This is the post-TESOL Convention edgeblog in two ways. First, because I am just (a few hours ago) back from the convention in New Orleans. Second, because I am pretty sure that that was the last TESOL Convention that I shall attend.
The 2011 conference itself was the usual vortex of activity, with a range and depth of topics and speakers impossible to fathom and navigate with any sense of certainty regarding what one would discover. But how not to be intrigued by the sensationally named Shaknoza Abdurakhmanova speaking on the topic of using wikis in Uzbekistan, and posing the question: How do learners manage to use wikipages to improve their writing through collaborative projects without having internet access at the university, and what a teacher needs to do in such settings?
Jennifer Jenkins, whose views many of you will be familiar with from discussions arising out of Rob Drummond’s Article Interview, featured in our EDUC70020 module, gave a plenary on English as a Lingua Franca. More particularly related to my own interests, Alastair Pennycook’s abstract for his plenary ran as follows:
English is an impossible idea. It is plural, fuzzy, unbounded, mixed, emergent and indefinable. English can no longer be pinned down; it is set of ideas, aspirations, desires, hopes, and threats. This plenary asks what it is we are involved in when we teach English.
My own session, I have to tell you (Who else will?), went very well. It was explicitly dedicated to introducing my new book, The Reflexive Teacher Educator: Roots and Wings. With my friend, Phil Quirke, contributing some scripted heckling from the back of the room, we presented a dramatized performance of Chapter 1. We had a full house, with people standing at the door. They laughed in the right places, listened carefully, and asked some astute questions at the end. Feedback was very positive and the publishers (Routledge) sold all the copies they had taken along. What more can you ask? Ah well, yes, and I enjoyed myself. To give you an idea, I’ll attach to this message the script that Phil and I used, along with the accompanying Powerpoint , for which wondering acknowledgement must be paid to Eljee Javier. All that I can add is that, for the opening and closing passages, I did my best impersonation of Daniel Day-Lewis’ voice in ‘There will be blood,’ which I think was an impersonation of John Huston in ‘Chinatown.’ Anyway, Gary, who was kind enough to come along and support, said, with a shake of the head, ‘You’ve got a lot of nerve,’ and I know he meant it in a good way. :>)
Having seen Baton Rouge, I now know why Kris Kristofferson and Janis Joplin were so keen to get out of it, and I have to confess that Lafayette is a lot more exciting in Lucinda Williams’ song that I found it, but then, her brother knows where all the best bars are. New Iberia was delightful, as was the electioneering sheriff, who shook my hand on the street and again that night in a restaurant, even though he must have known by then that I couldn’t vote.
If you have heard that New Orleans is full of live music, you won’t hear any contradiction from me. And some of it is good. Standout venues for me were Preservation Hall, as a living museum kind of gig, and Snug Harbour, a serious jazz venue where we saw a quintet led by Victor Goines and Delefeayo Marsalis play with apparently effortless virtuosity, startling creativity and a great deal of obviously enjoying themselves.
I got back here to discover that I am on strike, the union having called us out for two days in protest, most immediately, against the attack on our pension provision. It’s not really possible (although legally necessary) to separate that out from protest against the government’s overall approach to the economy, in which people’s pensions generally are being sacrificed to make up the losses caused by the financial services’ scandal, while the banks shovel our cash into their vaults and bankers pay themselves the bonuses they insist that they need, and against the overall attack on our system of higher education and the values on which it was built, since 1945, at least.
I shall use the ‘on strike’ time to catch up on emails and Blackboard. I’m not sure about the ethics of that, but it reduces my stress levels and means that I don’t cross any picket lines. Both of these seem good things and, in the words of Jim Steadman, ‘Two out of three ain’t bad.’
Ha! I didn’t tell you about why that was probably my last TESOL Convention. Still, enough for now. That’ll have to wait till next time.
Best,
Julian
"#euroversity Just travelling into central Vienna on the train, heading for the hotel.""I'm at a project meeting over the next few days, so tweets will refer to this""#iatefl The ideas from Zull appear to support e.g. the Kolb cycle http://t.co/zn3ltQk6""zull #iatefl "Building complexity is one part of learning""