USQ Professor addresses International Conference

USQ academic, Professor David Ross, addressed delegates from 52 countries at the 2007 Asia Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) International Conference.

Held at the world trade centre in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Professor Ross was one of several speakers at the Conference, which facilitated cross-cultural understanding of teaching and learning of English in Asia.

'The Conference addressed all areas of English, including reading, writing and spelling, and there were representatives from many different Asian countries in attendance,' Professor Ross said.

'I talked about spoken English, which deals with dialect and accent and is an intricate part of learning the English language.'

Professor Ross said approximately 2000 people attended the three-day Conference.

'There were mainly academics from universities and vocational education schools as well as representatives from government organisations at the Conference,' Professor Ross said.

'New paradigms and tools to learn English were discussed and the talk that I gave looked at simplifying English through an online program that I helped develop and this was something that a lot of people responded well to.'

Professor Ross added that the University also received good exposure throughout the Conference.

'I have been involved in the development of this program for five years and about three years ago we ran trials of the program at USQ with international students,' he said.

'My presentation at the Conference was completely full with people standing in the hall so I was asked to present it twice, so that was good as it gave USQ some excellent exposure.'

Professor Ross had received several enquiries regarding the program from delegates attending the Conference since returning to Australia last week.

Media Contact: Josh Ada, USQ Media, +61 7 4631 1628