Invited Speakers

In this Penary session, I explore growing scholarship in various sub-fields of Applied Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition (SLA) that explore the use of English in an increasingly globalized and multilingual world. With different, yet overlapping, conceptual frameworks to guide research, scholarship in various fields provide a growing evidence base on the need for change in TESOL curricula to better reflect the global use of English, and other languages, in an ever-increasingly globalized world. I explore the introduction of Global Englishes (GE), an umbrella term and inclusive paradigm, that was introduced to unite scholarship across the fields of World Englishes (WE), English as an International Language (EIL), English as a Lingua Franca (ELF), and to draw parallels with translanguaging and multilingualism. I provide clarity on the introduction of this broader paradigm, which aimed to unite such scholarship into a comprehensible framework to guide and facilitate a paradigm shift in TESOL curricula away from outdated ‘native’ English norms. I end with a call to focus less on terminology and for scholars to work flexibly across academic boundaries to connect scholarship, particularly when it has a shared goal of achieving a more equitable English language education.

Nicola Galloway is a Senior Lecturer and Publications Lead in The School of Education at The University of Glasgow, UK. She set up and directs the Education, Languages and Internationalisation (ELINET) network. She is author of Global Englishes and English Language Teaching: attitudes and impact ( Routledge, 2017) and co-author of Introducing Global Englishes (2015, 2025), Teaching English as an International Language. Cambridge Elements (2023, Cambridge University Press), and Global Englishes for Language Teaching (2019, Cambridge University Press). She has recently co-edited the first Routledge Handbook of Teaching English as an International language (2024).

Community Intensive English Programs (IEPs) in the United States (U.S.) provide socialization and language learning opportunities for immigrants, refugees, and other English language learners. The typical goals of these programs are to (a) improve learners’ English skills to support their continued education at local universities, (b) advance learners professionally in their careers, or (c) help learners establish social networks and employment connections within their host cities or sponsoring organizations (Connor-Smith, 2023; Delk-LeGood, 2020). Community IEPs rely on the expertise of faculty, staff, and graduate students in Applied Linguistics/TESOL departments to develop, evaluate, and implement a dynamic educational and social experience in a multicultural environment. In 2022, I moved to Hong Kong from the U.S. and observed a key parallel—the development and implementation of a migrant worker IEP to support the English language needs of foreign domestic helpers employed in households across the territory. Learners participate in these programs with the goal of acquiring English skills to communicate with their employers and navigate their host city successfully (Oktavianus, 2022; Ladegaard, 2023). This ongoing comparative case study examines a Community IEP program located in a large Southeastern U.S. metropolitan area and a migrant worker IEP organized by a leading public university in Hong Kong. Using critical qualitative inquiry (Denzin, 2016), observational data, participant surveys, interviews, and focus group discussions with stakeholders are coded
and analyzed. Key preliminary results point to the participatory and transformative value of Community/Migrant IEPs for most participants, though clear ethical and social equity challenges also emerge. Further analysis may provide insights into best practices for supporting language learners from diverse communities.

Eric Friginal is Professor and Head of Department of English and Communication at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU). He is also the director of PolyU’s Research Center in Professional Communication in English (RCPCE). Before moving to Hong Kong, he was Professor and Director of International Programs at the Department of Applied Linguistics and ESL, College of Arts and Sciences at Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA. He specializes in applied corpus linguistics, quantitative research, language policy and planning, technology and language teaching, sociolinguistics, cross-cultural communication, discipline-specific writing, and the analysis of spoken professional discourse in the workplace. His recent publications include The Routledge Handbook of Corpus Approaches to Discourse Analysis (2022), Global Aviation English Research (forthcoming), English in Global Aviation: Context, Research, and Pedagogy (2020). He is the founding co- editor-in-chief of Applied Corpus Linguistics (ACORP) Journal.

Educational action research can be engaged in by a single teacher, by a group of colleagues who share an interest in a common problem, or by the entire faculty of a school (Sagor, 2000). The focus is to engage the educator in the seven-step process of action research through the following steps: 1. Selecting a focus 2. Clarifying theories 3. Identifying research questions 4. Collecting data 5. Analyzing data 6. Reporting results 7. Taking informed action. Educators (or anyone in education) will be able to identify areas of concern(s) within their own classroom or school setting, but overall realize that one can begin the process of directly and immediately determine how to address the problem(s). As an educator, the importance of addressing a common problem will enhance teaching practices and assist with ensuring students receive a positive educational experience.

Dr. Darcey Gray is a Florida (USA) native and has been involved in education for over 20 years. Her passion for teaching expands from the United States, China, and Russia. Since October 2022, she has been with the U.S. Department of State’s English Language Program in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia teaching at the University Malaya. Her master’s degree is in Education and her doctorate degree is in Educational Leadership with a specialization in Curriculum and Instruction. Her degrees have provided various opportunities in her career as a Reaching Coach, district ESOL Specialist, and university supervisor. She has taught at the high school level to a diverse population of English learners. Also, she teaches TESOL, Action Research, and Reading courses at the university level. With all these experiences has opened a door to providing her knowledge to others around the world on various educational topics and the honor to learn from others from different countries.

