The Centre, in association with the Department of English, Andhra Loyola College, organized a two-day UGC-sponsored national seminar on ‘Reflective Practice in the English Classroom’ on 11 and 12 August 2008. The seminar was inaugurated by Prof Y R Haragopal Reddy, Vice-Chancellor, Acharya Nagarjuna University, and the key-note address was delivered by Prof Makhan Lal Tickoo, formerly Head, Specialists’ Department, Regional Language Centre (RELC), Singapore, and still earlier Head, Department of Materials Production, CIEFL, Hyderabad. The Seminar Convener was Dr P Ramanujam, Director of the ELT Centre, and the Seminar Coordinator was Ms N Nirmala Mary, Treasurer of the Centre.
As many as 118 delegates TEFL from six states (viz. Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Gujarat) participated in the seminar. They represented a variety of institutional categories in higher education, namely, universities, liberal arts colleges, colleges of education, engineering colleges and a college of pharmacy. A few research scholars and a student of MA from Karnataka added to this variety.
Sixty-four presentations were made at the seminar, four of them in plenary sessions and 60 of them in 12 parallel sessions. The first of the plenary speakers, Prof. M L Tickoo, who delivered the key-note address, explored some of the main events in the evolution and development of teacher reflection in TEFL (Teaching of English as a Foreign Language) during the last 40-odd years. Prof V Robert Bellarmine, formerly English Studies Officer, British Council (South India), in his plenary talk, pointed up the need and scope for reflective practice in Indian classrooms, illustrated reflective practice with examples from real classrooms, and explained why a few of the reflective practices followed in the West are not adoptable in India. While Prof Malathy Krishnan of The English and Foreign Languages University (formerly ‘CIEFL’), Hyderabad, examined the tried-and-tested methods of observation and reflection in her plenary talk, Dr Champa Tickoo, formerly faculty member, National University of Singapore, presented an experiment she conducted in a government secondary school in Hyderabad and the positive changes it produced both in the teachers’ attitudes and behaviours and in the the learners’ language and learning skills. The 60 papers presented in the parallel sessions explored a variety of themes ranging from classroom interaction to teacher development.
As a matter of fact, the focus of the seminar itself was on teacher development. The seminar evaluated the prevalent approaches to development in higher education in our country, proposed the Reflective Approach as an alternative professional development model for teachers of English, explored the possibilities (e.g. keeping a teaching journal, peer observation, case analysis, team teaching, action research) of achieving reflective practice, studied models / examples of reflective practice, and motivated the participants to draw up an action plan for their own professional development on the reflective model.
On the second day of the seminar, the eminent ELT scholar, Prof Makhan Lal Tickoo was felicitated, as part of the seminar programme, by The Loyola ELT Resource and Research Centre. The felicitation was in recognition of Prof Tickoo’s outstanding work in ELT in India and abroad for over half a century. Fr A Theckemury, Director, Andhra Loyola College Alumni Association, presided at the ceremony, and those who felicitated Prof Tickoo included Prof Bellarmine, formerly of the British Council, and Dr P Ramanujam, Director, ELT Centre, Fr Dr D Showraiah, SJ, and Fr Dr S Emmanuel, Patrons of the Centre. Another highlight of the seminar was an ELT Resources Exhibition, held on both days of the seminar.
As many as 118 delegates TEFL from six states (viz. Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Gujarat) participated in the seminar. They represented a variety of institutional categories in higher education, namely, universities, liberal arts colleges, colleges of education, engineering colleges and a college of pharmacy. A few research scholars and a student of MA from Karnataka added to this variety.
Sixty-four presentations were made at the seminar, four of them in plenary sessions and 60 of them in 12 parallel sessions. The first of the plenary speakers, Prof. M L Tickoo, who delivered the key-note address, explored some of the main events in the evolution and development of teacher reflection in TEFL (Teaching of English as a Foreign Language) during the last 40-odd years. Prof V Robert Bellarmine, formerly English Studies Officer, British Council (South India), in his plenary talk, pointed up the need and scope for reflective practice in Indian classrooms, illustrated reflective practice with examples from real classrooms, and explained why a few of the reflective practices followed in the West are not adoptable in India. While Prof Malathy Krishnan of The English and Foreign Languages University (formerly ‘CIEFL’), Hyderabad, examined the tried-and-tested methods of observation and reflection in her plenary talk, Dr Champa Tickoo, formerly faculty member, National University of Singapore, presented an experiment she conducted in a government secondary school in Hyderabad and the positive changes it produced both in the teachers’ attitudes and behaviours and in the the learners’ language and learning skills. The 60 papers presented in the parallel sessions explored a variety of themes ranging from classroom interaction to teacher development.
As a matter of fact, the focus of the seminar itself was on teacher development. The seminar evaluated the prevalent approaches to development in higher education in our country, proposed the Reflective Approach as an alternative professional development model for teachers of English, explored the possibilities (e.g. keeping a teaching journal, peer observation, case analysis, team teaching, action research) of achieving reflective practice, studied models / examples of reflective practice, and motivated the participants to draw up an action plan for their own professional development on the reflective model.
On the second day of the seminar, the eminent ELT scholar, Prof Makhan Lal Tickoo was felicitated, as part of the seminar programme, by The Loyola ELT Resource and Research Centre. The felicitation was in recognition of Prof Tickoo’s outstanding work in ELT in India and abroad for over half a century. Fr A Theckemury, Director, Andhra Loyola College Alumni Association, presided at the ceremony, and those who felicitated Prof Tickoo included Prof Bellarmine, formerly of the British Council, and Dr P Ramanujam, Director, ELT Centre, Fr Dr D Showraiah, SJ, and Fr Dr S Emmanuel, Patrons of the Centre. Another highlight of the seminar was an ELT Resources Exhibition, held on both days of the seminar.
