Write up about the Conference
The International Conference on Language Studies (iCLS) brought together almost a hundred educators from several countries such as Malaysia, Thailand, India, Indonesia, USA, United Kingdom, Singapore, Taiwan, Australia, Japan, Iran, and the Philippines. The keynote speakers were experts Prof. Dr. Brian TomlinsTESOL Professor at Anaheim University and Visiting Professor at Metropilitan University, Prof. Mohammad Amin Embi, Professor at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Dr. Hitomi Masuhara, Deputy Director of the MA Applied Linguistics and the MA in TESOL at the University of Liverpool, and Dr. Ikhsanudin of the Tanjungpura University-Pontianak. These remarkable educators provided insights on materials development on language teaching specifically task-based materials to promote language acquisition and building collaborative actions in research and publication on language education quality. iCLS was sponsored by the Ministry of Education and McGraw Hill Education among others.
The conference held on October 27-28, 2014 at the Riverside Majestic, Kuching Sarawak focused on the best practices in language learning and teaching. It was a successful gathering of educators and researchers who shared their experiences and research findings about different areas of education advances. Held at the capital of Sarawak in Malaysia, Kuching was the ideal venue as it provided a safe, exciting, and cultural experience for the participants.
Feedback on paper presented
Fortunately, the paper I presented entitled Effectiveness of Speech Communication Teaching Strategies vis-a-vis Students’ Learning Objectives had positive feedback. At first, there was a bit of apprehension on my part as two of the keynote speakers, Dr. Masuhara and Prof. Dr. Tomlinson were present during the parallel session. Instead of entertaining negative thoughts, I focused on presenting my research as clearly as possible and it did help. Fellow educators and organizers approached and asked me several questions regarding the large class mode in UPLB. They were particularly interested in classroom management, students’ behavior, distribution of topics, among others. One of them was Dr. Jayapragas Gnaniah, iCLS organizer and professor at Unimas University who extended interest in doing a collaborative research on large classes.
Future directions of research presented
The research I am planning to conduct this year will be focused on the Teaching and Learning Strategies in a SPCM1 Large Lecture Class. The paper presented at iCLS discussed the Large Lecture Class Policy to introduce the research on the teaching strategies in the recitation classes. This research proposal will complete the study on the effectiveness of SPCM 1 Large Lecture Class in UPLB. A two-part survey questionnaire will also be conducted in one of the seven SPCM 1 sections with about 195 students. The learning objectives will be identified including the strategies used to accomplish the students’ learning objectives.
Potential foreign collaborators
Dr. Jayapragas Gnaniah, iCLS organizer and professor at Unimas University expressed his interest in doing a collaborative research after I presented my paper. We discussed that having a comparative study between the large classes in UPLB and University of Malaysia will be very significant in determining the effective ways and factors to consider in handling large classes. It will be interesting to observe, compare, and contrast students’ behavior, learning objectives and the lecturers’ perspectives and teaching approaches. This research collaboration will be mutually beneficial as both parties will learn and understand the dynamics and internal and external influences affecting large classes.
Other important contacts and insights
Dr. Ikhsanudin, one of the keynote speakers from Tanjungpura University-Pontianak, recently corresponded with me via electronic mail and expressed his intent of starting a collaborative research work.
Short write-up of one’s participation (to be used to feature/publicize the grantee’s participation in the conference)
Prof. Jea Agnes T. Buera, member of the Department of Humanities, CAS at UPLB presented a paper on the Effectiveness of Speech Communication Teaching Strategies vis-a-vis Students’ Learning Objectives at the International Conference on Language Studies (iCLS). This was held on October 27-28, 2014 at the Riverside Majestic, Kuching Sarawak. ICLS 2014 brought together almost a hundred educators from several countries such as Malaysia, Thailand, India, Indonesia, USA, United Kingdom, Singapore, Taiwan, Australia, Japan, Iran, and the Philippines. The keynote speakers were experts Prof. Dr. Brian TomlinsTESOL Professor at Anaheim University and Visiting Professor at Metropilitan University, Prof. Mohammad Amin Embi, Professor at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Dr. Hitomi Masuhara, Deputy Director of the MA Applied Linguistics and the MA in TESOL at the University of Liverpool, and Dr. Ikhsanudin of the Tanjungpura University-Pontianak. These remarkable educators provided insights on materials development on language teaching specifically task-based materials to promote language acquisition and building collaborative actions in research and publication on language education quality. iCLS was sponsored by the Ministry of Education and McGraw Hill Education among others.
The conference focused on the best practices in language learning and teaching. It was a successful gathering of educators and researchers who shared their experiences and research findings about different areas of education advances.
