PLENARY PANEL 2023
“Friend or foe?: A multi-perspective overview of AI applied to ELT”
Education has always responded to the needs of society, and it has transformed it as well. Just as communication, education has transitioned to a forceful change of dynamics in which most students, teachers, and professionals turned to online literacy to maintain a sense of continuity and that now represents our new reality in and outside the classroom. Before deciding if AI can be a friend or a foe to second or foreign language acquisition processes, we should reflect on different technologies that, along history, gave that sense of uncertainty to teachers, students, and society in general.
In this panel, ELT professionals from universities located in different countries will share their perspectives, experiences, findings, and ideas on how AI applied to ELT has changed, is changing, and will change the field from multi-disciplinary views and in different contexts through their work, research, implementation, experiments, and experiences.
From an overview to the many options that AI offers to support or substitute English language teachers to experiential research on the technical aspects of AI applied to language learning platforms to action-research with the application with several students and the many doubts that ChatGPT brings to educators and employers to cultural and moral relationships that English language learning in today's digital age has among students and professionals alike; this panel will expose and bring light to the modern English language teaching professional who wishes to reflect on AI and learn from the different experiences and research that will be presented as food for thought and action in ELT.
PARTICIPANTS
Cynthia Wiseman
Cynthia Wiseman is a professor in Academic Literacy & Linguistics at the Borough of Manhattan Community College at City University of New York. She has been an English language teacher and teacher trainer for more than 40 years, working in the US and abroad. She served as a Fulbright Scholar in Vietnam at Pham Van Dong University in Central Vietnam and conducted a study on the use of the communicative approach in ELT in China while working there as a teacher trainer. She earned a doctorate in Applied Linguistics from Teachers College, Columbia University with a concentration on evaluation and assessment. Dr. Wiseman currently serves on the Board of Directors of TESOL International.
Karin Rossbach
Karin Rossbach is the Director of the English Language Teaching Department at Universidad del Valle de Guatemala. She has a B.A. and a Masters in University Education from UNIS. She has been teaching for over 20 years, and believes education is the solution to every problem of humanity. Having participated in different conferences as a presenter and researcher, she considers herself an agent of change for a better world and has contributed to the ELT field in different ways: shaping and witnessing the transformation and development of ELT professionals.
Sofia Fernández López
Sofia Fernández López holds a master’s degree in applied Linguistics from the Faculty of Philosophy and Arts at UANL, and she is currently pursuing a Doctorate in Psychology with a focus on Education at UANL. She serves as the Coordinator of the Bilingual bachelor’s Program and the Language Center at Preparatoria No. 2 of UANL. She has been a speaker at various universities and organizations such as ANUPI, Mextesol, ICAI (New Mexico and Virginia), UDEM, IMNRC, and UANL, where she has stood out for her involvement in topics such as the application of digital tools for teaching the English language, True Colors of learners, techniques of academic writing in English, and Academic Integrity.
Wilfredo R. Santiago Hernández
Wilfredo R. Santiago Hernández is a Ph.D. candidate and instructor at the University of Puerto Rico, Cayey Campus and University of Sacred Heart in Santurce, Puerto Rico. He is currently completing a Ph.D. with a concentration in Caribbean diaspora and performance studies, from the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus. He currently teaches first year honors and intermediate English as well as Puerto Rican Diaspora Literature for the English Department in the Cayey Campus of the UPR. He also offers second year interdisciplinary courses on literary genres in the University of Sacred Heart in Santurce Puerto Rico. His research is centered around Puerto Rican and Caribbean cultural studies, and decolonized perspectives of Caribbean history. He also gives U.S. teachers history workshops at El Proyecto Cordero Belpre, an organization centered around giving U.S. teachers pedagogical workshops on creating decolonized perspectives of teaching in U.S. classrooms for the past four years during the summer. He is a native of Puerto Rico and currently lives in San Juan.
MODERATOR
Flor Mellado
Flor de Maria Mellado holds an M. A., in Applied Linguistics in TEFL from Universidad Europea del Atlántico. She is also an experienced ELT Professor, Academic Consultant, Teacher Trainer, and Lecturer for more than 20 years, and former EFL professor at Universidad Ricardo Palma - Lima, Perú. She is a well-known speaker in National and International Conferences in Latin America, USA, and Mexico.