INTESOL 2008  Annual  Conference

"Words and Worlds: Academic and Social Language "

  Saturday, November 1, 2008
9:00 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.

The Fountains Conference Center
Carmel, IN

The keynote speaker was Sandy Briggs, a TESOL past president. In her keynote talk she shared her perspective on the state of the English Language Teaching field at the present time.

The conference theme, Words and Worlds: Academic and Social Language, addressed differences between academic and social language as well as the importance of the development of both.

Presentations addressed various themes, including the importance of oral language for literacy development, reading and writing academic texts, moving from oral to written discourse, English for Academic Purposes, English for Specific Purposes, developing vocabulary knowledge, World Englishes,  building communities of practice, language assessment, cross-cultural communication, teaching with technology, pronunciation, among others.

View the conference program to see the talk and demonstration titles:

2008 Conference Program

Sandy Briggs is currently TESOL Past President. In the past few years she has spent a lot of time working with English Language Teaching educators in the United States and many other countries. In this talk she will share her perspective on the state of the English Language Teaching (ELT) Field at the present time. She will then explore what this state of affairs means for all of us as ELT educators in the United States. Sandra J. Briggs is currently the Past President of Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), Inc. She has been active in TESOL for many years. During her career she has been a language instructor, materials developer, and teacher trainer. She is the co-author and author of a number of ESL/ELF texts. She has won many teaching awards, and she has made numerous presentations. She has been a speaker in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, India, Israel, Mexico, Nepal, Peru, Spain, the United States, and Uruguay. She lives in San Francisco, California, USA.