Archived Page.
Plenary Speakers
In past years, the Korea TESOL International Conference has always invited a couple of people with good ideas and proven conference experience to join our conference as plenary speakers. Typically, we've had to limit this to a very small number. Not because we lacked for qualified people, but due to limits of space and time. For those of you who've never been, we're usually a 2-day, and occassionally a 3-day conference. Not this year! Because we've got a considerable amount of both time and space, we have taken the opportunity to ask a few more people to join us.
Each presentation will have the same point of departure, which is to ask the question: "What is the future of ELT from my point of view?" The answers that our speakers provide to this question will emerge from their professional, individual experiences as ELT educators and scholars. Given that they all come from different backgrounds and work in different areas of our field, we suggest you see as many of them as you can! We're planning to have 1 per day (except on opening and closing days), at 8:00 p.m. KST. Recordings of the plenaries will be made available to conference attendees who can't attend at that time, or wish to watch them again.
You can see all the plenary speakers in the image immediately below, which is followed by a list of their presentation titles. You can learn more about the speakers further down the page.
Plenary Titles and Times
Willy Renandya — Addressing the Reading-Writing Gap in Second Language Learning
Saturday, February 20 11:00 a.m. KST
Sophia Mavridi — Re-envisioning ELT through the Lens of Digital Literacies
Sunday, February 21 8:00 p.m. KST
David Valente — Inspired Imaginings: Exploring the Future of TEYL
Tuesday, February 23 8:00 p.m. KST
Francisca Maria Ivone — The Future of Teaching English with Technology
Thursday, February 25 8:00 p.m. KST
David Barker — The More Things Change, the More they Stay the Same
Friday, February 26 8:00 p.m. KST
Dorothy Zemach — Future Proof
Saturday, February 27 11:00 a.m. KST
Curtis H. Kelly — A Look at the Social Brain Will Change Your Ideas about ELT Forever
Sunday, February 28 10:00 a.m. KST
Keith Folse — Teaching Language Online: A Learner's Perspective
Sunday, February 28 11:00 a.m. KST
Speaker Bios
Willy A. Renandya
Nanyang Technological University, National Institute of Education, Singapore
Dr. Willy A Renandya is a language teacher educator with extensive teaching experience in Asia. He currently teaches applied linguistics courses at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He is a frequent speaker at international ELT conferences and has published extensively in the area of second language education. His publications include Language Teaching Methodology: An anthology of current practice (CUP 2002, with Jack C Richards) and Student-centred cooperative learning (Springer 2019, With George Jacobs).
He maintains a large language teacher professional development forum called Teacher Voices: https://www.facebook.com/groups/teachervoices/.
You can visit his website, Willy’s ELT Corner, at: https://www.willyrenandya.com
If you're interested in his research, you can find him on ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1183-0267
Dorothy Zemach
Writer, Editor, Teacher Trainer, Teacher
We'll let Dorothy introduce herself!
"I'm an author, editor, teacher, and teacher trainer in the field of English Language Teaching (ELT). I taught English, French, and Japanese for over 20 years in Asia, Africa, and the US. My MA in TESL is from the School for International Training in Vermont.
I currently write and edit English language teaching materials and textbooks, and conduct teacher training workshops. My areas of specialty and interest include teaching writing, teaching reading, business English, academic English, testing, and humor. I'm a frequent plenary speaker at international conferences, and in 2012 founded my own small publishing company, Wayzgoose Press, that publishes fiction, non-fiction, and of course ELT materials for teachers and students."
You can find out just how versatile and experienced Dorothy is at her website: https://www.dorothyzemach.com/
David Barker
Gifu University, Japan
David Barker is the director of the English Center at Gifu University in Japan. Originally from Wales, he became a language teacher after working for two years as a police officer in Liverpool, England. He has a PhD in language education and has taught English in Singapore, New Zealand, and Japan, where he has lived for 23 years. He is the founder of BTB Press and the author of a wide range of bilingual textbooks. He is also the author of four Japanese language books about learning English, two of which became national bestsellers. His main areas of interest are cross-linguistic interference and materials development.
