Zayed University recently held workshops for developing the techniques of teaching English language in cooperation with TESOL Arabia.
The workshops were held on the Abu Dhabi campus and attended by more than 50 teachers from several educational zones.
Dr. Hanif Hassan, Vice President of Zayed University, said: "These programmes come in the context of cooperation with educational institutes, public authorities and organisations which give their services to the members of society in different fields."
The workshops are targeted at developing the efficiency of teachers through new academic programmes.
Zayed University's English Language Centre attracts a number of experts who lend their expertise and programmes to the university students, and educational institutes.
Since Zayed University's cooperation with TESOL Arabia in 1994, the university seeks to consolidate its relationship with all the employees in the use of English, and develop their profession theoretically and practically.
TESOL Arabia's goal is to establish a network of communication among professionals who use English as a medium of instruction, in order to promote and maintain the excellence of their teaching and administration.
"It aims at stimulating the growth of professional development through the encouragement of both practical and theoretical scholarship, encouraging the use of available technologies, adopting the instructional methodologies that best meet the needs of the students, promoting the English language teaching profession as a career and providing a forum for discussion and support."
Dr Hassan indicated that Sheikh Nahyan Mubarak Al Nahyan, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, President of Zayed University, supported the mission of TESOL Arabia by opening its ninth conference in Dubai recently with the attendance of more than 1,600 English language teachers from the UAE and Gulf region, reassuring the importance of teaching English not as an academic asset but as a new technique which assists them in understanding the cultures of different nations.
Jane Hoelker, English Language Instructor, College of Arts and Sciences, said: "Zayed University hosted a panel for TESOL Arabia members entitled Journals Improve Student Writing. The workshop looked at how journal writing supports students as they build their English language skills. It also gave participants opportunities to write some journal activities such as the Unsent Letter, the Younger Self-Portrait and Exchange and Extend.
"The audience explored how journal writing can help teachers solve some problems they face in the English language classroom like understanding their students' culture and avoiding culture teacher burnout, and demonstrated how journal writing aids mastery of language functions through extensive practice without over correction through a brief sampling of statistics from a study completed on a 12-week journal writing session."
TESOL Arabia, established in 1994, is a non-profitable organisation depending on the voluntary personal efforts of its members.
Being spread all over the UAE, every chapter participates in organising several conferences and events targeted for assisting the employees of different organisations to learn English, and presenting workshops and seminars by selected Arab and foreign faculty members who work in the universities and educational zones.
TESOL Arabia began its first conference in 1995, in Al Ain City, and is formed by the executive council from the universities of the UAE and the Ministry of Education and Youth.
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