First Applied Linguistics Webinar Session Held at TUMS

Department of Foreign Languages at Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS) hosted the first session of TUMS Applied Linguistics Webinar Series on 13 June, 2020. The session which was attended by over 170 participants from Iran, Malaysia, Germany, India, Pakistan, Nigeria Indonesia and Japan was co-chaired by Dr. Yasin Yazdi, the director of the webinar series, and Dr. Enayat Shabani, the head of Department of Foreign Languages at TUMS International College. The keynote speaker was Professor Gerhard Leitner, the emeritus Professor of English linguistics at the Department of English of the Freie Universitaet Berlin, Germany. In his talk titled “From the ‘best [British] English’ to ‘Englishes’ and challenges for English Language Teaching”, professor Leitner chronologically reviewed through the main existing models of spread of English and touched upon a paradigm shift from World English into World Englishes across time. Following a lively Q & A segment, the session was consummated with a group photo of the online guests in a buoyant mood.