Last August 12 and 13, (exactly 2 months ago), I attended the gathering of intellectuals and language experts at the 2nd Cebu International TESOL Conference. Alongside with 4 keynote speakers are a hundred of lecturers from all over the world. That's how big the the delegation was! Indeed, a rare occasion where Cebu hosted such a big event. Lucky that I don't need to go to another city or worse go to another country.
Photos lifted from the USPF official website.
The Venue - University of Southern Philippines Foundation
The Conference Hall
Some speakers.......
Professor Z. N Patil from India
Dr. Eva Bernat from Australia
Minako Yogi
Byron O' Neill
Christine Tinner
Kim Hyo Young from Korea
An excerpt of Dr. Eva Bernat's speech
Insights:
One of the many things I've learned is that you don't really need to sound like native speakers. Raise linguistic pragmatics instead.
You can neutralize your accent only if you are aware of the phonological differences in every country..
The expert teachers should have a wide repertoire of current issues and anticipate problems.
Think globally yet act locally.
Language satisfies the need of the society.
To top it all, the problems regarding the accent problems stem from the mother tongue. If learners were aware of the differences then the expert teachers can re-mediate the problem.
The participants...
The kit
Photo ops...
The Closing Ceremony
I have never been so attentive in a conference. If I were on a seminar, most of the time was spent for in - between naps. haha. I believe this is the first. Success!
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