(2004.7.31) Joo-Kyung Park
The 5th Pan Asia Conference (PAC) was held at Far Eastern National
University in Vladivostok, Russia June 24-27, 2004. It was hosted by
Far Eastern English Language Teachers’ Association (FEELTA) as their
2004 conference. PAC is a joint program among the partner organizations
including ThaiTESOL, Korea TESOL, JALT (Japan), ETA (Republic of
China), and FEELTA, each of which has hosted the conference in turn
since 1997. ELLTA (Singapore) joined as the sixth partner at the
conference.
I have attended all five of the PAC conferences and it has
been such a joy for me to see all the different characteristics of each
conference, which reflected each host country’s rich culture and
tradition. PAC5 was no exception. It was even more of a cultural and
artistic conference than any previous, by including a full package of
cultural programs of Russian music, dance, and excursions throughout
the conference period.
The theme for the conference was “Sharing Challenges,
Sharing Solutions: Teaching Languages in Diverse Contexts." The plenary
speakers included Stephen Krashen, Radislav Millrood, Denise Murray,
John McRae, Larry E. Smith, Maria Lebedko, Simon Greenall, Maria
Verbitskaya, Gwyneth Fox, Marina Sternina, Huw Jarvis, Zoya Proshina,
and Michael “Rube” Redfield. They discussed diverse areas of free
voluntary reading, webpage literacy, the fifth skill, English as an
Asian language, teacher development, and many other culture-related
topics. There were five featured presentation made by speakers selected
by five partner countries, and PAC panels on teacher development,
cross-cultural issues, variants of English, technology in the
classroom, and ESP, where ideas and experiences were shared and
exchanged among delegates from different countries. Overall, about 600
participants from 16 countries attended.
PAC5 was special to me for three reasons: First, it was
where I met again my friends and colleagues with whom I got acquainted
through the previous Pan-Asia conferences and confirmed our friendship,
particularly with those Russian professors such as Valentina Mazur,
Larisa Belichenko, and Marina Rassokha; Second, I met professors from
North Korea for the first time in my life, which tells us that
international conferences like PAC can bring people together over any
political and ideological borders; Third and most importantly, as
general secretary I realized the importance of Asia TEFL and its
mission even more strongly than before. There is a huge demand and a
great desire for more opportunities for Asian TEFLers to grow
professionally and I believe that’s why Asia TEFL was so well received
when I introduced it to the PAC attendees. Both PAC and Asia TEFL
should continue their paths and develop respectively and
collaboratively.
Joo-Kyung Park Honam University (Korea) General Secretary, Asia TEFL
