Under the Patronage of HE Shaikh Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahayan, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Chancellor of HCT the 12th Annual Current Trends in English Language Testing Conference (CTELT) will be held at Dubai Men's College on November 12-14, 2008. This annual conference is organized by the TESOL Arabia Testing, Assessment, and Evaluation SIG.
The theme of CTELT 12 is "Developing Assessment Literacy." This theme speaks to the importance of learning more about all aspects of the assessment process.
Plenary speakers include:
- Natalie Kuhlman, San Diego State University, California, USA
- Ali Shehadeh, United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain, UAE
- Annie Brown, National Admissions and Placement Office, Abu Dhabi, UAE
- Hossein Farhady, American University of Armenia, Yerevan, Armenia
In the presence of HH Shaikh Saeed Bin Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Dr. Tayeb Kamali, Vice Chancellor of Higher Colleges of Technology opened the conference at 10:00 on November 12th. CTELT 2008 will feature a book and software exhibition as well as over 25 presentations showcasing some of the excellent work being done in the region. This year conference organizers have expanded the focus of the conference to include presentations with a teaching and research focus as well as the usual assessment-related sessions.
Locally-based teaching and testing experts speaking at the conference include: Christine Coombe, Tim Martin, Michael O'Brien, Melanie Gobert, Peter Stanfield (HCT); Peter Davidson, Jerry Spring, David Palfreyman, Lauren Stephenson, Barbara Harold (ZU); Jane Hoelker (Qatar University); Fatima Badry, Betty Lanteigne, Ed Carlstedt (American University of Sharjah); Mouhamad Mouhanna, Rachel Lange, Sally Ali (UAE University); Fife MacDuff (US Department of State, Bahrain); Hilal Onat (Hacettepe University, Turkey); Suhair Al Alami (Al Ghurair University); Paul Jaquith (NAPO); Abdullah M.I. Ammar, (Abu Dhabi University).
Dr. Kamali mentioned that the first annual conference took place in 1996 in Al Ain with 150 participants, and it grew to have 950 participants in 2002. This shows that assessment and its place in the teaching and learning process is of interest to educators in the Gulf. He also confirmed that this conference is important to our region's educational environment because it is successful at bringing together educators from all over the Gulf to discuss the crucial skills of teaching, learning and assessing of our students.
He ended his address by saying that the progress of our students must be measured accurately and consistently to be able to know the effectiveness of our teaching and learning practices.
This year the conference will take place on Wednesday, November 12th and Friday, November 14th. On Thursday, November 13th a special conference event on research will be held. The theme of this event is Educational Research in the UAE. The purpose of this symposium is in meeting with new national initiatives to get teaching professionals in the region interested in research and assist them in their research endeavors. Plenary and parallel sessions will be conducted by well known figures in the field from the region and abroad. Julian Edge, University of Manchester, will deliver the opening plenary on Teacher Research. The afternoon plenary panel will feature leading educationalists from the UAE: Earle Warnica, Mona Al Bahar, Abdullah Al Shamsi, Mick Randall, Clifton Chadwick, Naz Awan and Annie Brown.
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For more information about or to register for either event, contact the Conference Chairs, Christine Coombe at 050-6194796; email christine.coombe@hct.ac.ae or Mashael Al-Hamly mashael2@hotmail.com.
© Press Release 2008
