International conference: Teaching English to young learners

An international consortium of groups interested in teaching English to young learners (TEYL) is organizing an international conference titled “The Way Forward: Learning From International Experience of TEYL.” The conference will be held at the Regional Institute of English, Bangalore, South India, January 3–6, 2008. It is aimed at decision makers in ministries, planners, academics, teacher trainers, and others concerned with state programs for teaching English to children. The registration deadline is November 30, 2007.

Details are available from the conference website, www.primaryeltconference.org, or from the organizers, Janet Enever (j.enever@londonmet.ac.uk) or Jaynee Moon (jayne.moon@virgin.net).

Hosts of the conference are The Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language (IATEFL), the IATEFL Young Learners Special Interest Group (YL SIG), and the British Council.

The conference will be based around a series of country case studies from selected countries around the world. The aim is to identify trends and issues internationally and regionally; to investigate the links between policy and practice across varied contexts; to identify the conditions which support successful TEYL programmes within and across contexts.There will also be opportunities for presenting specific TEYL innovations, experiments or projects (which are not nationally implemented) within the state or private sector.