keynote speakers

Melani Anae

Melani Anae, is Senior Lecturer in Pacific Studies at the Centre for Pacific Studies, University of Auckland, New Zealand. Dr Anae has been instrumental in leading the Centre for Pacific Studies to grow from a small language-based programme into a collaborative hub for studying Pacific culture, history, identity, art, language, performing arts and literature, centred on a modern Fale Pasifika complex. She is a recipient of the Fulbright New Zealand Scholar Award 2007 in which she focused on first- and second-generation Hawai’ian and US-born Samoans, examining changes in ethnic identity arising from the Samoan diaspora for a book she is writing. She has carried out research and published extensively in the areas of ethnicity, health, education, Pacific research methodologies and Pacific approaches to a broad range of social issues. Her most recent publication is a chapter in Settler and Migrant Peoples of New Zealand, published with the assistance of the Ministry for Culture and Heritage Te Manatu Taonga. Her research interests include regional processes of migration, urbanization, ethnicity, and the politics of identity. More specifically focusing on more finely nuanced understandings of identity construction of Pacific peoples and communities in New Zealand. She is part of a large extended Samoan aiga, and is the mother of three children.

Simon Borg

Sponsored by University of Auckland, Department of Applied Language Studies and Linguistics

Simon Borg is Reader in TESOL in the School of Education, University of Leeds, UK. His key area of research and PhD supervision is language teacher cognition (see his book Teacher Cognition and Language Education Continuum International Publishing Group, 2006). His research on teachers' beliefs and practices in teaching grammar has been reported in several journal articles and is also the focus of a book he is writing. Another focus of his research is teachers' conceptions of research. Two edited collections related to his more general interest in supporting teacher research in ELT are Language Teacher Research in Europe (TESOL, 2006) and Classroom Research in ELT in Oman (Oman Ministry of Education, 2006). He is co-ordinator of IATEFL's Research Special Interest Group, and serves on TESOL's Research Standing Committee.

Jeremy Harmer

Sponsored by Unitec New Zealand

Jeremy Harmer has taught in Mexico and the UK, and the USA where he is currently on the faculty for the MA TESOL at the New School University, New York. He has trained teachers and offered seminars all over the world. Among the course materials he has devised are Just Right and the Just series, recently published by Marshall Cavendish ELT. He is the author of methodology titles including How to teach Writing (2004), the extensively revised second edition of How to Teach English (2007), and the fourth edition of The Practice of English Language Teaching (2007) - all published by Pearson Education Ltd. He is the General Editor of the Longman methodology list.

Robyn Hata

Ngati Ira, Ngati Rua/Whakatohea, Tuwharetoa, Tuhoe, Te Whanau-a-Apanui
Kia Ata Mai Educational Trust

Sponsored by The University of Waikato

Robyn Hata recently left the teaching service after 21 years to work full time with Kia Ata Mai Educational Trust on Maori medium language/literacy initiatives. Her teaching career includes 19 years working in schools delivering affirmative Maori education programmes. She was Deputy Principal at Te Wharekura o Rakaumangamanga - the largest total immersion in Maori school in Aotearoa/New Zealand which has an international reputation particularly within other indigenous educational contexts.

Robyn is passionate about Maori medium education, the advancement of Maori education and ultimately the achievement of Maori students as a whole. She believes that those who interact with students are the primary ‘shapers’ of students’ futures. She is a graduate of the Maori medium Literacy specialist course Nga Taumatua (2004) and past president of Te Akatea Maori Principals Association. Robyn has also been a member of a number of Maori Medium Literacy advisory groups for the NZ Ministry of Education.

Mike McCarthy

Sponsored by Cambridge University Press

Michael McCarthy is Emeritus Professor of Applied Linguistics, University of Nottingham, UK, Adjunct Professor of Applied Linguistics, Pennsylvania State University, USA, and Adjunct Professor of Applied Linguistics, University of Limerick, Ireland. He is author/co-author/editor of more than 30 books and more than 70 academic papers. His most recent co-authored books include The Cambridge Grammar of English, Academic Vocabulary in Use, Touchstone and From Corpus to Classroom (all CUP). From 1994 to 1998 he was co-editor of Applied Linguistics. He is co-director (with Ronald Carter) of the 5-million word CANCODE spoken English corpus project, and the one-million word CANBEC spoken business English corpus. He has lectured on language and language teaching in 37 countries and has been actively involved in ELT for 42 years.

Paul Nation

Sponsored by English New Zealand

Paul Nation is Professor of Applied Linguistics in the School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. He has taught in Indonesia, Thailand, the United States, Finland, and Japan. His specialist interests are language teaching methodology and vocabulary learning. His latest book on vocabulary is Teaching Vocabulary: Strategies and Techniques published by Cengage Learning (2008). Two books, Teaching ESL/EFL Listening and Speaking (with Jonathan Newton) and Teaching ESL/EFL Reading and Writing, have just appeared from Routledge Taylor and Francis this year.

Bonny Norton

Sponsored by AUT University

Bonny Norton is Professor and Distinguished University Scholar in the Department of Language and Literacy Education, University of British Columbia, Canada. She is also Honorary Professor in Applied English Language Studies, University of Witwatersrand, South Africa. Her award-winning research addresses identity and language learning, education and development, and critical literacy. Recent publications include Identity and Language Learning (Longman/Pearson, 2000); Gender and English Language Learners (TESOL, 2004, w. A. Pavlenko); and Critical Pedagogies and Language Learning (Cambridge University Press, 2004, w. K. Toohey). She edited the 1997 special issue of TESOL Quarterly on "Language and Identity," and co-edited (w. Y. Kanno) the 2003 special issue of the Journal of Language, Identity, and Education on "Imagined Communities and Educational Possibilities." In 2003, she was awarded a UBC Killam Prize for Excellence in Teaching.

Cath Rau

Ngati Pukeko, Ngati Awa, Tuhoe
Kia Ata Mai Educational Trust

Sponsored by The University of Waikato

Cath Rau has specialised in indigenous language and culture regeneration and in particular, Maori medium language/literacy development in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Her work in this area spans the last 25 years and she has either developed or contributed to a wide range of significant Maori language/literacy development initiatives both at national and local levels. She has extensive experience across all sectors of education from early childhood to tertiary. She has authored numerous teaching and learning materials for use in schools delivering in the medium of Maori and was recently published in the Encyclopedia of Language and Education due for release in 2008 with an article on Assessment in Indigenous Language Programmes. For several years she has been providing professional development support to educators in Maori medium settings to ensure that the developing bilinguality (Maori/English) of students enrolled in these programmes is supported pedagogically.

Rosemary Senior

Rose Senior holds an award-winning PhD in classroom dynamics and is the author of The Experience of Language Teaching (Cambridge University Press), winner of the 2005 Ben Warren Prize for the most significant book of the year in language teacher education. Rose has an extensive language teaching background, which includes teaching foreign languages in the UK and teaching English within the Adult Migrant English Program. She has spent the last 19 years at Curtin University, where she has taught on a range of intensive English language programs and been engaged in teacher training and development activities. Rose publishes in both academic and teacher-oriented journals and has a regular column in English Teaching Professional. She is an experienced conference presenter and workshop facilitator.