The Centre for English Language Communication (CELC) held its sixth Symposium online, from 30-31 May 2022. Symposium 2022 gathered 144 researchers and educators from 14 countries in the pursuit of scholarly dialogue on the theme TEACHING ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION IN A CHANGING LANDSCAPE: INNOVATIONS AND POSSIBILITIES.
This year’s theme built upon many of our recent experiences and conversations in response to some unprecedented massive changes and challenges acerbated by the pandemic. If there is one word that we could use to describe the past two plus years, “disruption” is probably one of the most frequently used words. It seems timely that we take stock of our teaching, learning, and research as suggested by the theme of this symposium.
To me, the fundamentals are the same but the approach in which we achieve the objective may now be different. Besides re-examining and reflecting on what we have done, we re-imagine teaching, learning, and doing research in a new educational landscape. Our students are going into a workplace that is unlike before, a workplace that perhaps not many of us are familiar with. They need to be nimble, adaptable, and resilient. They must make sense of and integrate knowledge in different contexts. All these soft skills may call for a different way of thinking about teaching and learning, and communication.
CELC Symposium 2022 provided a platform for English Language and Communication practitioners and researchers to share and discuss:
- Challenges relating to teaching under the new norms such as teaching in the digital space, engaging and assessing learners with advanced interactive technological tools, and managing increased student agency.
- Innovations that have helped students and educators adapt to the new norms, and that have taken into account academic and industry relevance in language and communication pedagogy.
- New ideas, undergirded by theoretical principles, that are proposed to help students and educators adapt to the new norms.