Keynote Speakers

Sarah Mercer
Sarah Mercer

University of Graz
Austria

Sarah Mercer is Professor of Foreign Language Teaching at the University of Graz, Austria, where she is Head of ELT methodology and Deputy Head of the Centre for Teaching and Learning in Arts and Humanities. Her research interests include all aspects of the psychology surrounding the foreign language learning experience. She is the author, co-author and co- editor of several books in this area including, ‘Towards an Understanding of Language Learner Self-Concept’, ‘Psychology for Language Learning’, ‘Multiple Perspectives on the Self’ in SLA’, ‘New Directions in Language Learning Psychology’, ‘Positive Psychology in SLA’, ‘Exploring Psychology for Language Teachers’ (Winner of the IH Ben Warren Prize), and ‘Language Teacher Psychology’.

Margit Szesztay
Margit Szesztay

IATEFL President 2017-2019 University of Hungary
Hungary

Margit Szesztay has been involved in teacher education for the past 25 years. Her professional interests include learning through discussion, creativity in ELT, the teacher as educator, mentoring, and building professional communities. She has an MA in Literature, an MEd in Teacher Training and a PhD in Education. She is currently President of IATEFL.

Sarah Mercer
Christina Gitsaki

Zayed University
United Arab Emirates

Dr. Christina Gitsaki is a Professor and Research Coordinator at the Center for Educational Innovation, Zayed University, UAE. During her 20-year career in higher education she has contributed to the field in a number of different capacities such as English language teacher, applied linguistics lecturer, pre-service teacher educator, in-service teacher trainer, editor, and researcher. At the CEI, Dr. Gitsaki oversees the Mobile Learning Research Fund, the SoTL Certication Course, the development of resources for research and she provides advice and mentorship to faculty who are interested in engaging in research on teaching and learning.

Margit Szesztay
Patti Drapeau

University of Southern Maine
USA

Patti Drapeau is an educational consultant, internationally known presenter and author. Patti is a presenter in the United States and abroad where she presents keynote and break out conference sessions as well as short and long-term workshops. Her presentation topics include: creativity, differentiation, personalized learning, engagement strategies, student empowerment and meeting the needs of special populations. Patti is on the part time faculty at the University of Southern Maine where she teaches courses in gifted education. She is also a consultant for the Maine Department of Education. Patti is the author of Sparking Student Creativity Practical Ways to Promote Innovative Thinking and Problem Solving (ASCD, 2014), Great Teaching with Graphic Organizers 2nd edition revised and updated (Hawker Brownlow, 2010), Differentiating with Graphic Organizers Tools to Foster Critical and Creative Thinking (Corwin Press, 2008), Differentiated Instruction: Making It Work (Scholastic, 2004) and Great Teaching with Graphic Organizers (Scholastic, 1998). She authored a variety of articles for the Maine Exchange, Teaching Matters, and Understanding our Gifted. Patti has over twenty-five years of classroom experience teaching students and coordinating programs in Freeport, Maine. She coached Odyssey of the Mind, Future Problem Solving, Explorer Vision, and math teams. Patti received the New England Region Gifted and Talented award for outstanding contributions in gifted education and the Maine Educators of the Gifted and Talented award for exemplary service.

