BIU Host 12th International Conference on English Language Teaching and Learning
The 3-day conference which was held in collaboration with the Association of university teachers of English was laden with several paper presentations by delegates from various institutions, locally and internationally.
Declaring the three day event which had as its theme, “Innovations in English Language Teaching and Learning” open, the President of Benson Idahosa University, Bishop F.E. Benson Idahosa expressed his satisfaction at the caliber of speakers at the conference, noting that as a course, English Language has become dynamic. He therefore hopes that the conference will have great impact on the students and make them better writers and speakers of the English Language.
In his welcome address, the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Ernest B. Izevbigie who was represented by the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Sam Guobadia, said the conference is coming at the most opportune time when computer technology has revolutionized education; changing not only teaching methods but also teaching contents and curricula. He therefore spoke of the need for teachers to be abreast of these changes and be part of the paradigm shift.
The Deputy Vice Chancellor maintained that the quality and quantity of information a teacher possesses and the method used in disseminating the information will, to a large extent, determine the educational productivity of the students, while calling on educational institutions to incorporate all the processes involved in teaching methodology in the development of their syllabus.
Presenting his keynote address entitled, “The Learner, the Corpus, the Classroom: Challenges and Opportunity”, Prof. Susan Hunston from the University of Birmingham, says recent research carried out on learners of English and in corpus linguistics in China, Malaysia, Thailand and Iraq offers new possibilities for language teaching. She said the study focused on such ‘small words’ as ‘that’ and ‘of ‘and shows how these apparently trivial words can be revealing of student’s progress. The paper concludes with a discussion of the future of corpus linguistics applied to language teaching and learning.
Others who made paper presentations include; Prof. Adeleke A. Fakoya from Lagos State University who presented the first lead paper entitled, “RIP Van Winkles’ in Nigeria’s Tertiary Education”; Joy Eyisi from the National Open University of Nigeria, Abuja spoke on, “Effective Teaching and Learning of English in the 21st Century”, Unifying a Multi-Cultural Nation through Language in Nigeria Lecture will be delivered by: Prof. Andrew Oronsaye, Faculty of Social and Management Sciences.
: The Case of Cameroon English Songs with Francophone Learners at the University of Buea was presented by Comfort Oben Ojongnkpot, from Cameroon amongst others.
The conference also featured the presentation of awards by the Dir. of Campus Life Division, Rev. Laurie Idahosa to three deserving members of NATRESL who were made Professors recently.
