VicTESOL Symposium 2019
Sharing multiple perspectives on TESOL
The TESOL contexts we work in are many and varied. The experiences, skills and knowledge that our learners bring with them are also multiple. We ourselves as TESOL teachers, researchers and educational leaders have different backgrounds and experiences. The 2019 VicTESOL Symposium offers opportunities to come together to share and develop our multiple perspectives around topics including: plurilingualism and translanguaging, working with learners at different levels, digital technologies for language learning, curriculum, assessment and reporting, and others.
To provide different spaces for this sharing and discussion some innovations this year include: the scheduling of flash presentations followed by round table discussions, as well as an interactive panel discussion at which experts will respond to questions from the Symposium delegates in the room, and also questions sent through prior to the day via social media.
So, come along to the Symposium and / or participate online through FB, Twitter and the VicTESOL website and share your perspectives on TESOL.
* Click here for information about LIVE STREAMING on Monday 19 August 2019 *
Monday 19 August 2019
8:30am – 4:00pm
Bastow Institute of Educational Leadership
603-615 Queensberry St, North Melbourne, 3051
Ticket Prices
$130 – VicTESOL Member (Please log on for member price to be applied)
$170 – Non-member
Membership & Ticket Deal
$200 – VicTESOL individual membership and ticket purchase
Free ticket offer for regional EAL practitioners!
- Barwon South West: Kellee Phillpotts
- Grampians: Heather Schulz
- Hume: Pervi Mehta
- Loddon Mallee: Bernadette Parnis
- Gippsland: Karen Symons
Keynote Speaker- Dr Marianne Turner, Monash University
Exploring the ‘SOL’ in ‘TESOL’: Leveraging and developing students’ linguistic repertoire
In Europe and the US, traditional understandings of languages as discrete systems that can be mastered are increasingly being challenged via a focus on speakers’ practices. Terms such as plurilingualism and translanguaging have emerged from these different contexts, the former mainly from continental Europe and the latter mainly from the US and the UK, and both grapple with linguistic repertoire in a holistic sense. They attribute value to students’ broader linguistic experiences rather than only ‘measuring’ the students through their knowledge of a dominant language.
The new EAL curriculum in Victoria plans to introduce the concept of plurilingual awareness and, at the base of this awareness, there lies a different way of thinking about language. In this presentation, I will explain this thinking, and will also address similarities and differences between plurilingualism and translanguaging. The latter is a concept that has particularly been gaining ground in the US, where TESOL is also increasingly being conceptualised as bilingual education. A discussion on this trend, and the associated benefits, challenges and critiques will then lead to an exploration of how we can learn from the explicit positioning of EAL in students’ broader linguistic repertoires, and apply ideas in the Australian context.
Dr Marianne Turner is a Senior Lecturer in TESOL and Bilingual Education in the Education Faculty at Monash University. Before working in higher education, she had diverse language teaching experiences, including teaching EAL in a secondary intensive language centre and in AMES in Western Australia, in secondary schools in Japan, in English language intensive centres for overseas students (ELICOS) in the UK and Australia, and in language academies in Spain. She also taught Japanese at primary and secondary level in Australia.
Dr Turner researches context-sensitive approaches to the integration of language and content and her work has been published widely in both general education and bilingual education journals. Her interests include the leveraging of students’ linguistic and cultural resources for learning, the oral language production of students from different language backgrounds in bilingual programs, and teacher collaboration. In her research she frames TESOL from an enrichment perspective, or from the perspective of bi/multilingual education.
Her new book entitled ‘Multilingualism as a resource and a goal: Using and learning languages in mainstream schools’ is due to be published by Palgrave Macmillan in September.
Panel of Experts
Plurilingual perspectives and their implications for teaching
- Dr Shem Macdonald – VicTESOL – Moderator
- Dr Marianne Turner – Monash University
- Dr Julie Choi – University of Melbourne
- Dr Howard Nicholas – La Trobe University
An awareness, understanding, acceptance, and embracing of the plurilingualism of learners in TESOL programs can positively shape how we teach and how they learn. The fact that plurilingualism features prominently as a new strand in the Draft English as an Additional Language Curriculum as part of the Victorian F-10 Curriculum suggests that this claim bears some weight. However, do we, as TESOL professionals, have a clear idea what plurilingual perspectives are and what their implications are for teaching language?
