Programme

Teacher Development

English is now the lingua franca of international business, and increasingly the medium of instruction in education - bringing sharply into focus the language teaching strategies of the South Asia region, and the skills and abilities of English language teachers. The teacher’s own language therefore becomes the model which learners follow; this raises a number of questions:

• Which model? Can a teacher whose own language ability is still developing be an acceptable model?
• Should more importance be given to a learner’s first language(s)?
• What should be the focus of language improvement courses for teachers?
• How should these differ from language improvement courses for learners?

Digital Learning

Digital learning technologies are transforming the ways in which English is taught and learned. For the first time, learning is becoming truly student-centred, based on a student’s competency, with skills acquisition measured through formative, learning orientated assessment. Digital technologies also allow learning outside the classroom, and the automation of routine marking and feedback gives teachers more time to motivate, support and nurture their students. This session will consider how best to evaluate digital learning tools as effective learning instruments, and how to integrate digital learning into both the classroom and new learning environments. We also hope that by bringing together educationalists, content specialists and digital entrepreneurs we can identify new solutions to take forward.

Employability

Although English language ability is becoming a prerequisite for entry into the global workplace, school leavers and graduates need a wide variety of other skills to make them employable, and to enable real career development. Often described as ‘personal’, ‘soft’ or ‘21st century’ skills, strengths in critical thinking, creativity and communication are vital to business development, along with the ability to collaborate and to work as a team. This is especially true in South Asia’s burgeoning STM (science, technology and medicine) sector where academic, technical and research skills are highly developed but often at the expense of the soft skills essential for productive employment. This session aims to examine and prioritise these additional skills, and determine the best way to develop and nurture these abilities in order to create fully rounded employees.

Research and Innovation

Research and innovation are key drivers of national prosperity. The pre-requisites for a world class research eco system are the availability of adequate infrastructure and funding, in order to yield high-quality research outputs. The new models of public-private funding have provided momentum to research, but direct government funding also plays a key role.

The session aims to bring together practitioners from research organisations and industry who will share their learning on the factors that drive effective research and innovation. The platform encourages knowledge sharing from all public and private institutions involved in research and innovation, including research-focused organisations, commercial users of research and funding providers.