National Seminar on English Language Teaching (ELT)

Department of English
National Seminar 2013

The Department of English, Christ University, Bangalore organized a National Seminar on English Language Teaching (ELT) on 29^th and 30^th January 2013.The title of the Seminar was

“English in Higher Education: Exploring Learner-Centred Approaches.

The National Seminar was designed to highlight learner-centred methodologies with regard to curriculum design, testing and classroom transaction. It provided a platform to enable students, teachers and experts in the field of English Language Teaching (ELT) to present perceptions, to debate, discuss and chart new directions in learner-centred approaches with regard to curriculum, testing and classroom transaction through paper presentations, posters, documentaries, panel discussions and workshops.

The Objectives of the seminar were -

·         To explore the feasibility of learner-centred approaches in various academic contexts

·         To understand various practices existing in curriculum and in course designs

·         To review the best practices in testing

·         To discuss existing pedagogy in the English classroom

Dr. G. Rajagopal from EFLU, Hyderabad delivered the Keynote Address at the Inauguration and set the tone of the seminar. The first session was a Panel Discussion on the topic: “English in Classroom Transaction across streams”. The session was moderated by Prof. John Joseph Kennedy. Session two, the post lunch session, had a few documentaries being screened after which was a Panel Discussion. This session was moderated by Prof. Anil Joseph Pinto. Session 3 on Day 1 was a Lecture delivered by Ms. Jayagowri from NMKRV college, Bangalore on Recent Trends for research in ELT”.

On day 2, in the forenoon, 30 papers were presented in concurrent sessions. These paper presented were judged and the best 2 papers from each of the venues were awarded. Post lunch, concurrent sessions were held in 3 venues. In one venue a team from ELTIS, Pune, Ms. Yogita Bhamre and MS Sushma Kapur conducted a workshop on Material Production for Learner-Centred teaching”. In a second venue Ms Lalitha Appachu, Director of Centre for Training Excellence, Bangalore, conducted a workshop on “Participatory Teaching and Leraning Activities”. In the third venue, Dr Palani Arangasamy from Periyar Manniammai University, Tamil Nadu conducted a workshop on “Empowering the English Language Learner with Vocabulary”.

During the valedictory prized for the Best Documentary and two prizes for the Best posters were given away. About 30 outside Faculty and Students participated in the Seminar besides our own in house faculty and students.