Teacher Development Webinars is a project to support teachers and educators with professional growth opportunities through online teacher professional development webinars. It is an initiative using the rise in online professional development (PD) to connect people around the globe with opportunities they might not have come forth due to the traditional face-to-face conferences and seminars.
This project has gone global and has been recognised worldwide and we are now a community of more than 20K members on our official ‘Teacher Development Webinars’ Facebook group. It has also been included in Active Citizens Annual Report 2020-21.
Calendar
Our Upcoming Events & Activities
7
February
Why do speech communities discard their mother tongue?
Presented by: Prof. Maya Khemlani David
Honorary Professor
Asia Europe Institute, University of Malaya
Event Info
In order to determine appropriate strategies to revitalise a dying language it is important to know the reasons why communities shift away from their mother tongues. In this presentation I will discuss the many reasons for language shift by a range of speech communities. This wide ranging historic and global overview will discuss two overarching trends. One due to the actions of other powerful actors and one by the members of the community itself. Drawing on previous studies I will discuss why some speech communities in a range of contexts shift away from the habitual use of their mother tongue and adopt the host community’s language in many domains. There are political, economic, cultural, educational and social reasons that result in the language shift away from one’s heritage language. In addition action, sometimes brutal, by the majority community to the minority community can result in the death of a minority community’s ethnic language. The comparatively more powerful position of the host community’s language also makes many minority speech communities shift to the language used by the majority community. It is important that reasons and factors that result in language shift should be understood prior to seeking solutions to revitalise dying languages.
Keywords: Dying languages, heritage language, language shift, revitalize, speech communities.
11
February
Revivalistics: Language Reclamation, Cross-Fertilization and Wellbeing
Presented by: Prof. Ghil‘ad Zuckermann (D.Phil. Oxford)
University of Adelaide, Australia
Event Info
This talk and discussion will explain why language revival is (1) right, (2) beautiful, and (3) beneficial. In our current world, more and more groups are losing their intangible heritage. Language reclamation (e.g. Hebrew and the Barngarla Aboriginal language of South Australia), revitalization (e.g. Shanghainese and the Adnyamathanha Aboriginal language) and reinvigoration (e.g. Te Reo Māori and Welsh) are becoming increasingly relevant as more and more people seek to reconnect with their heritage, recover their cultural autonomy, empower their spiritual and intellectual sovereignty, and improve their wellbeing and mental health.
There is an urgent need to offer comparative insights, for example from the Hebrew revival, which resulted in a cross-fertilized Semito-European hybrid that I call “Israeli”. The talk will also propose that Revivalistics, a new global, comparative, trans-disciplinary field of enquiry surrounding the reclamation of ‘Sleeping Beauty’ tongues and revitalization and empowerment of endangered languages, is very different from Documentary Linguistics.
3
March
Building Communities of Practice: The Key to Success
Presented by: Hind Elyas
English Instructor
Leading National Academy, Niagara College in Saudi Arabia
Event Info
Communities of Practice
In this session, the presenter will give an overview of communities of Practice explaining what they are, how they benefit professionals, and why one should get involved.
The participants will leave with a better understanding of these communities and how they can empower educators both inside and outside the classroom.
11
March
Straddling the Divide Between GE/ELF Communication and the ELT Classroom
Presented by: Prof. Kurt Kohn
Professor Emeritus
University of Tübingen, Germany
Event Info
This webinar is set against the backdrop of a social constructivist ‘MY English’ understanding of communication and language learning. The speaker shows how speaker-learners can be enabled to reconcile ELT’s standard English orientation with the wilderness of GE/ELF communication.
Key issues discussed include communicative capability, ownership of English, agency and emancipation, and pedagogical lingua franca immersion.