Sarah Mercer
Malt Joshi

Texas A&M University
USA

R. Malatesha (Malt) Joshi, Ph.D., is a Professor of Reading/Language Arts Education, ESL and Educational Psychology at Texas A&M University, where he teaches and conducts research in literacy development and literacy problems among monolinguals and bilinguals in different orthographies. Dr. Joshi is the Editor of Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal and the monograph series titled Literacy Studies: Perspectives from Cognitive Neurosciences, Linguistics, Psychology and Education. From 1980-2002, Joshi directed six highly successful NATO Advanced Study Institutes which helped to bring various fields together to study literacy. He has published numerous books and scientific papers and has received several awards, such as Erasmus Mundus Visiting Scholar, Germany, and visiting research scholar from Beijing Normal University, China, Goethe Universitat, Germany, and National Cheng Chung University, Taiwan. He has received several grants and also has served on the review panels for Institute of Educational Sciences as well as the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development. At the present time, he serves as CO-PI of two grants: COST Action grant to establish European Literacy Network (about 1 million Euros) and an IES grant to study use of technology in improving comprehension in grades 4 & 5 (3.5 million US dollars). Dr. Joshi has published about 20 books and 120 chapters and papers and has been involved in about 400 professional presentations. Recently, Dr. Joshi was selected as the 2017 Fellow of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) that exemplifies the highest standards of research excellence through accomplishment, professionalism, and commitment. Dr. Joshi, in addition to editing the an high-impact journal, Reading and Writing, has published numerous studies relating to spelling and writing not only among monolingual English speaking children but also on children who are learning English as a second language from different first language background such as Chinese, Korean, and Arabic.

Margit Szesztay
Robinah Kyeyune

Makerere University
Uganda

Robinah Kyeyune trained at Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda, as a secondary teacher of English language and literature in English, going on to practice in a peri-urban girls-only boarding school, which she herself had attended as a student, and a large metropolitan co-sex boarding school. She describes her teaching experience as the understanding of varied learner interests and abilities that are directly linked to what parents, teachers, and political leaders tell learners, often indirectly, about the value of language in education and in life after school. Her teaching and research passion is in what learners and teachers do with language, and what language education policies do to learners, their teachers, and entire societies. She has written on English as a language of instruction in secondary school and on the bilingual instruction policies. From a background of training secondary language teachers at Makerere University, she is the senior education technical advisor at the USAID/Uganda School Health and Reading Program implemented by RTI International with Uganda’s Ministry of Education and Sports. The program aims to improve the reading abilities of early grade learners and the health seeking behaviors of youth. Dr. Kyeyune holds a bachelor of arts degree with a concurrent diploma in education, and a master of education (teaching English language and literature) both fromMakerere University; a master of education (TESOL) from University of Leeds, UK, and a doctorate (managing change in education) from University of Kent, UK.

Sarah Mercer
Nicos Sifakis

Hellenic Open University
Greece

Nicos C. Sifakis is a tenured associate professor in the School of Humanities of the Hellenic Open University (HOU) in Greece. He holds a B.A. (first class honours) in Computational Linguistics and a Ph.D. in language and linguistics from the University of Essex, UK. He is director of the Master’s in Education (M.Ed.) in TESOL programme of the HOU and has been involved in it since its inception in 1998, also being involved in the production of educational materials as a distance education methodology advisor, and is the author and co-author of the study guides for the language skills and English for specific purposes (ESP) modules used in that programme. He is founder and editor-in-chief of Research Papers in Language Teaching and Learning (http://rpltl.eap.gr/). He has published more than 70 research papers, which appear in various international refereed journals (among others, TESOL Quarterly, ELT Journal, ESP Journal, International Journal of Applied Linguistics, Language and Education, System), edited collections and conference proceedings. He acts as a regular external referee for Applied Linguistics, TESOL Quarterly, ESP Journal, International Journal of Applied Linguistics, System, Open Education and Adult Education. His research interests include intercultural communication and pedagogy, teaching and researching English as an international lingua franca, language teaching methodology, distance education, adult education and teacher education. His book The English Language and Globalisation: Facets of present-day reality in Greece, Europe and the rest of the world. (Athens: Herodotus) was published in February 2012.

Margit Szesztay
Greg Kessler

Ohio University
USA

Greg Kessler is the director of the Language Resource Center and associate professor of computer-assisted language learning (CALL) in the Department of Linguistics at Ohio University. He is also an affiliated faculty member in instructional technology in the Patton College of Education, also at Ohio University. His research addresses instructional technology, teacher preparation, language teaching, language learning, and associated human behavior. He was an author of the TESOL Technology Standards and has served as the chair of the TESOL CALL Interest Section. He has also been president of Ohio TESOL and the Computer Assisted Language Instruction Consortium (CALICO). He has published widely and been a featured speaker around the world.