These are the proceedings of the Sri Lankan English Language Teacher Educator Conference (SLELTEC) which was held on 5 and 6 March 2020 in MAS Athena in Thulhiriya, Sri Lanka. This was ten days before the whole country went into lockdown because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Sri Lankan English Language Teacher Educator conference grew out of our work with teacher educators, both pre and in -service, in the state sector in Sri Lanka.  This work is part of our larger programme TRANSFORM. 

The overall theme was English language teacher education in the 21st Century.

Papers, workshops and poster presentations were delivered on the four sub-themes:

  • The speaking and listening challenge
  • Empowering teachers to teach literature
  • Digital trends
  • Observation and feedback methods and techniques

The video of the launch event can be found below, followed by the papers that were published and presented under each sub-theme of the conference, as well as the poster presentations displayed at the 2-day conference. 

The speaking and listening challenge

Plenary paper: The listening and speaking challenge, by Dr Bimali Indrarathne

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Paper 1: The Significance of Building Confidence to Speak English as a Teaching Methodology, by Dr Asantha U Attanayake

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Paper 2: Your Guide But Not Your Master, by Anya Shaw and Shamali Jayarathne

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Paper 3: Language Assessment Literacy of Teachers of English: Implications for assessing Listening and Speaking skills of students in the classroom, by Hasantha Kuruppu Munasinghe

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Empowering teachers to teach literature

Plenary paper: New Avenues and Challenges in Today’s Classrooms – Teaching Literature in a digital age, by Dr Shashikala Assella

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Paper 1: Literature in ELT – A Two-way Process, by Azra Mohamed

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Paper 2: Three Approaches to Adapting Literary Texts for the Classroom, by Ian Smith

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Paper 3: Students don’t write, right?, by Shamalee Jayarathne and Anya Shaw

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Digital trends

Plenary paper: All Things Digital, by Karen Waterston

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Paper 1: “Google classroom” mobile application as a learning tool in English Language teaching for pre-service teachers, by Jayani Pearl Gurunada

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Paper 2: Improving Writing Skills through e-Portfolio, by Shiromi Upulaneththa

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Paper 3: Using interactive whiteboards and WebQuests effectively in class, by Anna Wierstra

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Observation and feedback methods and techniques

Plenary paper: Widening the scope of effective observation and feedback, by Psyche Kennett

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Paper 1: English Pre-service teachers using reflection for bridging the gap between learnt theory and classroom application in their practicum, by Mayuri Sooriyampola

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Paper 2: Reflective Journey of Mentoring Exploratory Action Research, by Lok Bahadur Khatri

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Paper 3: Observation as a key development, assessment and evaluation tool on the Improving Teacher Education in Sri Lanka Project, by Lesley Dick 

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Poster presentations

Poster 1: Using technology to enhance language learning inside and outside the classroom, by Malka Wickramasinghe

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Poster 2: The cascade effect of the journey which enwraps the school and community project facilitated by the National College of Education, by W M M R Wewegama and S A W M M E Sooriyampola

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Poster 3: Improving Reading and Writing through creating newspapers, by Shiromi Upulaneththa

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Poster 4: The impact of integrating language skills on achieving objectives, by Amarajeewa Jayalath Basnagoda 

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The feedback that was collected post-conference and was collated in the SLELTEC Conference Report was overwhelmingly positive. Participants and presenters alike called for another conference in 2021. The SLELTEC Committee is in favour of this. Whether this will be a virtual conference or a face to face conference, only time will tell. However, everyone involved would welcome the opportunity to work towards another teacher educator next year.

Watch this space! 

All conference proceedings can also be downloaded from the following section, along with the messages received from key stakeholders of the British Council and the Ministry of Education.