Conference Review
The 10th Annual CamTESOL
Conference
Greg Rouault
Doshisha Women’s College of Liberal Arts
CamTESOL held its tenth anniversary edition in Phnom Penh, Cambodia onFebruary 22-23, 2014, under the theme “English for Regional and International
Integration”. With the forthcoming goal of regional economic integration for
the ASEAN community with English as the official language, this theme wasparticularly timely. CamTESOL continues to grow and deliver on its mission
through the extensive support of domestic and international partners, numerous
local institutions, and conference exhibitors.
This year, over 1,700 delegates took part with 640 international participantsfrom 32 countries. Financial support was made available for 40 ASEAN members
to attend along with 514 provincial Cambodia teachers, three of whom I was able
to support with the CUE Scholar Grant funding provided to me by the JALTCUE SIG. Certificates of attendance were available to be picked up at the endof the conference but only after submitting a conference evaluation form – anapproach Program Chairs of various events held in Japan looking to capture
feedback may want to take note of.
The aims for the CamTESOL Conference (www.camtesol.org/home-1)
include:r Providing a forum for the exchange of ideas and sharing of best practices
in ELTr Strengthening and broadening the network of teachers and those involvedin ELT in Cambodia
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Linking the Cambodian ELT community internationallyr Showcasing research in language learning and teaching
Research and professional development are now supported by up to eight$500US research grants. Recipients receive peer mentoring support in thedevelopment and execution of their project, are expected to present at a future
CamTESOL event, and have the opportunity to publish in the biannual online
journal Language Education in Asia (LEiA) (www.camtesol.org/publication).
The 2013 edition of LEiA was given to all delegates on CD in their registrationbag, and by simply scanning our ID badges registered presenters could be tracked
on having been handed a hard copy.
To further meet these aims, a number of initiatives are in place to attract
participants and provide opportunities to take part in various events to better
understand the local context, needs, and services. Each year a selection of
educational site visits is available, and there is also an orientation program forteachers from the Cambodian provinces. On alternating years, the event includes
the Regional ELT Quality Assurance Forum or Regional ELT Leadership
Forum. For more social interaction, registration includes a warm-up reception
for presenters, and delegates have the option to attend the conference dinner on
Saturday for an additional charge.
To provide an avenue for researchers across the region to present and discussfindings, ELT Research Forum presentations had previously been given within
the conference itself. This tenth anniversary edition featured the first Regional
Research Symposium (216 delegates, 23 countries) as a pre-conference event held
on Friday, February 21. Bus transportation to the very well-outfitted CambodiaKorea Corporation Centre on the campus of the Royal University of Phnom
Penh was made available for those who booked in advance. Brian Paltridge gave
an opening plenary (and fielded questions) on current and future directions inESP research, and Barbara Seidlhofer introduced the VOICE corpus as a resource
for researching English as a lingua franca. Featured in this symposium, with aseparate application, vetting, and registration process, 40 research presentations
were available to select from under streams of language acquisition, globalizationand ideology, technology, assessment, pedagogy, and sociolinguistics.
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My presentation was scheduled at the same time as workshops by the two
featured speakers on conducting research projects, and others on the topics ofreplication studies, mentoring for regional research networks, and action research.
Nevertheless, I had a full room of 45 people in my workshop on “Writing forAcademic Publications.” I was also able to make contact with a future researchcolleague with mutual interests and offer informal support as a mentor to novice
authors looking to publish, two of the principal goals I had for attending thisevent.
From Saturday to Sunday noon, over 450 presentations were conducted as
30-minute papers or workshops (with a few poster presentations as well), making
CamTESOL one of the largest international ELT conferences in Asia. One ofmy primary objectives was to attend presentations from different countries
and teaching contexts. Around the Saturday afternoon scheduling for my own
workshop, “Insights into TOEFL iBT Listening and Reading,” I was able to seepresentations based in Macau, Myanmar, the UAE, Vietnam, Japan, and Australia.
These covered a range of topics from young learners, test prep, ESP, business
English, action research, and even a research study into cross-cultural awarenessconducted across two contexts in Portugal and Vietnam. Following their welldesigned presentation, two teacher trainers from Myanmar were selected to write
a book review on a title for teaching young learners. As Reviews Editor for JALT
Journal I look forward to more formally supporting Myat Thinzar Tun and AyeMar Thet in this area of professional development.
The final session I attended on Saturday was given by Anne Burns andKatherine Brandon, from English Australia (www.englishaustralia.com.au). Theirpresentation on a national action research project running with ELICOS teachersin Australia made me wonder why a larger scale, higher visibility, research-based
network has not been funded and sustained in Japan. The foresight of asking mymorning tuk-tuk driver to pick me up at the Institute of Technology Cambodia,
the new host site this year, ended up providing a private networking momentwith Prof. Burns, one of the instructors for my master’s courses at Macquarie.
