ACLL 2015 - The Asian Conference on Language Learning 2015

Educators face continually shifting demands from all directions: students, administrators, and society. With some of these demands, teachers and learners may feel greater isolation and pressure. These trends may be seen in the disaggregation of the university or in frequent testing of discrete outcomes for analysis and accountability purposes. In the face of these developments, it is more important than ever to reflect on learning as experience, and to bring theory, research, and craft to bear on creating those experiences.
Dewey wrote that, “the central problem of education based on experience is to select the kind of present experiences that live fruitfully and creatively in future experiences”. So, how does research in second language acquisition and teacher expertise tell us which experiences live on in communication? How do learning theories direct us to view the connections between experiences? And, how can application of technology both become normalized and create vivid experiences?
Finally, we need personal and professional integration. Coming together to share best practices in these twinned conferences is a chance to share and develop ways to better integrate our institutions, teachers, and most of all the experiences of the learners in a coherent practice of education.