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The conference Learning Languages in the Digitalized Environment was held online on May 27, 2021

This conference was second in line focusing on learning languages using digital tools, the first one Teaching Foreign Languages in the Era of Digitalization being held in 2019 by joint effort with Satbayev University. It aimed to bring together local and international experts, researchers and practitioners to discuss current trends in learning and teaching languages amidst the Covid-19 pandemic and its aftermath. Underlying the conference was the idea that, however disruptive the present situation may seem, we, language professionals, would take every opportunity to network, grow, and boost research.

The event started with a welcome speech from the president of DKU Dr. Gabriele Stauner and the vice-rector for Research and Technology transfer of DKU Beimenbetov Serik.

The conference covered the following topics:

  • Theories and practices used for language learning in a digitalized environment

  • Exploring contemporary roles for teachers and students

  • Digital transformations in teaching and learning languages within the pandemic and beyond

  • Technologies in a flipped classroom

  • Language transformation trends in the 21st century

Discussions centered around issues like teacher and learner identities, teacher agency, developing critical thinking and creativity, academic honesty, socio-economic divide, peculiarities of online pedagogical discourse, to name a few. Some papers explored the challenges Kazakh secondary and HE schools have been facing in the current situation. The conference concluded that within digitalization, greatly advanced by the Covid-19 pandemic, what language teachers and learners do with digital tools is of prime importance.

Questions for further research include the assessment of language education quality in Kazakhstan as well as elsewhere on the globe among overall theoretical and practical insights into language acquisition.

The conference was attended by university lecturers, young researchers, and specialists in the study of languages.

Keynote speakers:

  • Richard Harrison, author, teacher trainer and publisher based in Muscat, Oman and the UK.

Teaching Critical Thinking: a 21stcentury skill

  • Cynthia White, Professor of Applied Linguistics, Massey University, New Zealand.

Technology-mediated language teaching in the digital age: Contemporary questions for research and practice

  • Gary Barkhuizen, Professor of Applied Linguistics at the University of Auckland, New Zealand.

Communicating and reflecting on identities in the language classroom

  • Paul Woodfall, OUP’s Regional Training Co-ordinator for Middle East and Central Asia.

Using Video and Digital Stories to Reduce Cognitive Load in Language Learning

Speakers:

Saule Abdygapparova (Education in the Era of Pandemic: Impact and Consequences), Olga Ischenko (The power of images in the ESL classroom), Reima Al-Jarf (Issues in Learning English for Legal Purposes), Raushan Nassyrova and Aizhan Kalkayeva (CLT approach in the context of synchronous online teaching: challenges and perspectives), Tatyana Brekalova (Designing a course in the digitalized environment: experience and challenges), Laura Ibrayeva (Creativity in Secondary School: Exploring the Relationship between Kazakhstani Teachers' Beliefs and Practices), Maria Bachurka (Teaching discourse: language transformations), Olga Bainova (Flipped Classroom as One of the Ways to Transform Teaching in the Digital Age), Tatyana Letyaikina (Speaking Fluency via Web 2.0 apps), Bartholomäus Minkowski (Replacing classroom!?), Anna Tonkikh (Engaging the Disengaged: motivational tools), Seth Sinclair (Bridging the Screen Gap).

Moderators were:

  • Bakhytkul Tokbergenova;
  • Nursultan Ashirimbetov;
  • Laura Ibrayeva;
  • Tatyana Letyaikina.

Recording of the event is available on the conference website or DKU YouTube Channel.


Feedback:

The conference is worth attending: great ideas for teaching and research, scholarly presenters, hot topics, excellent organisation and delivery. Saule

I enjoyed Prof. Olga Ischenko's workshop! It was very informative and interactive! I learned about various websites and platforms (Statista, Miro, etc) and about different ways of arranging useful online activities via these edu. tools for my students. Please invite other speakers who can present in a similar way!). Dinara

Thank you for an interesting and versatile plenary session. Ludmila

The conference is very informative. Have obtained a lot of knowledge. Special thanks to Olga. Her presentation «Images in the classroom» are so inspiring! Oral


We are extremely grateful to our partners: KazTEA, Oxford University Press, Toasmaters International, DAAD, Interpress, who have helped us in the important work of sharing the information and attracting more colleagues to participate in our event.

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