Hawaii TESOL Conference 2012: Bridging the Gap

Saturday, February 11, 2012 from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM

Hawaii Tokai International College (HTIC)

Instructors and language learners alike strive to bridge various gaps in language, culture, and beyond. This year's conference will focus on the myriad ways that English language professionals and learners bridge these gaps.

Plenary Speaker: Richard Schmidt, Professor Department of Second Language Studies (retired), UH Manoa, & Director, National Foreign Language Resource Center will present on:

Fifty True and Useful Findings from SLA Research

This presentation attempts to bridge the gap between theory/research and practice by identifying about 50 (probably) true and (possibly) useful findings from SLA research. Although there is currently no single grand theory of second language acquisition (SLA) that is both generally accepted and readily applicable to language teaching practice, there are certainly general principles of learning and empirical findings from SLA that are sufficiently well established to be relevant for L2 pedagogy. For example, although after 50 years of research there is still no agreement on the issue of whether or not there is a critical period for language learning—after which complete, native-like competence is an unachievable goal—there are facts about the relationship between age and L2 learning that are not seriously in doubt and have implications for the expectations that teachers have of learners. The earlier one starts, the better in the long run, at least in contexts where the L2 is used communicatively. Age effects are most apparent in the realm of phonology, negligible for vocabulary learning, and so forth. Another area where disagreement is so strong that basic issues may never be settled concerns the relationships among attention, awareness, and learning. Can anything be learned without attention? Some say “of course!” while others maintain “never!” What cannot be disputed, however, is that people learn more about the things they pay attention to than the things they do not pay attention to, a conclusion that has interesting implications for instruction. This talk will build on earlier work by Spolsky (1989) and Long (1990) and try to provide an account of what seems at this point to fall within the category of accepted and useful findings, with particular attention to the distinction between empirical issues and expressions of advocacy and zeitgeist, issues of “black boxing,” and the types of evidence needed to establish that a finding is both “true” and “useful.”

Spolsky, B. (1989). Conditions for Second Language Learning. Oxford University Press.

Long, M. H. (1990). The least a second language acquisition theory needs to explain. TESOL Quarterly, 24.4.

Registration:
http://hawaiitesol.eventbrite.com

Location:
HTIC is located on the Ala Wai Canal across from world famous Waikiki Beach.
2241 Kapiolani Blvd., Honolulu, Hawaii 96826, U.S.A
Tel. 1-808-983-4121 Fax.1-808-983-4109

Information and Directions:

http://hawaiitokai.edu/

Google Map and Directions

facebook.com/HawaiiTESOL

Publishers/Vendors: * Publisher's Registration Form *

Volunteer to help out at the conference. Fill out this Form (.doc), attach it and email it to Sandy Kirkoski.

Travel Grants 2012:
Hawai‘i TESOL is excited to announce it will offer Six Travel Grants for 2012: five neighbor island travel grants for the Hawai‘i TESOL Conference and one travel grant for a TESOL conference outside of Hawai‘i. The travel grants are funded entirely by membership fees, member donations, and proceeds from grant fundraising ventures, such as the Travel Grant Raffle. See our Travel Grants page for more information. Application deadline is January 24, 2012.

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