IV International TESOLChile Conference
Universidad de La Serena, October 5th – 7th, 2007.
Santiago, October 25th 2007

Our international conference was an important and challenging event, with almost 400 participants. We want to thank teachers and students from the University of La Serena who were most welcoming and worked incredibly hard to make the conference a true success. We also have to highlight the beauty of the campus, the quaint old city streets and constructions, the lovely churches (each one with a different story), the market place, their delicious food and restaurants, etc.

We had presenters from various parts of the world, four excellent plenaries, three given by Diane Larsen-Freeman and one by Michael McCarthy. Both of them also participated in a memorable exchange of ideas on grammar and vocabulary teaching in the classroom. It was reassuring to confirm that in Chile we seem to be on the right track, giving more importance to the development of as much vocabulary as possible and teaching grammar in context, never as the lesson organiser. Grammar fans were grateful to learn that grammar is not a dirty word!! And that it has its own legitimate place in the teaching/learning English process. Vocabulary fans, on the other hand, were happy to find out that it is possible now to teach using corpora straight from the Internet.

The Ministry of Education invited all the 76 English network leaders, who participated enthusiastically, not missing any of the presentations. We intend to work with them very actively planning seminars and workshops to satisfy their need for more methodology,
strategies and exposure to the language.

A final word to let you know that our next 2008 conference is in Santiago, that means we need HELP. Therefore, we warmly invite you to work with us, members of the Board and other friends, to start planning with plenty of time, making sure we offer an excellent service, have a beautiful venue, invite the most outstanding gurus, organise pre-registration (early birds), the call-for-papers, registration, etc. as smoothly as possible.

Download TESOL CHILE's Newsletter Vol I, Issue 4. October 2007

Download TESOL CHILE's President Message, October 2007