15
April
Research and Teaching: A Teacher’s Perspective
Presented by: Penny Ur
Renowned Author, Researcher, Teacher, Teacher Educator
Event Info
The place of research as a source of professional knowledge for the teacher has been controversial. At one extreme, there are those who would claim that it is basic and essential; at the other are those who see it as relatively useless. My position is that the knowledge-base of effective teaching is essentially experience and reflection, and that research-based insights are a relatively minor, though significant, supplementary resource. Given this reservation, I will make some suggestions as to how the research can contribute to teachers’ professional expertise, and how it can be made accessible to busy practitioners.
13
May
Thinking about Critical Thinking
Presented by: Gregory Hadley, Professor, Niigata University, Japan
Andrew Boon, Professor, Toyo Gakuen University, Japan.
Event Info
With the proliferation of fallacious arguments, “fake news,” and untrustworthy sources in today’s multimedia landscape, critical thinking skills are vital not only in one’s native language, but also when engaged in the task of language learning.
Written with the language teacher in mind, Greg and Andy will talk about their new critical thinking book that provides a springboard for teaching critical thinking skills in multicultural, multilingual classrooms.
They will explain what critical thinking is, outline critical thinking classroom activities that teachers can incorporate into their classes, and discuss ideas for researching the impact of critical thinking activities with second-language learners.
We Cover
Our webinars cover a wide range of subjects, including but not limited to teacher education and professional development, digital literacies/language learning and technology, programme management and leadership development, intercultural communication and global competencies, pluralism, translanguaging and multilingual education, linguistic human rights, World Englishes/English as a Lingua Franca, language planning and language policy, methodologies and teaching approaches, curriculum, syllabus design and materials development, assessment and evaluation, learner autonomy, discourse/genre analysis, creativity and critical literacies, research and publishing, teaching young learners and teacher wellbeing. They also include teaching tips for making classrooms more engaging, inclusive and enjoyable for both instructors and students.
Testimonials
I had the pleasure of being asked to give a webinar as part of the Teacher Development Webinars project, which took advantage of the rise of online professional development, to provide high quality sessions to practitioners who ordinarily may not have had access to such PD face-to-face. It is an honour for me to be included among such luminaries in the field, and to contribute to such a well-organized and worthy project.
Teacher Development Webinars is an impressive initiative. It offers teachers worldwide unique opportunities to engage with their own professional development interests and to participate in presentations by some of the most internationally well-known presenters. I only wish this kind of opportunity had been available to me when I began my teaching career.
TDW is an unprecedented platform in the Pakistani context. Since its inception is doing excellent job to bring expert voices, skills and experiences on teacher education and applied linguistics from all across the world for the benefit of in-service and pre-service teachers.
Teacher Development Webinars is indeed a unique platform for profound knowledge sharing and dessimination. The selection of the speakers at each webinar, their expertise in research and experience in teaching and speaking on different topics, is remarkable. This has all been made possible by the excellent organizational skill of the TDWebinars organizers and most especially, it’s coordinator Amanullah. Think of an exceptional research, teaching and professional development platform as a teacher, scholar, student, educator, researcher etc. think of TDWebinars.
I highly recommend The Teacher Development Webinars to teachers all around the world. Its host and organizer, Amanullah Saand, has created a high-standard global platform for cordial conversation and up-to-date knowledge sharing. I encourage teachers to join these free webinars; they will not regret it.
More than ever, educators from around the world need consistent access to good quality online professional development. The webinars offered by Teacher Development Webinars meet that need. Whether an educator is new to the profession or an experienced educator who wants to refresh or upgrade their skills, these webinars cover a wide range of content to fit a variety of teacher and educator interests and needs.
MEET OUR FOUNDER
Amanullah Saand hails from a small village ‘Hashim Saand’ in District Matiari, Sindh, Pakistan and is a MPhil scholar at University of Sindh having graduated from the same university majoring in Linguistics. Amanullah has been an Active Citizen since 2017 and has contributed much in the realm of teacher-training, consultancy and education.
Contact us!
Social Community
webinars
Speakers attended
Years Established
Get In Touch
Stay Conneted