As I announced a couple of months ago, I am proud to chair a panel discussion focussing on Young Learners in this year’s IATEFL convention. The panel is titled: Teaching English to Young Learners: Some International perspectives and you can read more about it here.
In this post, I want to introduce the brilliant teachers and scholars who will be joining me at the panel:
Juup Stelma
Juup Stelma is the Programme Director of the MA TESOL at the University of Manchester. He has experience teaching English to young learners and adults in South Korea. His recent research is primarily framed by ecological theory, and his PhD research at Leeds (1999-2003) looked into the discourse of young learners in Norway who were doing task work in language classrooms.
In the panel, Juup is going to share some insights as to how young learners construct meaning as they engage with task-based learning.
Vicky Loras
Vicky Loras is an English teacher, born in the beautiful city of Toronto, Canada. She has been teaching English as a foreign language and literature to students of all ages, since 1997. She now lives in Switzerland and is the co-founder and owner of The Loras English Network, a school that she has opened with her sister Eugenia. Vicky and Eugenia teach English, train teachers and also hold children’s events. Vicky blogs at http://www.vickyloras.wordpress.com
Drawing on her experience in Switzerland and Greece, Vicky will discuss how Project-Based Learning can be effectively used with young learners.
María Muniz
María Muniz Stirling is Uruguayan and graduated as a Teacher of English in the year 2000 when she obtained her TESOL Certificate from Trinity College London. She has taught students at different levels of proficiency in primary and secondary schools as well as in language schools. At present, she is Head of English Studies for Primary at Ivy Thomas Memorial School in Uruguay and Cambridge Speaking Examiner for KET/PET and FCE levels. She is currently a MSc in Educational Leadership (DL) candidate at the University of Leicester. She is also an English<>Spanish<> French certified Translator.
María will talk about the role of English language certification in Uruguayan primary schools.
Magdalena De Stefani
Magdalena De Stefani graduated as a Teacher of English in Uruguay in 1997. She obtained her MEd in ELT in 2005 and completed her PhD in Education in 2012, both at the University of Manchester, UK. She is currently Head of Pre School and Primary at Ivy Thomas Memorial School in Uruguay and is also a Lecturer in Research Methods at Universidad ORT Uruguay. Since 2013, she has been a member of the Uruguayan national network of researchers (ANII, Sistema Nacional de Investigadores).
Magdalena is going to share her insights on introducing English at pre-school level in Latin America, and address the question of age in TEYL.
And now on to the awkward bit:
Achilleas Kostoulas
I have been involved in English Language Teaching in a variety of roles, such as teacher, Director of Studies and researcher since 1999. I graduated from the University of Athens with a BA in English Studies, and hold an MA TESOL and a PhD in Education from the University of Manchester. Much of my recent work has involved young learners, and I was recently involved in piloting TEYL projects in Greece.
In the panel, I will share some of my experiences from the introduction of TEYL courses to 6-8 year old students in Greek primary schools, and invite you to interrogate some political assumptions that have underpinned TEYL.
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The discussion will take place at Charter 2-3, on Saturday 11 April 2015, at 12:00 – 13:05, so if you are in IATEFL, we’d love you to join us! We have set aside a large time slot of audience participation and look forward to learning from your own experiences too!
Featured Image: Manchester Central (G-Mex), viewed from Windmill Street. Shared by David Dixon [CC BY-SA-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons
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