More than 700 professors and students from the UAE and other countries gathered in Abu Dhabi yesterday for a two-day conference focusing on upgrading language teaching and learning techniques.
The Abu Dhabi-based Military Language Institute (MLI), an offshoot of the Armed Forces, is organising the 'Teacher-to-Teacher' conference at the vast armed forces officers club.
"The success of this conference will depend on the degree to which our participants are able to take advantage of this forum for professional discussion and exchange," said Colonel Mohammed Abdullah Al Mazroui, Commander of MLI.
"These participants come from government and private schools, from universities and from the institutes of language centres. This population represents a vast cross-section of educators from our educational system."
He said the forum represents a unique opportunity "for us to grow as professionals and an opportunity to take back to our places of work, new teaching ideas and improved teaching techniques.
"We hope the participants will share these ideas with their colleagues who were not able to attend the conference. We are all committed to the goal of providing our students with first-rate instruction so that they become productive citizens equipped with language skills to help them and our society meet the demands of the modern world."
Mazroui said the MLI, set up five years ago on the instructions of Lieutenant General Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces, has ambitious plans to expand its services, including online teaching, to meet the growing linguistic demands for English, French, German and other languages.
The institute is providing support to other military educational institutions, such as Zayed Military College and Khalifa bin Zayed Air College.
"Soon we will expand to include outreach centres to other locations outside Abu Dhabi so that our students can attend classes near their homes.
"We will use modern modes of learning such as distance education via the Internet to make access to education easier, and we will continue to recruit the best educators to help in the task of training our officers and enlisted personnel and to develop our academic programmes."
Key speakers at the conference include Robert Phillipson, Research Professor at Copenhagen Business School University, Bill Johnston, Assistant Professor of Applied Linguistics at Indiana University, and Keith Folse, Coordinator at the University of Central Florida.
Gulf News
