Keynotes
Chris Davison
 Professor Chris Davison, a specialist in language education and school-based assessment, is Professor of Education and Head of the School of Education. She was previously Associate Dean (Research) in the Faculty of Education at Hong Kong University, where she remains an Honorary Professor. Before going to Hong Kong in 1999, she worked in teacher education at the University of Melbourne and La Trobe University for fifteen years and before that, as an ESL teacher and consultant in the adult migrant English program, TAFE, secondary schools and child English language centres in Melbourne. Chris has researched and published extensively on the interface between English as a mother tongue and ESL development, integrating language and content curriculum, and English language assessment. Her latest books include a two volume handbook of teaching English internationally (Springer, with Jim Cummins) and a co-authored book on English language teaching innovation in China (HKU Press, with Xinmin Zheng). With colleagues at the University of Hong Kong, she has recently completed the research and development of a range of oral school-based assessment initiatives for the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority, and has also been working with the Ministries of Education in Singapore and in Brunei on integrating assessment for learning into their new curricula. With Michael Michell she has just completed cross-sector parallel projects in NSW and Victoria on the design options for an assessment framework for ESL learners in schools. Chris has had a long history of involvement in TESOL professional associations, including 15 years as a member of VATME (the precursor of VicTESOL) and three years as President of the Australian Council of TESOL Associations.
Cathy Dewes
 Dr Cathy Dewes (Te Arawa and Ngati Porou) was once head prefect at Wellington Girls College, and spent many years learning Latin, French, German, Italian and English. However, her request to learn Maori through correspondence school was denied. She is now the Principal of a landmark total immersion school, Te Kura Kaupapa Maori o Ruamata, and has been a leader in Maori education for more than three-and-a-half decades. She was one of a group who began Maori Language Day in 1975, which later became Maori Language Week , and was instrumental in the establishment of Kura Kaupapa Maori schools throughout New Zealand. Dr Dewes has been Chair of Te Runanganui o Nga Kura Kaupapa Maori, the national body for Kura Kaupapa Maori, and has been an advisor on Kura Kaupapa Maori to the Ministry of Education. Dr Dewes has played a key role in increasing Maori language content in television and radio. She was the first woman to be elected to the former Te Arawa Maori Trust Board and is a board member for both Maori Television and Te Reo Irirangi o Te Arawa radio station. Dr Dewes was made an officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the Queen's Birthday Honours on 6 June, 2011. Shortly afterwards, on 6 September, 2011, she was conferred with an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Waikato at Ruamata Marae in Rotorua.
Photo: The Daily Post
Andreas Lund
Proudly sponsored by:
Dr. Andreas Lund is Associate Professor at the Department of Teacher Education and School Research and Vice Dean at the Faculty of Education, University of Oslo, Norway. Dr. Lund has worked in the field of Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) since the mid-1980s as a teacher, an animator for a series of language & technology workshops for the European Centre of Modern Languages, a project co-ordinator for ICT in correctional education, and a researcher on language learning and teaching in networked environments. Among his research interests are teaching and learning ESL, collective cognition, human interactions in technology-rich environments, sociocultural and activity theoretical perspectives on learning and didactics, speech communities and communication change. Dr. Lund is currently involved in redesigning teacher education at the University of Oslo towards a hybrid on-site/on-line/in-practice model in order to better bridge theory and practice. His published articles, books and book chapters draw on sociocultural perspectives and Activity Theory, e.g. as co-editor and contributor to the book Learning Across Sites: New Tools, Infrastructures and Practices (2010, Routledge). Homepage with publication list: www.uv.uio.no/ils/english/people/aca/andlund/index.html
Dame Katerina Te Heikoko Mataira
We in the Community Languages and ESOL community join with others in mourning the passing of Dame Katerina Te Heikoko Mataira, of Ngati Porou, on Saturday 16 July 2011.
Dame Katerina has been described as "the mother of kura kaupapa Maori" (Maori Affairs Minister Pita Sharples, The New Zealand Herald, 17 July 2011), “a true educationalist” and “a tohunga of te reo Maori” (Haami Piripi, a former chief executive of the Maori Language Commission, Radio New Zealand News, 18 July 2011).
Dame Katerina had agreed to be a key note speaker at the CLESOL Conference in 2012 and we were looking forward to learning from her.
She will be sadly missed by all.
Moe mai ra e te rau huia o Hikurangi Maunga. Hoki wairua atu ki nga kahui manu e tatari mai ra.
E te Kahurangi, moe mai ra koe i te moe te mataraumati, te whakatorohu, i to moenga kura. Ko te po ki a koe e Rangi, ko te po ki a koe.
Sunita Narayan
Sunita Narayan has gone from being a college teacher to adult education in the corporate environment to teaching Hindi as a community language. Sunita has taught at and managed the Wellington Hindi School for approximately 17 years. She has drawn from this experience in supporting other such schools. As the president of Community Languages Association of New Zealand (CLANZ) she led the development of the community languages strategy and continues to work in this field to ensure that communities who aspire to maintain and develop their mother tongue are supported.
Paul Nation
 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. A four-book series Reading for Speed and Fluency appeared from Compass Publishing in 2007 as well as a six-book series called 4000 Essential English Words in 2009. His latest books on vocabulary include Learning Vocabulary in Another Language (2001) published by Cambridge University Press, Focus on Vocabulary (2007) from NCELTR/Macquarie, and Teaching Vocabulary: Strategies and Techniques published by Cengage Learning (2008). Three books, Teaching ESL/EFL Listening and Speaking (with Jonathan Newton), Teaching ESL/EFL Reading and Writing, and Language Curriculum Design (with John Macalister) have recently appeared from Routledge. His latest book is Researching and Analysing Vocabulary (2010) (with Stuart Webb) from Heinle Cengage Learning.
Amy Tsui
Proudly sponsored by:
Professor Amy B.M. Tsui is Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President of The University of Hong Kong. She assists the Vice-Chancellor in setting the direction and policy for the University’s undergraduate curriculum reform, quality assurance of the undergraduate and postgraduate curricula, and promotion of teaching excellence at the University.
Professor Tsui concurrently holds the position of Chair Professor in the Faculty of Education. She obtained her PhD in Linguistics in 1986 at The University of Birmingham, UK, and has published seven books and numerous journal papers in the areas of classroom discourse, conversational analysis, language policy and teacher education. She has also given numerous keynote speeches at international conferences and serves on the editorial / advisory board of a number of international refereed journals. Her recent publications are Understanding Expertise in Teaching: Case Studies of ESL Teachers (2003) by Cambridge University Press, Learning in School-University Partnership: Sociocultural Perspectives (2009) as lead author, and a co-edited book Language, Culture and Identity in Asian Contexts (2007) both by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates (now Routledge).
Cynthia White
 Cynthia White is Professor of Applied Linguistics, Massey University, New Zealand. She has published widely on distance and online learning, learner autonomy, learning strategies, 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 an Editorial Board member of seven international journals, and has been plenary speaker at international conferences in Germany, Thailand, Singapore, China, UK, Hawai’i, and Malaysia. Her publications include two books (Language Learning in Distance Education, Distance Education and Languages: Evolution and Change), 39 refereed articles, eight book chapters, four FRST-funded research reports, and several guest editorships of journal special issues.
She is external consultant at the National Middle East Language Resource Centre, USA for Arabic Distance Learning Initiatives 2005-2011. Cynthia has completed collaborative research projects with Oxford University, Open University UK, and Nottingham University in online language teaching. Her most recent projects include the study of the regulation of affect in independent language learning, and of teacher identity in online language teaching.
|