From this issue on, we will be publishing reports about conferences attended by JALT members on JALT’s behalf. These conference reports are being collated by Andrew Tweed, Chair of JALT’s International Affairs Committee. In this issue, we report on ETA-ROC 2019 in Taipei and KOTESOL 2019 in Seoul
William Pellowe Represents JALT at ETA-ROC 2019 in Taipei
Andrew D. Tweed
Chair of International Affairs Committee
William (Bill) Pellowe, JALT Director of Public Relations, attended the English Teachers’ Association of the Republic of China (ETA-ROC) Conference, which was held in Taipei on 10 and 11 November 2019. The theme of the conference was Collaboration and Communication in Language Learning and Teaching. There were about 300 attendees at the event.
During the opening ceremony, all of the invited speakers and the representatives of other organizations were introduced. There was a meeting on Saturday for Pan-Asian Consortium (PAC), a conference dinner on site for invited speakers and representatives on Saturday, and a smaller dinner on Sunday.
At the conference, Bill gave a presentation entitled Teach Paragraph Organization with Google Quizzes. He also promoted JALT in the exhibition area. A few dozen people came by the booth. The main questions were about where the JALT 2020 conference would be held, and when the call for papers would be open. A few people said that they had attended JALT 2019 the previous weekend.
Bill was able to share information about JALT, learn more about ETA-ROC, and, more generally, exchange ideas related to language education and research with other professionals from around Asia. Bill recommends this conference to anyone interested in a wider view of language education outside of Japan but still within the Asian context.
Kenneth Gale Represents JALT at KOTESOL 2019 in Seoul
Andrew D. Tweed
Chair of International Affairs Committee
Kenneth (Kenn) Gale, JALT Director of Records, attended the Korea TESOL (KOTESOL) International Conference. The event was held in Seoul on 12 and 13 October 2019 and the theme of the conference was Advancing ELT: Blending Disciplines, Approaches, and Technologies.
Kenn reports that it was an amazing and well-organized event. There were 760 attendees and over 200 presenters. The conference, although much smaller than JALT, still offered a wide spectrum of impressive presentations. The hosts were very gracious and the attendees walked away happy and impressed with the information-packed weekend.
During the conference, Kenn represented JALT by staffing the booth. Several JALT journals as well as conference flyers were made available for participants. There were many comments by individuals who were very impressed with the quality of our publications. The booth was probably attended about 75% of the time, which allowed Kenn to network, answer questions, and share information about JALT.
Representing JALT allows for a limited time to attend presentations. However, Kenn was able to attend a few, including three presentations by JALT members. He says that they were awesome and well attended. Kenn also gave a presentation which was entitled Motivating Teachers and Developing Leaders.
JALT is very proud of its long-standing relationship with KOTESOL. Kenn enjoyed a good working lunch on Saturday and discussed the upcoming Pan-Asia Consortium meeting as well as further ways to improve our relationship and work together. He recommends other JALT members to attend KOTESOL if they have a chance.