The Impact of Technology on Language Learning and Teaching: What, How and Why.

Date & Venue:

20 - 22 April 2009

SEAMEO Regional Language Centre
30 Orange Grove Road
Singapore 258352

Rationale:

For the past two millennia, the teaching and learning of languages has remained relatively unchanged. However, in the past twenty years, the advances in technology have not only impacted teaching practices but also given rise to new teaching approaches, methodologies and techniques. The modern language classroom teacher is now able to record, play and display real time communication for the benefit of language learners. We have graduated from the language laboratories and cassette recorders of the era of audiolingualism to video conferencing, CALL, Internet-enabled classrooms and even virtual classrooms. All these advances in technology should provide the language teacher with the leverage to bring the outside world into the language classroom and also the language classroom to the outside world. A teacher can now use the latest news reports to teach listening, speaking, reading and writing skills. The rate of development in the field of technology demands that we explore the best practices in the field to enable language practitioners to exploit the potential of technology in the language classroom.

Aims:

The 44th RELC Seminar has the following aims:

· To identify the changes that have taken place over the past twenty years in the use of technology in language teaching

· To discuss the effects of these new developments on the latest approaches to the teaching of languages

· To explore the future effects of technological developments on language learning processes

Topics:

· Language skills that can best be developed by technology

· New developments in language software

· The role of technology in developing reading and writing skills

· The role of technology in developing speaking and listening skills

· The impact of technology on curriculum and syllabus design

· The impact of technology on language use

· Trends in CALL

· Attitudes towards the use of CALL and technology in the language classroom

Presentation:

1. Invited Speaker Papers
These are formal lecture presentations by distinguished scholars in the field lasting forty-five minutes plus fifteen minutes question time.

2. Parallel Papers
These are formal lecture presentations lasting thirty minutes plus ten minutes question time. The Seminar Planning Committee reserves the right to assign papers to either the Invited Speaker or the Parallel Sessions.

3. Workshops
In these ninety-minute sessions, there is little lecturing by the leaders. Instead, the participants are engaged in activities that have been carefully structured by the leaders.

4. Procedure for Submission of Paper/Workshop Proposals

· A 150-250 word abstract with a title not exceeding twelve words and a fifty-word biodata should be sent to the Seminar Secretariat no later than 28 November 2008. Abstracts outside the word limit will not be accepted.

· The Seminar Planning Committee will inform proposers by 31 January 2009 whether their proposals have been accepted.

· A soft and hard copy of the completed text of the paper selected for the Seminar must be sent to the Seminar Secretariat no later than 13 March 2009. If these are not received by this date, the Committee reserves the right to withdraw the paper from presentation.

5. Criteria for Acceptance
All abstracts will be evaluated by the Seminar Planning Committee. Relevance to the theme of the Seminar and freshness and originality of approach are among the major considerations in the acceptance of papers. The Committee reserves the right to decline paper/workshop proposals without assigning reasons.

6. Copyright/Publication
RELC reserves the copyright over all papers presented at the Seminar. Selected papers will be published. The copyright of papers not published by RELC will be reassigned to the authors.

7. Funding
As a professional non-profit organization, RELC does not generally provide financial assistance to paper/workshop presenters. Thus the registration fee is payable by all participants and parallel paper and workshop presenters.

8. Registration
Please complete the registration form on the next page.

For details:

http://www.relc.org.sg/seminar.html