Keynote Speakers

Michael Coghlan

Michael Coghlan is the e-Learning Coordinator at the Douglas Mawson Institute of Technology, Adelaide, Australia. He was teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) in the classroom when he decided to become a volunteer online ESL teacher in 1997. His first assignment was to teach Listening Skills to a group of mixed level students around the globe. From this he learned that if the motivation was there students of intermediate level English could independently use the Internet as a tool for learning, and that the greatest potential of the Internet in education lay in its ability to bring people together to communicate. In 1998, he and a group of like-minded ESL/EFL students and teachers were founding members of the Webheads online community, a community which
still thrives to this day.

In 2000 Michael assumed the broader role of professional development in e-learning for all staff in the South Australian Technical And Further Education (TAFE) system, and is currently the e-learning coordinator at the Douglas Mawson Institute of Technology. He has designed and delivered online courses in ESL, e-Moderation, and Using Online Technologies, and is an online instructor for the Graduate Certificate in e-Learning delivered by Adelaide Institute of TAFE. He has written widely on issues to do with e-learning, and presented at several international conferences, both physically and as a remote presenter.

As a Flexible Learning Leader for the Australian Flexible Learning Framework in 2003 Michael researched the use of online voice technologies. Not surprisingly, he is a passionate believer in the power of online voice communications to inspire and motivate students. His keynote presentation will demonstrate some of the tools and techniques that make this possible.

Diane Larsen-Freeman (Ph.D. in Linguistics, University of Michigan, 1975)

Diane is Professor of Education and Director of the English Language Institute at the University of Michigan. She is also a Distinguished Senior Faculty Fellow at the School for International Training in Brattleboro, Vermont. Dr. Larsen-Freeman has been a conference speaker in over 40 countries of the world and has published over 80 articles in her areas of interest: second language acquisition, language teacher education, English linguistics, and language teaching methodology.

From 1980-1985, Dr. Larsen-Freeman was Editor of the journal Language Learning. In 1997, Dr. Larsen-Freeman was inducted into the Vermont Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 1999, she was selected by ESL Magazine as one of "the ESL pioneers." In 2000, she received the lifetime achievement award from Heinle & Heinle Publishers. Her books include: Discourse Analysis in Second Language Research(edited, Newbury House, 1980), The Grammar Book: An ESL/EFL Teacher’s Course (co-authored with Marianne Celce-Murcia, Newbury House, Heinle & Heinle 1983; 1999), Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching (authored, Oxford University Press, 1986; 2000), An Introduction to Second Language Acquisition Research (co-authored with Michael Long, Longman, 1991), Grammar Dimensions: Form, Meaning, and Use (Series Director, Heinle & Heinle, 1993; 1997; 2000), and Teaching Language: From Grammar to Grammaring (authored, Heinle & Heinle, 2003).

Paul Nation

Paul is a Professor in Applied Linguistics at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand where he teaches courses in pedagogical grammar, curriculum design, and teaching and learning vocabulary. He has taught in Indonesia, Thailand, the United States, Finland and Japan. His publications include articles and books on teaching and learning vocabulary, language teaching methodology, and curriculum design. In addition he has written several booklets to be used in the courses he teaches. He has published a new book called Learning Vocabulary in Another Language and has developed a substantial data base of publications on vocabulary which are classified into a wide range of categories.

He has also developed computer programmes that examine vocabulary in texts. His forthcoming articles deal with vocabulary density and reading, language curriculum design, vocabulary and graded readers, and equivalent forms of a dictation test of vocabulary.

Stephen May

Stephen is Foundation Professor and Chair of Language and Literacy Education in the School of Education and Research Professor in the Wilf Malcolm Institute of Educational Research, at the University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand. He began his professional career as a secondary teacher of English and ESL in New Zealand and has subsequently taught in universities in New Zealand, Britain and Canada. Immediately prior to taking up his position at the University of Waikato in October 2001, he was a Visiting Professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto. From 1993-2001 he taught in the Sociology Department, University of Bristol, UK, where he remains affiliated as a Senior Research Fellow.

Stephen has written widely on language and education, with a particular focus on addressing and accommodating cultural and linguistic diversity. Areas of particular interest and expertise include: language rights, bilingualism and bilingual education, indigenous education, and multicultural education. To date, he has published 5 books, and over 40 refereed academic articles and book chapters. His most recent sole-authored book, Language and Minority Rights (Longman, 2001), was shortlisted for the prestigious British Association of Applied Linguistics (BAAL) Book Prize, 2002.

Scott Thornbury

Scott has broad experience in what is perhaps a narrow field, having worked in the private EFL sector all his working life, as teacher, director of studies, school director and teacher trainer, now in Spain (where he lives), but previously in Egypt and with short stints in the UK and my native NZ. Teacher education has always been his special interest and he has had a lot of involvement in UCLES accredited teacher training schemes and is at present Chief Examiner for the DELTA scheme. Over the last ten years he has managed to fit in some writing including contributions towards four course books plus three books on language teaching, including Uncovering Grammar, and How To Teach Vocabulary (Longman). In addition he has produced dozens of articles and reviews, and undertaken a great deal of conferencing. More recently he has been involved in on-line learning, having overseen the writing of a five level internet-delivered course in general English. His particular interests include: discourse analysis, classroom interaction, second language emergence and critical pedagogy — and the relationship between all four.

Patisepa Tuafuti

Patisepa Tuafuti was born and educated in Samoa before she migrated to Aotearoa in 1976. She graduated from Auckland College of Education in 1979 with a New Zealand Teaching Diploma, and from 1980 to 1993, she taught mainly in primary schools in south Auckland. Since 1995, she has been working at the Auckland College of Education as a Pacific Island Education advisor, a Samoan facilitator for various Ministry of Education projects, and a director of a Samoan language contract. She lectures in the Pacific Island Early Childhood Diploma of Teaching and ECE B.Ed programmes. She is also a lecturer and coordinator of the Graduate Diploma of Education in Pasifika language teaching and Pasifika bilingual education.