webinar1 - Archive

8th Applied Linguistics Webinar Session Held at TUMS

8th Applied Linguistics Webinar Session Held at TUMS

Professor James P. Lantolf from the Department of Applied Linguistics at the Pennsylvania State University, U.S.A. was the keynote speaker of the 2nd session of TUMS Applied Linguistics Webinar Series II on 10 April, 2021. In his talk titled “The Theory ~ Practice Crisis: Second Language Acquisition versus Language Education” he gave a brief history of the origin and evolution of the crisis related to the gap between SLA theory/research and educational practice in the realm of general applied linguistics. Drawing upon Vygotsky and his initiative of unifying theory and practice in psychology, he suggested a similar path in SLA, reaffirming the resourcefulness and potentialities of the Vygotskian approach to SLA.

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First Applied Linguistics Webinar Session Held at TUMS

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.

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