To explore this question, we have invited several experts in the field of TESOL/Applied linguistics to a panel discussion to share their perspectives on plurilingualism. We then ask them to outline some of the implications of such views for how teachers of EAL might approach their planning and teaching.
Your questions and comments
Prior to the Symposium and the Panel discussion, VicTESOL invites questions from members and others about the topic of plurilingualism and the teaching of EAL. These questions will be elicited and collected through the event registration process as well as via a range of social and digital media in the weeks leading up to the Symposium. We will collate a selection of questions to be put to the panel on the day.
If you cannot make it to the Bastow to hear the panel answer your question, we are also planning on bringing the panel discussion to you via live streaming on the day, plus through a recording for viewing afterwards via a link on the VicTESOL website.
Event Running Order
| 8:30am – 9:00am | Registration |
| 9:00am – 9:15am | Introduction |
| 9:15am – 10:15am | Keynote Speaker: Dr Marianne Turner, Monash University |
| 10:20 – 11:00am | Session 1 |
| 11:00 – 11:30am | Morning Tea |
| 11:35am – 12:15pm | Session 2 |
| 12:20pm – 1:00pm | Session 3 |
| 1:00pm – 2:15pm | Lunch |
| 2:20 – 3:20pm | Panel of Experts |
| 3:30 – 4:00pm | Afternoon Tea/ Networking |
Breakout Session Options
Click here or download the PDF for detailed session descriptions.
Session 1
Area |
Presenters |
| Early Childhood/Primary | Kate Plant
Establishing an EAL program in a mainstream primary school |
| Secondary | Jessie Sambell, Leah Kontos and Sarah Martin, Blackburn English Language School
Supporting students to self-edit through functional grammar |
| Adult/ Community | Jigar Adhyaru, Chisholm TAFE
SWOT analysis of digital literacy in EAL class for adults |
| Across the Sectors | Dr Julie Choi, University of Melbourne
Learning about EAL learners’ English language learning experiences through language learning trajectory grids |
Session 2
Area |
Presenters |
| Early Childhood/Primary | Fiona Ackerly, Susan Govett & Brooke Henderson with Margaret Nutbean
Teaching Young Children in English in Multilingual Contexts (TYCMC) |
| Secondary | Matt Rodger & Greg Gow, Foundation House
‘School is where you need to be equal and learn’: Insights from students of refugee backgrounds on learning and engagement in Victorian secondary schools (2019) |
| Adult/ Community | Jodie Whitehurst, Williamstown Community and Education Centre
Using Drama Techniques in the teaching of adult EAL |
| Across the Sectors | Flash Presentation & Round-table Discussion: Using Technology in the EAL classroom
Facilitators- Nathan Chong, Brunswick English Language Centre & Clare Blackman, Blackburn English Language School |
Session 3
Area |
Presenters & Topic |
| Early Childhood/Primary | Carolyn Elliot
‘I can rather than I can’t’ – supporting students, families and teachers to achieve continued growth |
| Secondary | Julia Lippold, Lauriston Girls School
Zealous English: Blogging and Vlogging for middle years EAL |
| Adult/ Community | Flash Presentation & Round-table Discussion: Working with Beginner Level Adults
Facilitator- Margaret Corrigan, Carringbush Adult Education |
| Across the Sectors | Steven Quinn, Carwatha Secondary College
Talk with the hand: Gestures in EAL |
Please note that sessions at this event may be photographed, filmed or recorded by VicTESOL for live or subsequent broadcast via the VicTESOL website. VicTESOL reserves the right to use photos and recordings from the event for publicity and promotional purposes.
For more information regarding VicTESOL’s Privacy & Refund Policies, please click here.
