2nd annual conference: Learning Languages in the Digitalized Environment

Richard Harrison is an author, teacher trainer and publisher based in Muscat, Oman and also the UK. He first graduated from the University of London (Kings College) and later the University of Manchester. He then obtained an MA in Applied Linguistics (University of Reading). He has worked at different universities and colleges over the last 40 years in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the UAE and Oman. He also worked for the British Council in Russia as the ESP Consultant for three years in the 1990s a post which involved travel to Kazakhstan, Georgia and Belorussia as well as different regions of Russia. In 2014, he retired from his position as Head of Foundation at the German University of Technology in Oman. In the same year he set up his own publishing company, Canford Publishing, focussing on English Language Teaching textbooks. He is the author of more than 30 ELT publications for Canford, OUP and Pearson among others. His publications include: Framework: Academic Writing and Critical Thinking  (Canford) and Headway Academic Skills. (OUP). 

Theme of the presentation:  Teaching Critical Thinking: a 21st century skill. 

Cynthia White is a Professor of Applied Linguistics, Massey University, New Zealand.  She has published widely on distance and online learning, autonomy and agency, and language and settlement issues among migrants and refugees. In 2004 she received the International TESOL Virginia French Allen Award for Scholarship and Service to the TESOL profession. She is a member of the Editorial Boards of seven international journals, is Associate Editor for Language Learning & Technology, and has been a plenary speaker at international conferences in Germany, Thailand, Singapore, China, UK, Hawai’i, Malaysia, Australia, and Uzbekistan. Her publications include two books (Cambridge University Press, Multilingual Matters), 59 refereed articles, 26 book chapters, and several guest editorships of journal special issues. Since 2019 she has been Pro Vice-Chancellor in the College of Humanities & Social Sciences at Massey University.

Theme of the presentation:  Technology-mediated language teaching in the digital age: Contemporary questions for research and practice.

Gary Barkhuizen is a Professor of Applied Linguistics at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. His teaching and research interests are in the areas of teacher education, language teacher (educator) and learner identity, study abroad, and narrative inquiry. His books include Narrative Inquiry in Language Teaching and Learning Research (2014, Routledge, with Phil Benson and Alice Chik), Reflections on Language Teacher Identity Research (Ed., 2017, Routledge), Qualitative Research Topics in Language Teacher Education (Ed., 2019, Routledge), and Communicating Identities (2020, Routledge, with Pat Strauss). His latest book is Language Teacher Educator Identity (2021, Cambridge). In 2017, Gary received TESOL International’s Distinguished Research Award.

Theme of the presentation:  Communicating and reflecting on identities in the language classroom 

Paul Woodfall, B.A (Hons), Dip.Tefla, Dip Ed. Man., is OUP’s Regional Training Co-ordinator for Middle East and Central Asia. He has given training workshops from K1 -12, and trained English Faculty at universities in several different countries around the world including: Spain, UAE, KSA, Iran, Turkey, Lebanon, Egypt, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and the Sultanate of Oman. He has lived and worked in the region for over 20 years. Before joining OUP in 2011, Paul was ICT Co-ordinator, Team Leader for Cambridge English Language Assessment, an IELTS examiner for 9 years (IELTS examiner trainer for six of those years) as well as teacher and teacher trainer based at the British Council in Dubai, UAE. Specifically interested in “learning by doing”, his main goal is to promote a greater understanding of student-centered, inquiry-based learning approaches, with the overall aim of encouraging critical thinking and the development of good study skills at all levels during the educational process.

Theme of the presentation: “Using Video and Digital Stories to Reduce Cognitive Load in Language Learning"