SUSS TESOL Lecture 2025
Date: 1 Nov 2025
Time: 03.30PM to 05.00PM
Venue: Online via Zoom
Event Type: Seminars
School/Department: School of Humanities and Behavioural Sciences, Graduate Studies
Register NowJoin us for the TESOL Lecture, featuring experts Dr Farah Akbar and Dr Minh Nguyen, moderated by Dr Soe Marlar Lwin, Head of the Applied Linguistics (TESOL) Programme at SUSS. They will share insights to transform your teaching practice. This event is highly recommended for educators committed to making English learning accessible, inclusive, and socially responsive.
Materials Development: Evolution, Key Debates and Critical Issues
Materials development is a core aspect of language education, shaping what and how learners engage with content. This talk provides an overview of the field, tracing its evolution from a practical pursuit centred in the classroom to its emergence as an academic discipline. It will explore key debates and critical issues, including the role of coursebooks, representation in language materials and the hidden curriculum from a social justice perspective. The session will also consider the future of materials development particularly the integration of Al tools in design and evaluation processes. Drawing on research and practice, the talk invites participants to reflect critically on the materials they use or create and to envision how future developments can better serve diverse learners in a rapidly changing educational landscape.
Speaker
Dr Farah Akbar is a Senior Lecturer in Language Education at the University of Edinburgh, where she teaches and leads courses in MSc TESOL and MSc Language Education. She has over two decades of experience in language teaching, curriculum design and teacher education, and supervises both Master's and doctoral research. Her work bridges theory and practice, with research interests in materials development, decolonising curriculum and social justice in language education. Farah is passionate about equipping educators with the tools and critical perspectives to create inclusive, context-responsive and impactful learning materials.
Evaluating Materials for Pragmatic Competence: Insights from Research and Implications for Practice
Effective communication requires more than just the knowledge of words and grammar. It also requires the ability to appropriately express our thoughts, feelings and intentions, and to accurately interpret those of others, in other words, pragmatic competence. Despite its importance, pragmatics is rarely taught in second language classrooms. A reason for this neglect is that teachers are not well equipped with pragmatics pedagogy, including the knowledge and skills needed for developing materials for pragmatics teaching. The situation is further compounded by the limitations of commercially available teaching materials such as textbooks in presenting and teaching pragmatic language use. Drawing on insights from research, this talk will discuss how to critically evaluate and adapt textbooks to better facilitate L2 learners' pragmatic development.
Speaker
Dr Minh Nguyen is an associate professor of applied linguistics at the University of Otago, New Zealand. Prior to her current position, she was an associate professor at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Her research and publications focus on pragmatics and interactional competence in language learning and teaching. She currently serves as an associate editor of Applied Pragmatics (John Benjamins).
Moderated by
Dr Soe Marlar Lwin
Associate Professor, Applied Linguistics (TESOL) Programme
School of Humanities and Behavioural Sciences
SUSS
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