She had also been a plenary speaker at CamTESOL five years earlier when I firstattended. Our discussion turned to the accelerated growth of English language
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use and proficiency seen in Cambodia and generally across Asia, except of coursefor Japan. After dropping her off, since we were asked to be in national dress at theconference dinner, I picked up my red Canada beret and headed off to the Hotel
Cambodiana on the shore of the Mekong River.
Sunday’s schedule included four concurrent sessions. I sat in on presentations
on teacher beliefs and practices by Nurkamoto Joko (Indonesia), multiple
intelligences in text materials by Ali Bastanfar (Iran), content-based lessons using
authentic materials by Samar Aal (a U.S. State Department Fellow in Indonesia),
and journal writing by Sopheak Reasey Tuy (Cambodia). Ms. Tuy’s enthusiasm
and energy made her presentation one of the most engaging I had attended,
and as a result she was another person I selected to work with on writing abook review. She was one of the top graduates and an English Presentation
Contest award winner at Beltei International University and now teaches in the
Faculty of Education, Arts, and Humanities. Through this connection, I wasmost fortunate to arrange a meeting after the conference with His Excellency
Ly Chheng, Director-General of Beltei Group, an organization recognized as aTAYO ASEAN 2012 award recipient. He is also the president of the CambodianHigher Education Association (www.chea.edu.kh) and has been a strong advocateof CamTESOL from its inception. This year he again provided support for 100
teachers to attend the event with a focus of becoming more effective instructors
and models of language users. The value of positive role models was most evident
when I asked one of the volunteers what she had learned from the session she wastime keeping for. She simply beamed at how impressed and newly motivated she
was by the English fluency of a Cambodian presenter: “a person just like me!”
Barbara Seidlhofer, from the University of Vienna, closed out the event withher plenary address titled “The ‘E’ of ‘TESOL’ in the Age of Globalisation.” Hermessage was that English language professionals must take into account how“English” has been defined as an object of research and subject for teaching. Under
the conceptualization of English as a lingua franca it must become separate fromthe culture of “native” speaker origins and more appropriated for those culturesand identities of international users with different national and L1 backgrounds.
As a model of good practice for other speakers, in her introduction Prof.
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Seidlhofer revisited elements from the opening plenary by Yilin Sun, Presidentelect of TESOL, on matters of changes in the goals of English language learningand teaching. Then, using terminology from her own research and writing, sheclosed with a message to focus on maximizing learners’ opportunities, facilitating
negotiated interaction, increasing language awareness, contextualizing language
input, and raising cultural consciousness for improved global inclusiveness, local
situatedness, and social responsibility.
One of the noticeable benefits of attending CamTESOL was the amountof interaction between first language English teacher—researchers and thoseworking with English as a second, foreign, or even other language. Up to now,
such formal platforms and informal opportunities with rather diverse audience
populations seem to have been limited at events in Japan or maybe not catered
for as effectively as they could be. Certainly the cross-pollination of ideas
through the presentations and exchange of experiences in the Q&A sessions
among those working in varied EFL contexts was a welcome opportunity toconsider both similarities and differences. A rather spirited discussion took place
during the Regional Research Symposium around the notion of cooperativeand collaborative learning that the members of the audience had from theirown graduate studies and teaching experience and the operationalization bythe presenter in her research. Tea breaks of 30 minutes gave participants time
to reflect on how the presentation contents may be related to their own settingand learners. This time allowed me to strike up conversations with teachers fromdifferent contexts and to better understand the needs and challenges of teachers
in the Cambodian provinces.
For an overview of multiple teaching and learning contexts, from bothacademic and practical points of view, CamTESOL is an event that I would
strongly urge colleagues to attend and consider submitting a proposal to as apresenter in the future. The 11th edition will be held on February 28 to March
1, 2015 in Phnom Penh under the theme “English: Building Skills for Regional
Cooperation and Mobility” with key dates already available online at www.
camtesol.org/2015-conference.

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Author’s bio
Greg Rouault is an associate professor in the Department of International Studies atDoshisha Women’s College of Liberal Arts. In addition to mentoring for professional
development, his research interests include foreign language literacy, learner selvesand identity, and ESP/EAP. He has conducted teacher training in Bangladesh,Nepal, Kyrgyzstan, and Cambodia. rouault.greg@gmail.com
Received: March 13, 2013
Accepted: July 2, 2014
Editor’s Note: One of the primary aims of the CUE SIG is to support and recognize
the distinctive work of our members through a variety of awards and grants. For
outstanding articles in the OnCUE Journal or excellent conference presentations weoffer the member or attendee nominated Reader’s Choice and Best of CUE Awards.
CUE also supports our members’ interests in professional development through theNew Member Conference Grant, Member Support Conference Grant, and Member
Research Grant, which aim to help members with little or no institutional funding.
To find more information about CUE awards and grants and learn how to apply,
please see our website. http://jaltcue.org/content/cue-grants-and-awards-2014
Greg is a recipient of the 2013
Member Support Conference Grant
and consequently applied his grant toa conference trip. Here, he shares someof his experiences and insights while
attending the event.

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