More than 180 world-renowned researchers, lecturers and scholars attended the conference.
New teaching trends
On the morning of November 16, the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization Regional Training Center (SEAMEO RETRAC) and Curtin University (Australia) jointly organized the 14th international conference on English language research and teaching with the theme "The future of English language teaching: opportunities and challenges".
Here, Dr. Rod Ellis, a leading theorist of task-based foreign language teaching and currently a distinguished research professor at Curtin University (Australia), mentioned the trend of developing learners' pragmatic competence, which is the ability to use language to achieve communicative purposes in the socio-cultural context of that language, such as English.
Pragmatic competence is essential for effective English learning, according to Dr. Rod Ellis
According to Ellis, similar to the process of learning grammar, the acquisition of pragmatic competence is a slow, incremental process, consisting of several predetermined stages of development. The three main factors that influence this competence are the learner's linguistic ability, the translational role of the mother tongue, and the learner's learning situation. "Teachers can provide meaningful communicative contexts to create more opportunities for conversation," Dr. Ellis added.
Dr Pamela Humphreys, Director of Macquarie University College (Australia), made many predictions about the future of English language teaching. At the secondary level, Ms Humphreys said there will be more bilingual policies and curricula, integrating content and language; the trend of teaching foreign languages at an "earlier than later" age will decline; and technology will be used more in assessment and teaching.
The future of English language teaching is expected to see many changes closely related to technology, Dr Pamela Humphreys believes.
At the university level, there will be more bilingual programs, more specialist subjects taught in English, and more English in the classroom. Meanwhile, for adults, the main trends are a decrease in demand for general English; an increase in demand for academic and professional English; and an enhanced learning experience through technology.
Speaking English like a native is no longer the 'gold standard'
According to Ms. Humphreys, the demand for English teachers will increase, especially those who are proficient in information technology and have interdisciplinary knowledge. "In particular, speaking English like a native speaker is no longer the 'gold standard' that must be followed as before. There is no reason why you have to speak English like a native speaker, the most important thing is that we understand each other," Dr. Humphreys emphasized.
Attendees ask questions to the speakers
Bringing AI and board games into the classroom
A highlight of this year's conference was the many presentations related to the application of artificial intelligence (AI) in the classroom. For example, Master Khuu Hoang Nhat Minh, Development Director of Origins English Center, said that AI tools such as Microsoft Bing or Google Bard can "revolutionize" the method of teaching English in many ways thanks to the ability to produce content based on user queries.
In terms of effectiveness, using AI tools to generate ideas can improve students’ ability to learn independently, according to Ms. Ha Nguyen Tuyet Minh, lecturer at Saigon University and Mr. Nguyen Duong Hoang Minh, teacher at Le Quy Don High School. In addition, students can also gain a deeper understanding of the reading in a short period of time and use the results generated by AI to discuss more effectively, Dr. Greg Restall and Dr. Toan Pham, both working at the University of South Australia, commented.
Ms. Ngo Thi Thao My shares how to bring board games into English classes for the elderly.
Another notable practice is bringing board games into the classroom for the elderly. Ms. Ngo Thi Thao My, founder of Easy English, commented that this method helps reduce stress in the learning environment, develop creativity, expand vocabulary, train the brain and improve memory. "However, using board games to teach also has limitations such as not supporting much in reading and writing skills or taking time to instruct," Ms. My noted.
Online teaching is also an issue that has been mentioned. According to Dr. Nguyen Thanh Luan, a senior lecturer at the University of Western Sydney (Vietnam campus), teachers face many challenges when teaching online in public schools, especially during the Covid-19 outbreak. Specifically, the four major groups of challenges are related to students, resources, policies and teachers' pedagogical methods.
Dr. Nguyen Thanh Luan said there needs to be a clear policy roadmap for integrating online teaching in the classroom, not just stopping at teacher training.
"Notably, when entering the new normal phase and returning to in-person classes, many teachers feel 'untied' and completely lose motivation to teach online. This causes teachers to gradually lose the information technology skills trained during the pandemic. Therefore, if online teaching in particular and the use of information technology in the classroom in general are to be promoted, the participation of policy makers is necessary," Mr. Luan stated his opinion.
The 14th International Conference on English Language Teaching and Research attracted more than 180 delegates from Vietnam and many countries around the world. The conference brought together more than 50 reports and training topics from leading experts in areas such as teaching experience and improvement methods, developing teaching materials, language testing and assessment, artificial intelligence applications, etc.
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