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Introduction ^TOP

The Regional Language Centre (RELC), an educational project of the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO), is located in Singapore. The members of SEAMEO are Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. The associate members are Australia, Canada, France, Germany, New Zealand, the Netherlands and Norway. The main objective of SEAMEO is to provide constructive direction to the forces and the challenges of change in the contemporary world through joint and cooperative efforts for regional educational development. RELC was set up in 1968 to provide assistance to SEAMEO member countries in the area of language education. To achieve its purpose, the Centre conducts advanced training courses and undertakes research, publications and information dissemination, and other activities related to the linguistic needs and problems of Southeast Asia. The RELC International Seminar is a major event in language education in the region. It is held annually and is attended by some 500 participants – mainly scholars, lecturers, curriculum developers and educationists from the region as well as from other parts of the world.

TOPIC ^TOP

Language Teaching in a Multilingual World: Challenges and Opportunities

DATE & VENUE ^TOP

21 - 23 April 2008

SEAMEO Regional Language Centre
30 Orange Grove Road
Singapore 258352

 RATIONALE ^TOP

This year marks the fortieth year since SEAMEO RELC was set up by the SEAMEO Council to serve the culturally diverse and linguistically rich SEAMEO countries. During those forty years, the linguistic landscape of Southeast Asia has grown tremendously complex.  English has become the pre-eminent language not just internationally but also in this region.  At the same time other national languages or their varieties have also gained currency and are jostling for attention.  Language teachers are constantly required to negotiate issues of language varieties, standards, appropriate teaching strategies and language identities on a daily basis in our classrooms.  How do we make sense of our fast changing linguistic scene in this globalized age? With this question in mind the 2008 seminar is explicitly aimed at being inclusive in its scope of interest.  It will serve as a platform to facilitate the sharing of ideas and strategies amongst language experts and practitioners to help us better learn from each other’s experience in language teaching and learning.  

AIMS ^TOP

The 43rd RELC International Seminar has the following aims:

  •  To provide a platform for the discussion of the changing patterns of language usage.

  • To examine standards of English – past, present and future – and how these might change and influence our educational objectives.

  • To explore present language trends and how these may affect the role of English in the future.

TOPIC AREAS ^TOP

  1. Creative approaches to language teaching
  2. Bilingual approaches in language teaching
  3. Attitudes towards language varieties
  4. Challenges in the teaching of Asian Languages
  5. Approaches to teaching English as an international language
  6. Language use and language identity
  7. The impact of technology on language use and language teaching
  8. Effective teaching strategies in multilingual classrooms
PRESENTATIONS ^TOP

1. Invited Speakers / Parallel Papers

These are formal lecture presentations lasting forty-five minutes plus fifteen minutes question time for invited speakers’ papers, and thirty minutes plus ten minutes question time for parallel papers. The Seminar Planning Committee reserves the right to assign papers to either the Invited Speaker or the Parallel Sessions.

2.Workshops

In these ninety-minute sessions, there is little lecturing by the leaders. Instead, the participants are engaged in activities that have been carefully structured by the leaders.

3.
Procedure for Submission of Paper/Workshop Proposals

  • A 150-250 word abstract with a title not exceeding twelve words and a fifty-word biodata should be sent to the Seminar Secretariat no later than 30 November 2007. Abstracts outside the word limit will not be accepted.

  • The Seminar Planning Committee will inform proposers by 31 January 2008 whether their proposals have been accepted.

  • A soft and hard copy of the completed text of the paper selected for the Seminar must be sent to the Seminar Secretariat no later than 12 March 2008. If these are not received by this date, the Committee reserves the right to withdraw the paper from presentation.

4.  Criteria for Acceptance

All abstracts will be evaluated by the Seminar Planning Committee. Relevance to the theme of the Seminar and freshness and originality of approach are among the major considerations in the acceptance of papers. The Committee reserves the right to decline paper/workshop proposals without assigning reasons.

5. Copyright/Publication

RELC reserves the copyright over all papers presented at the Seminar. Selected papers will be published. The copyright of papers not published by RELC will be reassigned to the authors.

6. Funding

As a professional non-profit organization, RELC does not generally provide financial assistance to paper/workshop presenters.

THE LIST OF INVITED SPEAKERS INCLUDES: ^TOP

Beverly Derewianka - Australia

Goh Yong Seng - Singapore

Janet Holmes - New Zealand

Adrian Holliday - UK

Andy Kirkpatrick - Hong Kong

Low Ee Ling - Singapore

Louis-Jean Calvet - France

Sandra Lee Mckay - USA

Michiko Nakano - Japan

Anne Pakir - Singapore

Alastair Pennycook - Australia

Edgar W. Schneider - Germany


 


COMMUNICATIONS SEMINAR SECRETARIAT
SEAMEO Regional Language Centre
30 Orange Grove Road
SINGAPORE 258352
REPUBLIC OF SINGAPORE
Tel : (65) 6885 7814 / 6885 7844
Fax : (65) 6734 2753
E-mail : admin@relc.org.sg
 

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Copyright © 2007 SEAMEO Regional Language Centre
Updated 10/04/2008