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RECENT NEWS

ACTA Conference 2010

This coming January, the University of New South Wales School of Education (Sydney, Australia) is proud to again host the Summer Institute on Language Teaching. The 2010 Institute aims to provide short courses for students, teachers and researchers who are keen on updating their skills or learning new ones. Headed by Professor David Nunan, the Institute provides six intensive short courses, lead by prominent academics in the field of language acquisition and learning.

Summer Institute on Language Teaching

The flyer for the Summer Institute can be downloaded here and a more comprehensive information booklet is available here.

For more information, please visit: http://education.arts.unsw.edu.au/news or contact the VicTESOL office.

VATME officially becomes VicTESOL

Last week we received a Certificate of Incorporation from the Victorian Department of Consumer of Affairs legally authorising the change of name from the Victorian Association of TESOL and Multicultural Education (VATME) to VicTESOL Inc. In coming weeks you will see changes to the website and VicTESOL publications including the new name and logo.

National Curriculum in the Senior Secondary Years

As you may be aware a position paper (available here) has been developed by the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) that will guide the development of a national curriculum in the senior years (11 and 12).

ACARA are asking for any feedback by 30th September. You are welcome to write your own response to ACARA (see document for details) or you can forward comments to John Ingamells (c/o vatme@vatme.vic.edu.au) who will be compiling a response to go to the national TESOL body ACTA. Please ensure you submit this by 23 September, and head the email "National Senior Years Curriculum Response".

ESL Conference 2009

The Victorian ESL Conference was a great success. We wish to thank all presenters and delegates for their participation. Please keep an eye out for the participant's survey which will be emailed to you shortly. All feedback is more than welcome!

Human Rights and VATME

Australia is currently investigating the viability of developing a national Human Rights Act and in May, on behalf of VATME, Debra Ives attended a human rights forum convened by the Centre of Multicultural Youth (CMY). Graeme Innes, AM Human Rights Commissioner and Disability Discrimination Commissioner for the Australian Human Rights Commission was in attendance.

This forum followed a period of intense advocacy by VATME and our national association, ACTA, around the need for recognition of the cultural and linguistic resources ESL learners bring to school and the critical need for explicit attention to these learners' English language learning needs in the emerging national curriculum documents. Debra therefore took this opportunity to tell the story of our struggle because that's what they wanted - stories.

This had an impact and we were strongly encouraged to lodge a submission. VATME's submission can be read here. ACTA's endorsement of our submission can be read here.

VATME Office Relocation

The VATME office has moved to a beautiful, new space! Please click here for our new contact details and office hours.