Saudi Gazette
JEDDAH — Saudi and Expatriate teachers attended the KSAALT TESOL (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Association of Language Teachers) two-day conference in which 150 professional teachers signed up for three intensive courses, with the Creativity in Young Learners by British Council and Technology in ESL by Oxford University Press fully booked.
The third intensive workshop was completely hands-on and practical by MEET & IDP entitled, ‘Teaching for Exams & Standardized Testing. Numbers crossed 250 attendees from all over the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Middle East.
The Conference ended with a grand lunch at Al Amwaj Restaurant and Qasr Banquet Hall on the last day. The conference began with recitation of verses from the Holy Qu’ran. The welcome speeches was delivered by Dr. Othman Barnawi from Yanbu University and president KSAALT TESOL and Dr. Jad Michealson, vice president of KSAALT TESOL, respectively, followed by a plenary by Brent Corley, Dr. Christine Combe, and teacher trainer from Dubai Anna Hasper.
KSAALT TESOL, a non-profit professional service organization for English language teachers, was created in 2006 by a handful of dedicated educators who had a desire to serve, educate, and connect English language teachers in Saudi Arabia through professional development. The 11th KSAALT TESOL annual conference was held at Hilton, Jeddah, on April 27-28.
It was an informative conference with international speakers. An educational exhibition featuring all the top institutes based in Jeddah and abroad including, Alpha Publishing; Oxford; IDP; UBT Academy, Garnet, Pearson, Macmillian, National Geographic, learning Resource Network, British Council , AMIDEAST and Master English Training, was also held on its sideline.
This year conference’s co-chairs were Amreen Najmi and Fatima Azam Ali. Malikah, executive secretary and conference consultant for KSAALT TESOL, Secretary Imrana Rafat, Consultants included Ms. Amna Azam, Sonia, Manar and Wardah, while Abu Bakr Hasan Siddiqui was the head of the sponsorship and venue. The conference catalogue was designed by Ms. Haifa Dagastani and Ms. Kausar Azam. Ms. Jamila Mir Othman, a member-at–large and a MEET brand ambassador for PD training, was the head of the Social Media and hospitality for the conference. Saudi and Expatriate teachers attended with vigor, the two-day conference.
There were 25 concurrent workshops and lectures respectively by Daniel Graves, Nicky Francis, Hind Elyas, Rehana Shah for the panel discussions, Christopher Graham from Alpha Publishing, Elena Vestri and Robert Doyle. Georgios Kormpas, from Al-Yammah University in Riyadh, Dr. Connie Mitchell, vice dean, Prince Sultan University, attended. Dr. Maha Al-Harithi spoke on raising awareness of SLA research in the Kingdom.
KSAALT TESOL (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Association of Language Teachers), is a non-profit professional service organization for English language teachers and was created in 2006 by a handful of dedicated educators with a desire to serve, educate, and connect English language teachers in Saudi Arabia through professional development.
KSAALT became an affiliate of TESOL International in 2007, an associate of IATEFL in 2010, and an affiliate of TESOL Arabia in 2015.
Amreen Najmi awarded the sponsors and speakers with certificates and plaques during the closing ceremony.
