VUS TESOL 2024 - Promoting comprehensive education in English language teaching

The event attracted nearly 3,000 participants, marking the 20th anniversary of VUS TESOL in carrying out its mission of improving English teaching capacity for teachers.

Responding to the trends of the education industry in the global context

Understanding the context of increasingly rapid global educational integration, the trend of integrating comprehensive education into English teaching is becoming prominent when not only providing academic knowledge but also effectively equipping learners with skills to solve challenges in learning as well as in life. This year, VUS TESOL 2024 returns with the theme: "Building and promoting comprehensive education in English teaching for students", providing many perspectives and useful materials on comprehensive education, highly applicable in teaching and learning in today's era.

Gathering nearly 30 leading speakers from home and abroad to participate in the conference

The event was attended by nearly 30 speakers who are leading experts from prestigious partners of VUS such as: National Geographic Learning, Oxford University Press, Macmillan Education, Cambridge University Press and Assessment... along with many representatives of agencies, English teachers at all levels, students from provinces and cities in Vietnam and neighboring countries.

Throughout the event, thematic sessions were shared and discussed ranging from practical aspects of improving English teaching through digital platforms, how to break down barriers to teaching phonetics, to inspiring students’ passion for learning English, etc., divided into plenary and specialized sessions. Participants were free to choose to participate in the sessions they were interested in.

Attending the conference as a special guest, Associate Professor, Dr. Vu Thi Tu Anh - Deputy Director of the Department of Continuing Education - Ministry of Education and Training shared: “VUS is an English education system that demonstrates its professional excellence that I highly appreciate. The 20 VUS TESOL conferences have been a journey of perseverance through the difficult times of the pandemic, digital transformation, etc., demonstrating the high sense of community responsibility of a foreign language center in the national education system. This year's theme of Comprehensive Education is a good theme, a good opportunity for teachers to approach innovative educational trends, creating motivation and encouragement for teachers to make changes.”

Mr. Steven Happel - senior professional manager at VUS also expressed: "I hope that this will be an academic meeting for all of us, creating an exciting and enlightening one-day expedition into the ever-vibrant world of English language teaching".

Opening the conference, expert from Oxford University Press - OUP - Mr. Kieran Donaghy - shared on the topic Multimodal literacy in ELT - how to develop holistic communication skills?.

The speaker looked at and, together with the audience, analyzed in depth the important concepts of observation and presentation as well as how to apply these concepts in classroom practice. At the same time, the significance of multimodal literacy for teaching methods and content was also clarified by Mr. Kieran Donaghy.

In addition, speaker Iris Thiri Su from ELI Publishing also summarized the research through the sharing session “Stress-Free Test Strategies: Equipping YLE Learners with Effective Techniques”. During the sharing session, Iris Thiri Su stated that it is important for teachers to help students develop social and emotional skills as well as academic skills in the classroom.

In particular, the new update of VUS TESOL is the appearance of The Debate with the question: Should students focus on the results of competency tests or the values ​​and skills accumulated from the class?

The panelists included Allen Davenport (Cambridge University Press), Andrew Duenas (National Geographic Learning), Blue Melia (Macmillan Education) and Kieran Donaghy (Oxford University Press). The four experts were divided into two debates to present their views. Participants were able to gain a more comprehensive and multi-dimensional perspective on the issues raised, as well as ask questions and contribute their opinions to the speakers.

The center of connection and sharing of educators

In the journey of nurturing the aspiration to reach far through cultivating foreign language skills for the young generation of Vietnam, VUS understands the important role of teachers - those who directly accompany students to help them open up each step of progress every day, towards a bright future.

Understanding that teachers not only need to improve their teaching skills but also need to update new educational trends to be more creative in their lectures for the younger generation, VUS always strives to create conditions for the community to participate in completely free professional development courses with leading experts in the field such as VUS TESOL.

Since the first conference in 2006, each VUS TESOL conference has brought topics that update new global education trends. All have the same goal: to bring interesting sharing, opening up breakthrough ideas for the future of English teaching in Vietnam as well as in the region.

Ngoc Minh

Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/vus-tesol-2024-thuc-day-giao-duc-toan-dien-trong-giang-day-tieng-anh-2296706.html