First Annual TESOL conference held at Asian U.

The First Annual TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages) conference has just finished at Asian U. The conference was organised by TEFL International (Teaching English as a Foreign Language), Bang Phe, Rayong. There were displays of books and teaching material by DK Books, Cambridge University Press, Macmillan, Pearsons and TOIEC; all of whom were supporting the conference.




From 26 to 27 April, over 150 delegates from different parts of Thailand and of many nationalities, attended the two day conference.










The Keynote speaker on the first morning was Dr. David Nunan, an Australian, who is Professor of Applied Linguistics and Director of the English centre at the University of Hong Kong. With plenty of audience participation, he spoke about grammar and the structure of language; with examples and questions for the delegates.



Other presenters included Robert Shrubsall, the Dean of the Faculty of Liberal Arts at Asian University, and Mark Starrs, Head of the English for Business Communication Programme also at Asian U. David Hopkins, the director of academics at TEFL International, and Bob Woodhead, the Managing Director of the Education Development Center of Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC), Bangkok, gave informative and interesting presentations on other aspects of communicative English teaching.


Apart from the presentations, there were several workshop sessions, where the delegates (mostly English teachers) were able to discuss their experiences in a focused manner. They looked at adapting textbooks to their own situations, using songs and chants, as well as other methods and ideas for teaching English.
The photographs show some of the speakers and delegates.