The International Corpus Network of Asian Learners of English (ICNALE; Ishikawa, 2023) is one of the largest learner corpora publicly available, and it includes a variety of Asian learners’ L2 English outputs. The corpus now consists of four core modules—Spoken Monologues, Spoken Dialogues, Written Essays, and Edited Essays—and a recently released additional module—Global Rating Archives—. The ICNALE collects its data from college students in six regions where English is taught as a foreign language (EFL)—China, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand— and those in four regions where English is used as a second language (ESL)—Hong Kong, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Singapore/Malaysia— as well as L1 English speakers. This talk introduces the outline of the ICNALE project and how its data can be used for a better understanding of L2 English use by Thai students as well as other EFL/ESL students in Asia.

Dr. Shin’ichiro (Shin) Ishikawa is Professor of Applied Linguistics at Kobe University, Japan. His research interests cover corpus linguistics, statistical linguistics, TESOL, and SLA. He has published many academic papers and books on branches of applied linguistics. His recent publication is The ICNALE Guide: An Introduction to a Learner Corpus Study on Asian Learners’ L2 English (Routledge). He served as President of the Japan Association for English Corpus Studies, and he currently serves as Vice President of the Mathematical Linguistic Society of Japan. He is also known as a leader of the ICNALE learner corpus project.

Data-driven Learning (DDL), an inductive teaching approach where students analyze corpus data in response to their curiosity about the language, has been largely used to examine linguistic features, notably vocabulary and grammar. Although several recent studies have demonstrated the use of corpus data to perform a critical analysis of the texts following the Critical Discourse Analysis approach, the findings are in most cases based on the investigation by the researchers or teachers. This paper will demonstrate how students, with some guided instructions in the form of corpus-based materials, can also take the research’s role in exploring different perspectives on global issues and practically they bring ‘global voices’ into the classroom. Two sets of data related to global issues are used for the illustration, which are the corpus of UN messages in response to COVID-19 and the corpus of talks and discussions at the World Youth Forum initiated by the World Bank. Following the DDL principles of identifying, classifying, and analyzing, the students will follow the DDL tasks where they use corpus techniques and tools to identify key terms and group them into themes. They will also be guided to notice lexical bundles and grammatical patterns that signal stances and perspectives of the writers or speakers. At the end of the process, the students will conduct an analysis with the aim of uncovering hidden messages or subtle differences between those global voices and will be encouraged to raise their own voices and critical analysis of the data. Their generalizations may differ from those made by the researchers or teachers, which underlines the DDL principles of serendipity and independent thinking.

Passapong Sripicharn is Assistant Professor in the Department of English, Faculty of Liberal Arts, Thammasat University, Thailand, and is currently serving as Dean of the Faculty of Liberal Arts. He received his M.A. and Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics from the University of Birmingham, UK. His main research focus is corpus linguistics, particularly the pedagogical applications of language corpora in vocabulary and writing classes. Recently, he has developed interest in wider applications of language corpora such as in lexicology, terminology, critical discourse analysis and translation, particularly the use of language corpora to create Translation Memory (TM) and Term Base (TB) that can be cooperated into a Computer Assisted Translation or CAT tool.

Thai students have taken various English language examinations spanning from primary school to university level. Within the classroom environment, they engage in quizzes, mid-term and final examinations. Upon completing high school, they are mandated to take English tests for admission purposes. Subsequently, upon admission, they may further be subjected to placement examinations. Throughout their academic journey, students are required to enroll in numerous English courses, necessitating the undertaking of different tests within these courses. Prior to graduation, they are obligated to take English tests to ascertain that their English proficiency aligns with expected standard levels. One important question regarding English language assessments arises: What directions lie ahead? This presentation starts with an analysis of English language policies for a higher educational level. English language assessment practices will be discussed. Sample test items at a classroom and at a large-scale level will be presented. Attendees will walk away with an extensive understanding of English language assessment policies and practices within the Thai higher education milieu. The discussion and the conclusion pinpointing possible directions of English language assessments are included.

Associate Professor Jirada Wudthayagorn, Ph.D., is the Director of Chulalongkorn University Language Institute (CULI), Bangkok, Thailand, and the immediate past President of Asian Association of Language Assessment (AALA). She was recipient of the Royal Thai Government scholarship which was enabled her to earn a Ph.D. (specialized in Instruction and Learning) from the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.

It may seem strange to discuss gender issues in the framework of English education. Gender equality or gender equity is usually dealt with in other subjects such as social studies, technology and home economics, and moral education. In contrast, English education tends to focus on the four skills and communicative competence. However, gender is also deeply related to the English language and English education. We sometimes notice gender issues in a foreign language, such as English, that we might overlook in our native language. In this presentation, I will analyze English textbooks used in Thailand and Japan from a gender perspective and point out what English teachers should pay attention to in the classroom.

