Oman 18th International ELT Conference: ELT-Current Perspectives, Trends and Challenges, organized by the Center for Preparatory Studies at Sultan Qaboos University, commenced today under the patronage of H.E. Dr. Essam Ali Al Rawas, Deputy Chairman of the Public Authority for Craft Industries. Held at SQU, the Oman International ELT conference was founded in 2001 to serve as a professional forum for English language teachers and educators from around the world. The conference provides excellent opportunities for sharing ideas, experiences and best practices in different areas of English Language Teaching. It is an exciting, stimulating and rewarding annual event for ELT professionals in all sectors.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the conference, Ms. Pooja Sancheti, Deputy Director-Professional Development and Research at the Centre for Preparatory Studies at SQU, said that this year’s conference focuses on the Current Perspectives, Trends and Challenges in teaching of English. “It is an attempt to better understand the way English teachers and their learners view certain approaches to teaching of English and how successfully they work. The scope of the conference also extends to specific challenges that are faced by English language teachers in the current times. The idea of getting together and reflecting on our personal experiences and our contemporaries’ experiences is the underlying principal of an academic conference” Pooja Sancheti said.
Dr. Khalfan Al-Kemyani, Chair of the Conference said that the conference comes to address three inter-related and integrated core aspects of the teaching and learning experiences. “Over 500 presenters and participants are attending the conference. The conference features 77 presentations delivered by 95 presenters who come from a vast number of institutions and countries from around the world. Presentations will discuss 24 sub-themes derived from the main theme of the current perspectives trends and challenges in ELT. These presentations include a plenary speech, 2 featured speeches, 3 poster presentations, 66 paper presentations and 14 standard workshops in addition to 2 specialized professional development workshops”, Dr. Khalfan said.
Accompanying the conference is a specialized ELT material s exhibition. This provides an opportunity to bring some of the well-known international publishers in the field. A section has been earmarked for the in-house publications and teaching materials from SQU.