London Met hosts English Language Conference in India

19th March 2009

London Metropolitan University recently joined forces with the prestigious St Teresa's College, Cochin, India, to host an international conference on English Language teaching for teachers across south India.

The conference, which took place at St Teresa's over two days, focused on modern approaches to English language teaching, and teacher training, and included papers from UK and Indian academics and practitioners.

Dr Fiona English, one of the two keynote speakers at the conference, said: ‘It was the first time UK and Indian teachers and teacher trainers have really evaluated our practice in educating the future English teachers, and we have all learned a huge amount from this conference.'

The two keynote speakers were both from London Metropolitan University; Dr Fiona English and Dr Tim Marr, both of whom run the renowned MA programmes in TESOL and in Applied Language Studies at the University.

Dr Latha Nair, Associate Professor of English at St Teresa's College, said: 'This was an important conference for us; Kerala as a state is known globally for its high literacy rates and its commitment to education. As an alumna of London Met, it was great to see the two keynote speakers from my former University.’

‘Good English is of huge importance to us in India, but our teaching methodologies are sometimes outdated and we need this sort of international exposure to reinforce the best standards of English teaching, and pedagogy, for our future generations.'