South Asia TA's Representatives at
PSR Training and SLELTA 7th Conference

Continuing Professional Cooperation
As the follow up of the Regional Hornby School, and to expand on what went in Dhaka, Bangladesh, two members representing AzerELTA attended Peer Support Review Training run by George Pickering, and 7th SLELTA International Conference, in Colombo, Sri Lanka on 5-10 September 2012. As planned, Taghiloo delivered a workshop on vocabulary and Fakher participated in the panel discussion. Seven TA's all had representatives at the training and conference. Being so fruitful, as the feedback given indicated the event was a big success.

Hornby Regional School, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Sharing Best Practice: Strengthening and
Extending Teachers' Associations in South Asia

Time for Networking!
South Asia Hornby Regional School was held in Brac-CDM Savar, Dhaka, Bangladesh on 11-16 December 2011. Attended by representatives from South Asia region Teachers' Associations including AzerELTA of Iran, BELTA of Bangladesh, ELTAA of Afghanistan, ELTAI of India, NELTA of Nepal, SLELTA of Sri Lanka and SPELT of Pakistan, it provided an opportunity for South Asia Teachers' Associations (SATA) to share best practice, ideas and views, learn from each other and discuss challenges TAs face in a friendly ambience. Four members from AzerELTA attended the school. During the course a sub-committee made up of members of all SATA represented discussed the ways of cooperating as well as networking in the region, coming up with a number of realistic proposals to be carried out. Sheilagh Neilson, wider South Asia Regional ELT Manager, George Pickering, Course Director, Mirza Beg, English Project Manager, Bangladesh, Kathryn Kelly, English Language Advisor and a pro film crew worked together so smoothly that the event turned out to be a success. The 6-day course sought to equip participants with skills related to effectively run a TA, e.g. basic financial management skills, marketing, leading, setting up membership database, promoting a TA, winning sponsorship and establishing TA branches.

South Asia TA's Representatives at
PSR Training and SLELTA 7th Conference

Taher made it at last!
"On the Effect of Thematization on the Comprehension of Sentences: Thematization and its effect on comprehension" is a resourceful book released by VDM Verlag, and is written by Taher Alavi, AzerELTA coordinator in Naqada, W. Azerbaijan, Iran. The book which includes 96 pages treats the effect of word-order on comprehensibility of sentences in ELT. Having an MA in TEFL, Taher has actively organized a regional conference on ELT in Naqada in 2007.

South Asia TA's Representatives at
PSR Training and SLELTA 7th Conference

Mazlum gives an interviews to Roshd FLT.
Farhad Mazlum Zavaregh, both Publication Director of AzerELTA and Editor-in-chief of AzerLETA Journal, was interviewed by Roshd FLT Executive Director, Shahla Zarei Neyestanak, talking about his perspectives on ELT in Iran, English teachers' professional and educational qualifications and the barriers and solutions of ELT in Iranian context. His long quest for old Iranian English textbooks, and his PhD research into English textbooks are going to open new chapters in the field.
For further details you could have a look at his interview here.

The front cover reads
"Reza Abdi, Metadiscourse in Research Articles;
Introducing a CP-based Underlying Model"

Reza's Great Achievement in ELT
A book by Dr. Reza Abdi, entitled "Metadiscourse in Research Articles; Introducing a CP-based Underlying Model" was published by LAP LAMBERT Academic Publishing in Germany in 2010. Abdi is representative of AzerELTA in Ardabil and an assistent professor in the ELT Department at the University of Mohaghegh Ardabili as well. He is especially interested in metadiscourse and academic writing. In the Editorial Reviews of this 240-page work we read, "Comparing metadiscourse employment in research articles across languages and sciences and unable to systematically account for the differences and similarities, this book moves to a qualitative analysis of metadiscursively loaded utterances in an attempt to deduce a set of basic principles that help authors decide the appropriate use of metadiscourse varieties. Gricean cooperative principle framework adopted and adapted here was found to plausibly serve such a purpose. It is suggested that macro and micro metadiscursive conventions and choices are governed by a set of maxims that guarantee quality, quantity, manner and interaction in research articles."

A Brief Report on the Activities of AzerELTA
by the President

AzerELTA comes into focus nationwide.
In an interview with the journal Roshd FLT, AzerELTA president gave a brief report on AzerELTA activities in recent years. He also expressed his views about the shortcomings of educational system of Iran. The interview which was conducted by Ms. Shahla Zarei Neyestanak, executive director of the journal, appeared in the issue Vol. 24, No. 93, Winter 2009.
Click here to read the interview in full.

