Thomas Farrell

International Conference 2019
Featured Session

Advancing ELT by Becoming an Expert Teacher

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What makes a "good teacher"? What makes an "expert teacher"? Is a "good teacher" an "expert teacher"? These questions have long been debated in the field of general education with many differing views about all three; however, within the field of teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL), many different stakeholders assume they can know and identify "good teachers" mostly by their preconceived notions of what "good" means. In addition, many consider teachers to be "experts" mostly by the number of years they have been teaching. However, nothing could be further from the truth as the notion of a "good teacher" remains hopelessly elusive, and we do not learn from experience ㅡ we learn from reflecting on that experience. In this featured session, I will outline and discuss how TESOL teachers can become expert teachers and stress that reflective practice is critical to expertize.

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Invited Second Session (Workshop)

Reflection-As-Action: Implementing Reflective Practice in TESOL

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This workshop outlines and discusses how reflective practice can be implemented in TESOL in a manner that not only focuses on the intellectual, cognitive, and meta-cognitive aspects of practice that many other approaches suggest, but also the spiritual, moral, and emotional non-cognitive aspects of reflection that acknowledge the inner life of teachers. The framework that is outlined has five different stages/levels of reflection: philosophy, principles, theory, practice, and beyond practice. Each of these will be explained in detail and participants will be able to practice each in this interactive session.

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Biographical Sketch

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Thomas S.C. Farrell is Professor of Applied Linguistics at Brock University, Canada. His professional interests include reflective practice, and language teacher education and development. Dr. Farrell is a much sought-after conference speaker who has given plenary talks around the world, including several at Kotea TESOL conferences. He has published widely in these areas. A selection of his books include Reflective Practice (TESOL, USA, 2013); Reflective Writing for Language Teachers (Equinox, 2013); Reflective Practice in ESL Teacher Development Groups: From Practices to Principles (Palgrave McMillian, UK, 2014); Promoting Teacher Reflection in Language Education: A Framework for TESOL Professionals (Routledge, 2015); From Trainee to Teacher: Reflective Practice for Novice Teachers (Equinox, 2016); Sociolinguistics and Language Teaching (TESOL, USA, 2017); Research on Reflective Practice in TESOL (Routledge, 2018); Reflective Language Teaching: Practical Applications for TESOL Teachers (Bloomsbury, 2018). Reflection as Action in ELT (TESOL, 2019). His webpage is www.reflectiveinquiry.ca

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Thomas Farrell Media Online

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Interview: Thomas S.C. Farrell (The English Connection, Autumn 2019)
PDF available at bottom of page.

Interview: Thomas S.C. Farrell (EFL Magazine)
https://www.eflmagazine.com/phil-wade-interviews-thomas-s-c-farrell/

Podcast: Thomas Farrell (The TEFLology Podcast: Episode 82)
https://teflology-podcast.com/2018/10/10/episode-82-thomas-farrell/

Article: Meet Thomas S.C. Farrell (ELT World Online)
https://blog.nus.edu.sg/eltwo/2010/01/08/meet-thomas-s-c-farrell-2/

Research Paper: The Teacher Is a Facilitator (Jan. 2016)
https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1127419.pdf

Personal Webpage: Reflective Inquiry
http://www.reflectiveinquiry.ca/

Video: Reflecting on Reflective Practice
Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0_STY6kNqU
Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dy00siZEwnE
Part 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-eFcvhOS60
Part 4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-uZCa71XTI