Visit BTB Press, and see what they have to offer: http://www.btbpress.com/
Francisca Maria Ivone
Universitas Negeri Malang, Indonesia.
Meet our first ever Indonesian plenary speaker! Francisca Maria Ivone currently teaches at the Department of English, Universitas Negeri Malang in Indonesia. She has a Bachelor of Education from IKIP Malang, Indonesia, and a Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy in Applied Linguistics from The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. She researches and publishes in the area of ELT, TELL, CALL, Extensive Listening and Viewing (EL/V), Extensive Reading (ER), learning autonomy, and collaborative learning. She is passionate about the use of technology in language teaching and learning. She also gives training to pre-service and in-service teachers on the use of technology in language teaching and learning, ER, and EL/V.
You can view a fine example of her expertise here (and there are many more examples on YouTube if you speak Bahasa!)
David Valente
Nord University, Norway
David Valente is the Coordinator of the IATEFL Young Learners and Teenagers Special Interest Group. He works as a PhD Research Fellow in English Language and Literature Subject Pedagogy at Nord University, Norway, where he teaches on the 5-year Master's degree in Primary Education. David has over 20 years' experience in ELT as a teacher, teacher educator, academic manager, author and editor. His specialist interests include children's literature in ELT, primary and secondary teacher education and intercultural learning. David is also one of the authors of the Cambridge University Press FUN Skills series.
You can get a sense of his style, energy, and overall excellence if you watch this recent session "Drama techniques to give 'voice' and 'choice' in primary ELT"
Sophia Mavridi
De Monfort University, England
Sophia Mavridi is a Digital Learning Specialist & Lecturer in English Language Learning at De Montfort University (UK). Her research focuses on online learning and the increasingly important role of digital literacies in language education. As a consultant, Sophia supports institutions and teachers to integrate technology in a pedagogically sound way and has trained for major organisations around the world. She is a regular keynote speaker at international conferences and the joint-coordinator of the IATEFL Learning Technologies Special Interest Group. Her latest publications are 'English for 21st Century Skills' (Express Publishing, 2020) and 'Digital Innovations and Research in Language Learning' (IATEFL, 2020), both of which reflect her keen interest in innovative pedagogies in language education.
Learn more about this amazing addition to our pleanary lineup at her website: https://sophiamavridi.com/
Keith Folse
University of Central Florida, U.S.A.
Dr. Keith Folse, Professor of TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages), University of Central Florida, teaches undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral classes. Originally secondary certified in English and French, he has taught English as a Second Language for 40 years in Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Kuwait, Japan, Spain, and the United States. For the last eleven years, he has also taught online courses, both synchronously and asynchronously.
Dr. Folse is the author of 70 English and teacher education textbooks and is a frequent conference presenter all around the world. His presentations often deal with best teaching practices, vocabulary, grammar, and speaking. He has won numerous teaching and research awards from his university, TESOL International Association, and National Geographic Learning.
For a brief taste of what Dr. Folse brings to the conference, you can watch this short video on academic word lists.
Curtis H. Kelly
Kansai University, Japan
Curtis Kelly (EdD.) is a professor at Kansai University, a founder of the JALT BRAIN SIG, and a columnist for the KoTESOL Teaching English Connection. He's a brain nerd. In pursuit of his life mission, "to relieve the suffering of the classroom," he has written numerous textbooks, 30 books, including the Cambridge Writing from Within series.
Paula Rebolledo
RICELT, Chile
Unfortunately, Paula will not be able to join us this year! Still, we're leaving this here so you can read about her.
Paula Rebolledo is a teacher educator, consultant and researcher who has taught at primary, secondary, undergraduate and postgraduate levels and given workshops, seminars and plenary talks in various countries. She has expertise in the areas of teacher education, professional development and teacher research. She has led initiatives such as the Champion Teachers programme, which empowers teachers with research skills in Latin America and participated as an advisor in similar projects across the world.
If teacher empowerment is an area of interest for you, her IATEFL plenary from 2019 is a must-watch!
