MAPPING OUT OUR FUTURE THIRD REGIONAL TESOL SOUTHERN CONE CONVENTION The Third Regional TESOL Southern Cone Conference and 13th ARTESOL Convention, which took place in Buenos Aires August 10-14, 1999 on the verge of the new millenium, served as a forum for almost 500 EFL teachers to get together and map out the future of their profession. Participants and presenters carne from all over the Southern Cone as well as from England and the United States. The event took place at the Galpón de la Reforma on the prernises of the Ministerio de Cultura y Educación de la Nación, and was officially opened by Dr.Marcelo Pivato, Director of the Dirección General de Educación de Gestión Privada, DGEGP. Representatives of four affiliates of the Southern Cone joined ARTESOL President Mabel Chena in giving a warm welcome to the participants. We were extremely honored to have with us at the opening ceremony the following TESOL leaders: Stael Rufmelli de Ortiz, President of Paraguay TESOL; Elizabeth Pow, Vice president of BRAZTESOL, (Sara Walker, BRAZTESOL President, arrived shortly after the opening); Mariel de la Torre Cerfontaine, representing Liliana Nunez President of Perú TESOL; and Silvia Bueri, URUTESOL Past President who represented, current President Gabriel Diaz We are very grateful to all our South American friends for being with us on this occasion. Such a significant event called for outstanding TESOL professionals to conduct our plenary sessions. This requirement was fully met since our featured keynote speakers were TESOL Past Presidents Kathleen Bailey, from Monterey Institute of International Studies, Monterey, California and JoAnn Crandall from the University of Maryland Baltimore County, two leading researchers and prolific authors in the field of secondlforeign language acquisition. Kathie Bailey's participation was made possible thanks to the Speaker Travel Grant TESOL awarded to ARTESOL for hosting the event, and Jodie Crandall's trip was sponsored by the University of Maryland Baltimore County. Both Kathie and Jody offered a plenary address and a plenary workshop. Kathie's plenary, What my EFL students taught me , and Jodie's Teaching is lifelong learning: Collaboration for our professional development, focused on professional development. They both used real-life teaching experiences as examples of how teachers learn
Argentina
TESOL Newsletter
Fall 2000
to teach in ESLlEFL contexts. Kathie's workshop: What is washback and why does it matter? was based on recent research on the influence of tests ón our teaching practice. Jodie's workshop. Getting them to write: Using pictures and poetry as a beginning offered a hands-on experience on how to integrate writing in all English classes. Within the lirnited scope of this newsletter, it would impossible to touch upon every one of the 70 presentations or even mention the names of the one hundred colleagues involved in them. Let me say that apart from the presentations conducted by the featured keynote speakers mentioned above, there were six academic sessions, six commercial presentations, fourteen pos ter sessions, forty concurrent sessions, a swap shop, and a round table discussion which served as a wrap up for the convention. Congratulations to all the ESOL professionals who responded so positively and generously to our call for proposals. A highlight of this event was the selection of the affiliate that will host the fourth Southern Cone Convention.. A little history on these conventions rnight be interesting to new members. Back in 1994, at the TESOL Convention in Baltimore, it was agreed that Caribbean affiliates would meet every other year ending in even numbers and that the Southern Cone affiliates would meet every other year ending in odd numbers. On that occasion Uruguay TESOL, URUTESOL, was selected as the venue for the First Regional Southern Cone Conference to be he Id in 1995. During this first convention, Paraguay TESOL, PARA TESOL was chosen for 1997, and at this second conference, Buenos Aires, Argentina was elected as the site for 1999. At the meeting here, the Curitiba Chapter of BRAZTESOL, was unanimously elected as the site for the Fourth Regional TESOL. Our warmest congratulations to our Brazilian friends! For the success of this event we are particulady indebted to: our sister affiliates in the Southern Cone: BRAZTESOL, PARA TE SOL, URUTESOL and TESOL Perno Let's all keep working together and let's all meet in Curitiba. in 2001
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