Azerbaijani English teachers were presented with a workshop
and a presentaion by Dr. Farhad Mazlum at Slavic University

The Workshop and Presentation by Dr. Farhad Mazlum in Slavic University, Baku, Azerbaijan
The Publication Director of AzerELTA, Dr. Farhad Mazlum, attended the 6th International ELT Conference of AzETA that was held on 14th and 15th of November, 2009 in Slavic University, Baku, Azerbaijan. The first day he presented his speech "English Language Teaching: the Neutral Lingua Franca or the Modern Trojan Horse?" He tried to raise the attendants' consciousness of the opposing views concerning the widespread growth of ELT in recent years and encouraged the audience to study the critical applied linguists' views on ideological and sociopolitical aspects of ELT as well. The speech stirred a hot challenging debate with a Georgian professor and an American. Mazlum's workshop "Teaching Grammar: Consciousness-Raising Activities vs. Practice" was run the second day. A grammatical structure concerning Azerbaijani English textbooks at high school level was taught using both practice and consciousness-raising activities to let the attendants see how they differ. Mr. Talebzadeh was a great help moving around energetically and explaining the procedures of consciousness-raising tasks for those who had problems.

The front cover reads
"Incidental Focus on Form in English Language Teaching:
Reactive and Preemptive Focus on Form Practices, and
Uptake in EFL Classes" by Dr. Javad Gholami

The Latest News!
VDM Verlag, an international publisher, published a book entitled "Incidental Focus on Form in English Language Teaching: Reactive and Preemptive Focus on Form Practices, and Uptake in EFL Classes" on April 30, 2009. Its author is Dr. Javad GHOLAMI, an advisory member and international coordinator of AzerELTA as well as an assistant professor in TEFL at Urmia University, W. Azerbaijan. His brilliance has produced an impressive work in Iranian settings of ELT. Being in English, this 288 page book explores various aspects of focus on form in general and incidental focus on form in particular.

The 2008 Asia TEFL International Conference
Globalizing Asia: The Role of ELT
August 2008, Bali, Indonesia

Piece of Good News!
The land of the Gods, Bali, Indonesia was the host of Mr. Reza KALANTARI, vice-president of AzerELTA and Morteza BARIN, the regional coordinator of AzerELTA from 1 to 3 August 2008. They were at Asia TEFL's 6th Annual International Conference held in Bali to present their papers on ELT. Expressing its great happiness, AzerELTA wishes them good luck with more projects and papers to be accepted in ELT conferences held around the world.

1st Conference on ELT Issues
September 2007, Naqadeh, W. Azerbaijan

A report on Naqadeh seminar by Alireza Talebzadeh
Venue: Payam Noor University of Naqadeh

The first seminar on TEFL issues was held in Naqadeh aka Soldoz where the noted mountaineer Mohammad Oraz was born and bred on 16 Shahrivar 1386. What impressed me at first was well-organized setting of the seminar. It was a real boon to English teachers, the real toilers, to take advantages of information exchanging, face to face communication and the like. All in all, the seminar enjoyed many advantages such as relaxed ambience, expert people and technicians managing the seminar. Hopefully, this seminar will have served to inspire or motivate the teachers to revise the way they teach English.


BUT


There was no fun. In addition, the medium of the seminar was in English as well as in Farsi and there was no key speaker. The announcer listed the items. As a starting point, National anthem was played. Having been recited a few verses of the Holy Koran; the head of Naghadeh education gave the participants a warm welcome. It was the secretary's turn to give his report on on-going affairs. The papers in English were presented as follows:


1. Asghar SALIMI/The study of theoretical justification of using consciousness-raising in EFL classes.


2. Rahim NAJJARI/A better understanding of the nature of Task-based language instruction and its implications for language pedagogy in EFL classes


3. Reza KALANTARI/ The effect of strategies of classroom interaction on conversion performance of Iranian EFL learners


4. Monireh SALEHI/ Teaching English efficiently


5. Sakineh BASIREI/English teachers, prepare yourself for digital age.


6. Taher ALAVI/On the effect of thematisation on the comprehension of sentences with different verb categories at intermediate level.


7. Alireza TALEBZADEH/Supplementary books as obstacles to learning English


8. Farahnaz RIMANI/Using concordance to explore the impact of inductive and deductive instruction on teaching grammar in EFL classes.


9. Mohammad SABETKALAM/The effects of concept mapping on students' reading comprehension


10. Faraan RASOULIAN/On the effects of phonics instruction (letter-sound relationship) on improving the reading of beginning readers (first-graders of guidance school) in Iran