KARACHI: The two-day 37th Society of Pakistan English Language Teachers (SPELT) Conference kicked off on Saturday with an inaugural session, including an interesting keynote talk on engaging students through the art of storytelling.

Founded in 1984 by Professor Zakia Sarwar, who is lovingly known as ‘Mother Spelt’ and her team of English language teachers, Spelt has been on an uninterrupted journey of empowering other teachers.

It continues to respond to the changing times and demands of teaching, including faring along through the tough times of the pandemic.

The 37th Spelt Conference, held virtually via Zoom, is expected to be another rich learning experience for its participants.

The keynote speech on the opening day by Dr Deborah Healey, former president of Teaching English to speakers of other languages (Tesol) International Association US was about ‘Telling Our Stories’.

Dr Healey, whose focus has been primarily on technology in education, as well as adult English as a Second Language (ESL) and English as a Foreign Language (EFL) has worked internationally in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and North America. Her recent areas of research include gamification, equity and inclusion, and online teaching approaches.

Her keynote address had her discuss how teachers, especially literature teachers, can engage their students through the art of storytelling and story writing.

“I was helping with English language teaching in a high school where we had assigned students to write stories. One student, Carlos, asked if he had to write a story. When informed that he had to, he said that he’ll do it but didn’t want his name on it,” Dr Healey shared an example about this type of teaching to engage learners.

“But after all the stories had been written, we decided to put them on a website. The same kid then came up again to ask that would his cousin in Mexico be able to see it? He also had friends in Mexico and wondered if they could also access his story if it was going to be published on a website. When he was told ‘yes’, he suddenly changed his mind about not having his name on his story. Suddenly he felt proud to share it because it was no longer just an assignment. That’s the power of doing something digitally,” she pointed out.

Coming back to her topic, she said that stories can help students academically through creative impression, they can also help them psychologically as writing gives hope. “Stories tell us about ourselves. We tell stories to reach out. Teachers, too, connect to tell their stories, their experiences of how they are coping in current times,” she said

“Stories are really important for us as people. There are a bunch of stories such as folktales, fairytales, tall tales, mystery, epics, myths, parable, anecdotes, etc,” she said before turning to the techniques of story writing and types of stories such as the rags to riches story or the hero’s journey.

“Not all stories have happy endings. I have heard horrifying stories, true stories. Stories, which can make one cry,” she added.

“Some people are great at telling stories, some are great at writing them. Stories have shapes. You set the stage,” she said while speaking about elements of the plot including setting the scene, charting an event, move toward conflict, the dilemma, etc.

A similar story, a true story of our current times is the story how the hero’s journey or how the pandemic had teachers shift to emergency teaching and online teaching with so many challenges. “But we are teachers. We accepted challenges, we reconcile, transform and grow as teachers,” she said.

Earlier, a panel discussion moderated by Dr Fauzia Shamim of Spelt had several English language teaching professionals tell about their work with the training of teachers in their different areas during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Dr Rubina Khan from Bangladesh shared their difficulties in running of affairs but they carried on while trying to be flexible.

Dr Aymen Elsheikh from Africa spoke about their work in providing professional training online to English language teachers from some 22 affiliations of Africa.

Professor Kilryoung Lee from Seoul, South Korea, spoke about the professional development of their teachers. He said they focus on connecting teachers with the teachers of other countries for sharing of experience and ideas.

Dr Gabriel Diaz Maggioli from South America, who heads Intern­ation­al Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language spoke about how they made sure of continuity of seamless experience to teachers with newsletters, webpage, etc.

Dawn Lucovich from Japan discussed their new programmes of mentoring and orientation after the lifting of lockdown just one month ago.

Dr Madhu Neupane Bastola from Nepal spoke about their English language teachers’ training organisation and its collaborative webinar series and workshops on teachers’ teaching as well as their well being.

Published in Dawn, November 7th, 2021