(2004.9.1) David Shaffer As
it has done for many years now, the Korea Association of Teachers of
English (KATE) held another ELT conference this summer. But not just
another conference – KATE has begun holding international conferences
in recent years, and this was the first time for them to hold a two-day
international conference. The two single-day conference per year format
has been replaced with an annual two-day show. Under the theme of
English Education from Socio-cultural Perspectives, the June 25-26
conference got off to a great start at Seoul National University in the
capital of South Korea.
The number of conference attendees was a record for a KATE
conference – 450. And they were not disappointed. The list of invited
speakers included some high-powered names and some high-powered
presentations. Dr. James Lantolf of The Pennsylvania State University,
USA, opened the conference with the keynote address, a very insightful
presentation on internalization and L2 learning, and on how imitation
and private speech play an important role, as does intrapersonal
communication. Following the keynote address and the conference theme,
Dr. Michael Byram of the University of Durham, UK, spoke on language
testing in socio-cultural perspective, while Dr. Richard Donato of the
University of Pittsburgh spoke on socio-cultural perspectives of
aspects of collaboration in pedagogical contexts. The remainder of the
day was packed with over sixty concurrent paper sessions, workshops,
and poster presentations on the diverse areas of ELT; there was
something for everyone. The one-hour cultural event of the evening was
an awe-inspiring Korean dance performance and an American elementary
school children's presentation of songs followed by a reception where
one could make new acquaintances and network with others.
Day-2, Saturday, began at nine o'clock sharp with fourteen
concurrent sessions, followed by another seven concurrent sessions by
KATE's associates in Japan and China. These were followed by
enlightening sessions by Dr. Lantolf (Dynamic Assessment of L2
Development: Bringing the Past into the Future) and Dr. Thomas Scovel
of San Francisco State University (Teaching Grammar Communicatively).
After the general business meeting and lunch, another broad array of 24
concurrent sessions and two workshops were available to choose from.
The day concluded with a panel discussion on the roles of ELT scholars
in Korean society. This was the only session in Korean; all others were
in English.
In addition to the academic enrichment, what I liked about
the conference were the little coffee, cake and cookie stations on each
floor near the presentation rooms. Besides tasting good, they provided
a warm and friendly atmosphere in which one could easily start up
conversations with strangers and just do some networking.
This year's KATE International Conference was more
international than ever before. More than 40 percent of the
presentations were by presenters coming from outside of Korea – from
Australia, Taiwan, and Hong Kong to Indonesia, Iran, and Ethiopia, in
addition to Japan, China, the US, the UK, and Canada. Over the two
days, the presentations totaled more than 110. The six or seven
concurrent sessions going on simultaneously, at times, made deciding on
which one to attend difficult – so much to see, so little time to see
it. If the improvement of this year's KATE Conference over last year's
is any indication, you will not want to miss next year's conference.
David Shaffer Chosun University (Korea) Executive Director for Internal
Affairs, Asia TEFL
