live from New Zealand
Methodologies and
materials in English for Academic Purposes
Helen Basturkmen
45 mins
16.00
What is ‘criticality’ in the context of higher education? It is not an easy concept to pin down. It is often synonymous with critical thinking. Look at any institution’s prospectus or website or module, it will highlight ‘critical thinking’ as one of the touchstones that measures a student’s and graduate’s worth. Yet, criticality is so much more.
This presentation will unpack the term criticality and posit higher education needs to do more than just tick the ‘critical thinking’ box. It needs to interrogate and review how criticality is taught. In today's polarised world, 'criticality' in higher education needs to encompass critical thinking, analytical reasoning, critical self-reflection and critical action (Barnett, 1997) - thinking, being and acting (Davis & Barnett, 2015) - to enable individuals to critically engage with the world, themselves and knowledge.
More information
Live from Australia
Strategies for teaching grammar online
Gaby Lawson
Join our live panel of Academic English experts on Wednesday 28 October at 12pm (UK time) and ask them anything you want to know. Discuss aspects of teaching, common student challenges, methodology or just sit back and listen to the thoughts and ideas of fellow professionals.
More information
Home
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Frequently asked questions
The speaker presentations will not be shared with attendees, but the recordings of each session will be available on our YouTube channel the next day so you can view the presentation slides again.
1. Will the speaker presentation slides be shared with us before or after they are presented?
We are offering a certificate of attendance for all the webinars
Look for this certificate icon on the individual programme sessions.
2. Which sessions do I receive a certificate for?
During each of the live sessions a link will be placed in the chat box and on the presenter slides for you to download the certificate. Don’t worry if you miss it, we will send you an email on Friday 30th October with a link to all the certificates to download.
3. How do I get my certificate?
As we have thousands of attendees attending our event it is impossible for us to put all your individual names on them. Don’t worry though, the PDF is editable so once you have downloaded it you can insert your own name in the area highlighted.
4. Why is my name not on the certificate?
All our sessions will be available to watch again on our YouTube channel:
5. I missed a session. How can I watch it again?
At peak times it may take around an hour for the email to come through. If it has been longer than that please check your junk mail as some of our emails, unfortunately, end up there.
6. I haven’t received a link to the session I registered for. What should I do?
No. The Academic English Conference is an online event and completely free of charge.
7. Does attending the event cost anything?
You can choose to attend as many sessions as you like across the three days of the event. When you register you’ll be asked to choose the sessions and you’ll be sent links to access them. We really do have something for everyone, so read our programme and attend as many as you like!
8. Do I need to attend every session?
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27–29 October 2020
27–29 October 2020
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