International Research Symposium on English Language  Studies – 2017

International Research Symposium on English Language Studies – 2017

International Research Symposium on English Language Studies – 2017

English as a Second Language: Knowledge, Learning and Production

Symposium Dates: 28th and 29th September 2017

Venue: University of Colombo

With the rise of English as a global lingua franca, the field of second language studies has become enriched with innovative, reflective and rigorous research aimed at evaluating and challenging the existing theory and practice of second language teaching. In order to provide a forum for such research conducted both locally and internationally to be presented and discussed, the English Language Teaching Unit of the University of Colombo organized its second international symposium on language studies.

 

Programme – Day 1 (28th September 2017)

Programme – Day 2 (29th September 2017)

 

Plenary speaker :  Professor Paul Gunashekar

Professor Paul Gunashekar has been teaching English, training teachers of English, and developing instructional materials for English Language Teaching for over forty-three years. Educated in Bangalore and London, he is a professor in the Department of Materials Development, Testing and Evaluation at the English and Foreign Languages University (formerly CIEFL), Hyderabad, India.

Professor Gunashekar has authored, co-authored and edited over two hundred English teaching books –including course books, workbooks, supplementary and literature readers, teacher’s books, and reading cards–for national and state agencies.  Co-author of Communicate in English; New Learning to Communicate for the Middle School; Provocations: a Reading Course for Colleges; and Writing for Life, he is the General Editor of New Wave English Readers; and the Series Editor of New Broadway: A Multi-skill Course in English, and Skyline: An Integrated Course in English, all of which have been published by Oxford University Press India.  In addition, he has developed audio materials for schools and video programmes for colleges.

Professor Gunashekar has conducted over a thousand teacher training workshops in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, UAE, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Tanzania. He has also conducted courses in business communication, communication skills, report writing, public speaking, and presentation skills for corporate houses.

Professor Gunashekar specializes in course design, teacher development, and English for Specific Purposes. He is the editor of the EFLU research journal Languaging, and the Indian English consultant to the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary and the Oxford English Dict