Yuka ISHIKAWA (ishikawayuka.jp@gmail.com) is a Professor at the Department of Liberal Arts and Fundamental Science, Nagoya Institute of Technology, Japan. She received her MA in Education from Kobe University and her Ph.D. in Language and Culture from Hiroshima Jogakuin University. She specializes in sociolinguistics and education. Her current research interests include language and gender, corpus linguistics, textbook analysis, and teaching material development. She has analyzed various kinds of texts and school textbooks from a gender perspective and compiled textbooks for Japanese students. She served as Deputy Director of the Center for Gender Equality at Nagoya Institute of Technology.

A defining characteristic of the contemporary world is the growing interconnectedness of different populations. Increasingly, technology is making it possible for us to cross traditional cultural, political and economic borders, thus becoming active participants in processes of globalization. This presents a significant challenge for language education, whose traditional focus on educating for citizenship – ability to fully participate in social and political processes within their nation-state – appears limiting at a time when it is global citizenship that must be developed. A particular challenge for language education in this time of loose borders is to balance the need to protect identities of traditional communities while also equipping their members with the skills needed to participate in globalization equitably. In this talk, I will look at two particular implications of these conditions for language education. The first is the reconsideration of language learning goals, particularly the growing awareness that English, while being a key global language, is not the only language relevant to processes of globalization, but that a broad plurilingual repertoire should be a fundamental aim for language education for global citizenship. The second implication is the gradual blurring of the boundary between ‘language’ and other subject areas, evident in calls to develop critical awareness of language and culture in classrooms.

Kristof Savski is Assistant Professor of Linguistics at Prince of Songkla University in Hat Yai, Thailand, and previously studied and taught part-time at Lancaster University, UK. His research explores connections between sociolinguistics, applied linguistics, critical discourse studies and language policy, with regard to, for instance, the globalization of language standards and transnational migration of teachers of English. His work has appeared in, among others, TESOL Quarterly, Language Policy and Language in Society.

EFL learners might have ever wondered once about how to be proficient in English. Likewise, EFL teachers might have wondered once about why some learners become more proficient than others. It is only natural to assume that, despite having the same teacher, there are students in one EFL class who enjoy learning English and those who do not, who perform English skills well and poorly, and who prefer to remain at the average level. Centering upon outcome-based learning, this talk delves into key variables that can significantly affect students’ English learning outcomes, involving individual differences, learning emotions, and technology integrations in both offline and online settings accommodating synchronous and asynchronous learning from quantitative and qualitative case studies carried out in Indonesian and Thai universities. The talk aims to draw logical links among the influential variables to effectively assist students in achieving their learning objectives.

Budi Waluyo, an Assistant Professor at Walailak University’s School of Languages and General Education, began his academic journey with a bachelor’s degree from the University of Bengkulu, Indonesia, supported by scholarships from the Indonesian Ministry of Higher Education. His pursuit of education continued abroad, earning a master’s degree at the University of Manchester, UK, with the International Fellowship Program (IFP) from the Ford Foundation, USA, and a PhD from Lehigh University, USA, under a Fulbright PhD Presidential Scholarship. Additionally, he received a research grant from Columbia University, New York. Recognized as a Fellow by the UK’s Higher Education Academy (FHEA), Waluyo’s research spans English language teaching, educational technology, and international education, contributing significantly to peer-reviewed journals. He advocates for integrating technology with language instruction to enhance global learning opportunities. His dedication extends to editorial roles in various academic journals, emphasizing the importance of innovative teaching and learning through classroom-based research.

In this plenary paper, I present the importance of cultivating plurilingual mediation (PM) as a premier 21st Century communicative skill. I also respond to the growing concerns on the risks and responsibility regarding Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) in education by proposing a model for ethical engagement with AI: The PAA Model to cultivate PM. I discuss the theoretical foundation underpinning the development of the PAA Model and introduce the 4Ts—translanguaging (Li & García, 2022), trans-semiotizing (Lin, 2015, 2019), transknowledging (Heugh, Harding-Esch & Coleman, 2021), and transculturing (Lin 2024)—as useful lenses to guide the engagement of GenAI in formative assessment in English medium education including English for Academic Purposes (EAP) classes in ways that are both fruitful and responsible.

Dr. Angel M. Y. Lin is Professor and Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Plurilingual and Intercultural Education at Simon Fraser University, Canada. Currently she is also Chair Professor of Language, Literacy and Social Semiotics in Education at the Education University of Hong Kong. Dr. Lin has been at the forefront of English language education and critical literacies since the late 1990s when she started working on classroom research projects in Hong Kong. She has published widely on second language education, discourse analysis, translanguaging (TL), trans-semiotizing (TS), Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), and critical media literacies.