33rd annual SPELT conference concludes

The 33rd annual international conference of the Society of Pakistan English Language Teachers (SPELT) offering professional development opportunities to teachers concluded in the city on Sunday.

Local and international teachers and experts presented at this year’s conference which featured more than 100 English and Urdu workshop sessions, plenary talks, webinars, papers and colloquiums. 

More than 1,000 teachers from schools, colleges, universities and other academic institutions as well as educators, journalists and business professionals attended the first day of the conference on Saturday.

Addressing the gathering as a keynote speaker, Dr Christine Coombe of Dubai Men’s College English faculty said being a teacher is simply not about having the right teaching credentials and being in good academic standing, but it also involves a commitment to being innovative and transformative in the classroom and helping both students and colleagues achieve their goals. 

“Professionalism is less a matter of what professionals actually do and more a matter of who they are as human beings,” she said.  Addressing a session titled ‘Redefining and Empowering Teachers and Learners in the Glocalised ELT Field,’ Professor Yilin Sun of Seattle College, USA said that for the last 50 years, the field of teaching English to speakers of other languages has witnessed significant transformation.

Dr Arifa Rehman, English Language Professor and Teacher Educator from the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh delivered a lecture on how teachers might use appropriate localised materials to encourage harmony among communities and thus function as change agents in the promotion of social justice.