Okim Kang<\/strong>, professor\nof TESL\/applied linguistics and conference organizer, said in the past, most\nattendees were from North America or European countries. This was the first\nyear every continent was represented. She recalled one woman telling her it\ntook more than 37 hours to arrive in Flagstaff. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe conference was not just for second language speech\nlearning and teaching,\u201d Kang said. \u201cWe intentionally invited people from\nvarious interdisciplinary sections, and its scope was much broader this time\nthan ever before.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2018, she and her organizing team applied and were granted the\nLanguage Learning Roundtable Grant, which provided a basis for funding. Others supporting\nfunds came from NAU sponsors: the Office of the President; the Office of Vice\nPresident for Research; the Center for International Education; the Department\nof Global Languages and Cultures; and the Global Engagement and Language\nLearning Center along with many publishers and language learning\ncompanies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Attendees included professors, researchers, teachers,\nstudents and industry representatives. Expert and novice researchers in their\ndisciplines came together to share knowledge in the form of presentations,\nposters, workshops and roundtable group discussions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In particular, the roundtable invited speakers supported by\nthe Language Learning grant and emphasized the importance of using\ninterdisciplinary fields to attack L2 learning from different angles. Corpus\nlinguistics, pragmatics, instructed second language acquisition, interpersonal\ncommunication and assessment were all topics of interest as participants discussed\nways to inform and shape language learning and teaching. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The conference launched with two pre-workshops offered by\ninternationally renowned scholars Tracey Derwing, Murray Munro and Eric\nFriginal. Douglas Biber<\/strong>, Regent\u2019s\nprofessor in the NAU English Department, introduced the benefits of using\ncorpus analysis in his keynote speech titled \u201cCorpus analysis of spoken\ndiscourse: Research findings, prospects, implications for teaching.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Interaction among disciplines serves a twofold purpose. Applied\nlinguists within pronunciation work gains useful knowledge of new literature in\neach interdisciplinary field, while researchers in the different fields become\naware of problems the field of pronunciation teaching and learning faces. Once each\nstance is recognized, researchers can develop projects that explore the details\nof L2 pronunciation and language acquisition in general.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This year PSLLT 2019 not only opened up a dialogue among different\nlanguage disciplines, but a conversation with applied linguists and researchers\nall over the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cA one discipline-based conference can often get small, but\nI wanted to make this year really diverse,\u201d Kang said. \u201cMy field wasn\u2019t one of\nthe huge disciplines, but it has been growing rapidly in the last two decades.\nI feel it is my responsibility to make it more comprehensible in the larger\nfield.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Kang credited the success of the conference to her organizing\ncommittee: Shelley Staples, Alyssa Kermad, Kevin Hirshi, Kate Yaw and Mohammadreza\nDalman; the English department faculty and staff, Kelly\nMercer<\/strong>; her sponsors and all of the attendees. She added her special thanks\nto more than 45 volunteers\u2014mostly graduate students in the TESL\/Applied\nLinguistics programs at NAU\u2014for their involvement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In an effort to raise more international awareness of pronunciation\nlanguage learning and teaching, she advertised the conference through\nNAU connections, international listservs, social networking sites and personal\nconnections. Kang chuckled as she mentioned it helped to have the Grand Canyon\nnearby as a selling point. Many attendees spent an extra day to explore this\nwonder of the world after attending the sessions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The conference also incorporated the Flagstaff community. Attendees\nspent an evening at Charly\u2019s Pub & Grill in the historic Weatherford Hotel,\nwhich gave them a chance to experience the quaint downtown atmosphere. Graduate\nstudents volunteered their time to give guided tours pointing out the icons still\nremaining along Route 66. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"![\"\"](\"http:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wordpresst\/uploads\/sites\/153\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/organizers--1024x683.jpg\")
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