Canada
Under
the theme collaborating across Languages and Borders, the World Congress of Modern Languages was
an initiative of the International
Federation of Language Teacher Associations, the Ontario Modern Language Teachers’ Association and the Canadian Association of Second Language
Teachers
This
exciting and rewarding event brought together over 1,000 participants,
including a wide range of national and international language education
stakeholders – it was a unique opportunity to benefit from networking and from
learning about innovative pedagogies, research, and policy in the field.
The
main objective of the gathering was to find out about new technologies, to
share strategies and practices, to discuss emerging research, to examine
important resources, and to analyse trends and issues surrounding language
education and cultural diversity.
Areas that were explored at this conference
included:
- Approaches to Language Teaching, Assessment, and Evaluation;
- The Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) – pedagogies, resources, impact on curricula (international, national, provincial, local);
- Language and Culture – multilingualism / plurilingualism, cultural diversity, and cross-cultural communication;
- Teacher Collaboration to Improve Student Success;
- Metacognition and Learner Autonomy;
- Student Motivation and Engagement;
- Technology and Social Media within and across Borders;
- Language Education and Languages of Education – official languages, Indigenous languages, second languages, modern / foreign languages, heritage languages, immigrant languages.
The
World Congress of Modern Languages: Collaborating across Languages and
Borders was designed as an open forum for sharing knowledge, practices, and
projects among all stakeholders in second language education. It was an
opportunity that advanced collaboration, fostered networking, and inspired
great ideas!
The organisers were
very delighted to count among the numerous participants from the four corners
of the world two presenters from the african soil, namely Dr. Ihechi O. Nkoro
from Abia State University (Nigeria),
who delivered the only presentation in French and on the learning of French as
Foreign Language by the igbo speaking community
titled Analyse sociolinguistique de l’apprenant igbophone du
français langue étrangère
. The other presentation, also the only presentation in German held by an African
teacher of German was on the use of the blend of new technologies and social
media and the traditional teaching methods in the teaching of German as Foreign
Language. The presentation titled Multimedialität im Deutschunterricht was held by Hayford A.Anyidoho
from the Goethe-Institut Accra (German Cultural Centre in Ghana).
Full schedule of the presentations here (http://www.caslt.org/conference15/WCML-Schedule-Presentations-Horaire-CMLV-EN-FR.pdf
)
