Developing, Using and Evaluating ELT Materials for Young Learners

Conference Overview:

l Date: September 23-24, 2023

l Venue: Hongkou Campus, Shanghai International Studies University (SISU)

l Organizer: Shanghai Center for Research in English Language Education (SCRELE)

l Participants: Over 200 researchers, educators, and primary and secondary school English teachers from worldwide

l Partnership journals: “Journal of Foreign Language”, “Language Teaching for Young Learners”

l Theme: Developing, Using and Evaluating ELT Materials for Young Learners

Sub-themes:

1. ELT materials development: policy and planning

2. ELT materials development: theories and practices

3. Innovations in ELT materials development

4. Developing ELT materials for different purposes

5. Coping with constraints and limitations in ELT materials development

6. Technology-mediated materials development

7. Practitioner-Researcher collaboration in developing ELT materials

8. Piloting ELT materials for better development practices

9. Using ELT materials wisely

10. Using ELT materials for teacher development

11. Developing materials for teacher development

12. Evaluating ELT materials as users/practitioners

13. Evaluating ELT materials as researchers

14. Evaluating ELT materials as textbook writers

Pre-conference Workshops:

1. Tan JIN (South China Normal University)

Topic: Human-machine collaboration in text adaptation and question design for developing English reading materials

2. Sandie MOURÃO (Nova University)

Topic: Early language learning and values education: the power of picturebooks

Plenary Talks

1. Rod ELLIS (Curtin University)

Topic: Consciousness-Raising Tasks for Grammar Teaching 

2. Masatoshi SATO (Universidad Andrés Bello)

Topic: “Where are researchers?”: The missing stakeholder in the equitable research-practice relationship

3. Renata GELD (University of Zagreb)

Topic: Cognitive science of (early) language learning and teaching: Under the Sea, Broccoli and Pebbles & Sand

4. Qiufang WEN (National Research Center for Foreign Language Education)

Topic: A comprehensive system for English textbook compilation in China 

5. Deming MEI (Shanghai International Studies University)

Topic: 英语教材开发与中华文化立场

Parallel Sessions:

Over 50 scholars exchanged ideas on topics such as the development of foreign language textbooks for primary and secondary schools, the construction of supplementary resources, research on textbook content and usage, textbook trial teaching, and the development of textbooks and teacher education from an educational ecology perspective.