3. ELT Strand: Reading Across Cultures Seminar
Building on the feedback of 10 East Asian delegates who attended the Oxford Conference on the Teaching of Literature in April 2007, it was realised that conferences in East Asia would allow us to address region-specific issues relating to literature in language teaching. Therefore the seminars Reading Across Cultures, Bringing Texts to Life and Words and Beyond have brought together primary. secondary and tertiary English language and literature education professionals from across the East Asia region. Details about each are below.

Words and Beyond: Exploring Illustrated Children’s Literature in the English Language Primary Classroom
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 17 - 20 February 2009

Words and Beyond specifically aims to explore the value of developing both visual and verbal literacies within an intercultural context in the English language primary classroom. In particular, we will focus on the potential that illustrated children’s literature provides for facilitating intercultural understanding, enhancing language learning and developing real life communication skills.  The seminar objectives are:

To build an East Asian network of master trainers, teacher educators and policy-makers working in the field of illustrated children’s literature, language, culture and allied disciplines;

To promote illustrated children’s literature for teaching and learning English and intercultural understanding;

To engage participants with UK children’s writers and illustrators;

To explore ways to work with illustrated children’s literature in the primary English language classroom;

To showcase UK and British Council excellence in ELT teaching.

Words and Beyond is designed primarily to meet the professional needs of teachers and master trainers of English language and literature at lower and upper primary level in the East Asia region. It is also of interest for curriculum designers, teacher trainers, textbook writers, head teachers and other educational managers working in the field of primary English language education. Click here for participant biographies and abstracts.

Bringing Texts To Life
Singapore, 29 January – 1 February 2008

British Council Singapore will host the final seminar in the series to bring together secondary and tertiary English language and literature education professionals from across the region. This will be an ‘activity-driven’ seminar – including workshops on creative writing, the use of Manga illustrations to bring Shakespeare to life, and the teaching of dramatic literature.

Reading Across Cultures
Kuala Lumpur, 5 - 8 February 2007

This seminar not only left many participants with new knowledge and ideas, but it was fun too! The participants met with literature academics, writers and other teachers in a series of workshops, readings, informal discussions that were lively and informative.

Bringing Texts To Life and Reading Across Cultures are based on the Oxford Conference on the Teaching of Literature and address two main themes:

1. What is the role of literature in the English language classroom?
2. What contribution can literature make to the development of students’ intercultural awareness? What are the challenges of texts produced in unfamiliar cultural contexts?

The conference was chaired by Claudia Ferradas Moi (past Chair of the Oxford Conference and lecturer at Instituto de Enseñanza Superior en Lenguas Vivas Juan Ramón Fernández, Buenos Aires) and Saratha Sithamparam (Associate Professor, Faculty of Education, University of Malaya).  Other speakers included:

Isagani R. Cruz, Filipino writer
John Corbett, University of Glasgow
José Dalisay, Filipino writer
Louise Doughty, UK novelist
Paul Duffield, UK Manga artist
Stephen Knight, UK poet
John McRae, University of Nottingham
Bali Rai, UK teen fiction writer
Roger Robinson, UK poet
Edwin Thumboo, National University of Singapore
Edwin Vethamani, University Putra Malaysia

It also addressed some of the issues around text selection, assessment and new media concerning these two main themes, both for higher and lower ability students. Speakers were a mix of UK and East Asian academics and writers.

Strand objectives

•To build an East Asian network of practitioners, policy-makers and theorists working in the field of literature, language and culture and allied disciplines

•To promote literature teaching as a tool for English language learning and intercultural understanding

•To engage participants with new UK writers and writing and the tools necessary to work with them in the classroom

•To showcase UK and British Council excellence in ELT teaching

•To bring together upper-secondary and tertiary level literature educators to attempt to close the gap between these levels of education

•to develop potential partners for follow-up project work fitting with British Council objectives.

Countries involved:

•Korea
•Malaysia
•Philippines
•Singapore
•Taiwan
•Thailand

Please contact Sinead Russell at sinead.russell@britishcouncil.org for further information.

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