Dr. Yilin Sun, President of TESOL International
Yilin Sun, Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics/Curriculum & Instruction, University of Toronto, Canada, is President of TESOL International Association (2014-2015). She served on the Board of Directors of TESOL International, 2008 to 2011; Chair of the Affiliate Leadership Council of TESOL in 2007 and President of Washington Association for the Education of Speakers of Other Languages (WAESOL) in 2003 and 2007.
In 2011-2012, Dr. Sun worked as a Fulbright Senior Scholar in Taiwan coordinating the Fulbright English Teaching Assistant (ETA) Education Program and teaching TESOL graduate courses as a Visiting Professor at the National Taiwan Normal University.
Dr. Sun is a professor at South Seattle College in Seattle, USA, who has over 29 years of experience in the field of TESOL as a MA-TESL teacher trainer, a researcher, a classroom teacher, and a program leader with a variety of higher educational institutions in China, Canada and U.S.A. She is also an English Language Specialist for the U.S. Department of State and has conducted teacher training workshops in many countries including Cambodia, China, South Korea, Laos, Russia and Thailand.
Yilin is the author of books, book chapters and research papers in refereed professional journals including TESOL Quarterly and TESOL Journal. She has also presented widely at national and international conferences. Her research interests include curriculum development, program assessment and evaluation, L2 reading, vocabulary learning, classroom-based action research, teacher education, adult education, teaching English to young learners, World Englishes, ESP and non-native English speaking teachers (NNEST) in the ELT field.
Winds of Change in ELT: Strategies, Issues and Responsibilities of ELT Professionals in the 21st Century Classroom
Plenary session
This plenary session will focus on strategies to empower teachers and students in the 21st Century classroom. Based on her background as a non-native English speaker and her cross-cultural teaching and research experience in China, Canada and the United States, the speaker will discuss recent major trends in the ELT field and teaching and learning strategies for non-native English speaking educators. She will also discuss the roles and the responsibilities of non-native English speaking ELT professionals in the changing global society.
Developing Speaking Skills through Story Reading and Questioning Techniques
Plenary workshop
This interactive session will focus on strategies and activities to help students develop oral skills through story reading. The speaker will share research-based approaches and techniques for developing both speaking and reading skills. She will also share a few effective questioning techniques to facilitate learners’ critical thinking as part of the language proficiency development.