PD Update

21 April 2015

NSW UECA PD Fest 2 May
Alert! Places are filling up fast. Register now at: http://www.ueca.edu.au/pdfest2015/

English Australia Webinar: Common issues with attendance monitoring and reporting
Want to know more about attendance and course progress issues? Join our webinar with Melita Hoskins, Assistant Director, Overseas Student Ombudsman, on 13 May at 4pm. To register, email easec@englishaustralia.com.au

Vic Branch PD evening: "The Class beyond the Classroom" 14 May
Teachers in Victoria, come along to this fun evening of PD!
When: 6-8pm, Thurs 14 May
Where: Victoria Uni, room 9015, Lvl 9, 300 Flinders St, Melbourne
Presented by: the Vic Branch of English Australia and local teachers

English Australia Conference Proposal Submissions

Have you ever thought about presenting at the English Australia Conference? This year we’ve made it easier than ever to write your proposal submission by developing some great tools to help you every step of the way. Click on the following documents or download them from the website.

Tips for writing a conference proposal
Presentation guidelines

Or, presenting a poster can be perfect if you don't want to present a talk but still wish to participate. These will be posted in the exhibition area and will be a way to discuss your ideas in a relaxed setting during the catering breaks. Don’t know what a poster presentation is? Please read our helpful guide:

What's involved in presenting a poster

This free online course looks interesting. Hosted by The University of Southampton and the British Council, Understanding Language: Learning and Teaching: An introduction to some key concepts in the effective teaching and learning of languages. Click here for more details.

Some sessions and interviews from the recent IATEFL Conference in Manchester are available publicly on the IATEFL Online website for at least a year. I highly recommend a look through these. If you would like to read some summaries of IATEFL sessions, this blog post from a conference delegate is good too: https://eltgeek.wordpress.com/2015/04/16/iatefl-2015-summaries/

If you missed out on the AUS ELT Twitter slowburn on app sharing, you can see the summary here: https://storify.com/sujava/app-sharing This is a great way to find out more about apps that can support your students’ learning.

The April edition of the English Australia journal will be arriving in our office this week! We will be posting copies out to colleges and uploading the electronic version to our website very soon. There are so many interesting reads in this edition including an article about using wikis and forums for writing practice, Classroom Talk articles about using dictation to build academic confidence and about Critical reading and 10 Questions for the tech ‘go to guy’ Mark Pegrum.

It’s the season to nominate for the English Australia Awards Program. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to nominate an individual from your college or nominate an innovative idea from your college to make sure that excellence is recognised within our industry.

Award for Academic Leadership

Award for Innovation 

John Gallagher Professional Bursary

Nominations close 29 May.

IELTS Joint-Funded Research Program 2015
The IELTS partners (British Council, IDP: IELTS Australia, and Cambridge English Language Assessment) are pleased to invite applications for funding to undertake research in relation to IELTS. Research projects will be funded to a maximum of £45,000/AUS$70,000 and can last between one and two years, as appropriate to the scope of the research. Applications close 30 June, 2015.

Caroline Clapham IELTS Masters Award 2015
The IELTS partners (British Council, IDP: IELTS Australia, and Cambridge English Language Assessment) are pleased to invite applications for the Caroline Clapham IELTS Masters Award. The award is given annually to the Master’s-level dissertation or thesis in English which makes the most significant contribution to the field of language testing. The work should be language testing focused but need not be IELTS related. The award carries a prize of £1,000. Applications close 30 June, 2015.

April
25-26 2015 International Conference on English Education, ‘English for Specific Purposes (ESP): Global Trends and Local Practices,’ Taipei, Taiwan

May
7-8 NEAS Management Conference, Pyrmont, Sydney
8-9 Innovate ELT, ‘Innovation in ELT, now and into the future,’ Barcelona, Spain

June
11-13 CAES (Centre for Applied English Studies) International Conference, ‘Faces of English: Theory, Practice and Pedagogy,’ Hong Kong

September
23-25 English Australia Conference , ‘Looking ahead: change, challenge and opportunity’, Brisbane Hilton, QLD
28 Australian Systemic Functional Linguistics Association (ASFLA) Conference, Brisbane, Call for presentations open until 2 April
24-26 Argentina’s Federation of English Teachers’ Associations (FAAPI) annual conference: ‘EFL Classroom in the New Millenium – Local Developments and Global Concerns,’ Argentina, call for papers now open: contact Ms Mariana Agnolin for details

October
6-9 Australian International Education Conference (AIEC), Adelaide, #AIEC2015.

November
23-26 4th Language Education and Diversity Conference, Auckland, New Zealand
19-21 The 14th Symposium on Second Language Writing, ‘Learning to Write for Academic Purposes,’ AUT University, Auckland, New Zealand
25-27 Association for Academic Language and Learning Conference (AALL), ‘Critical Intersections,’ Wollongong, NSW

30 Nov-2 Dec 4th ALAA ALANZ ALTANZ 2015 Learning in a Multilingual World, University of South Australia

December
3-5  TESOL International Association Regional Conference, ‘Excellence in Language Instruction: Supporting Classroom Teaching and Learning, National Institute of Education, Singapore

Did someone else at your college forward this to you? If you have an English Australia member college email address you can sign up for PD Updates directly – just contact easec@englishaustralia.com.au .

Please feel free to email me at sophieokeefe@englishaustralia.com.au with any questions.

Kind regards,

Sophie O’Keefe
Professional Support & Development Officer