Plenary & Featured Speakers

Christine Coombe

Session Title: Gaining and Sustaining Teacher Mojo: Strategies for Teacher Professional Learning

Dr. Christine Coombe is Associate Professor of General Studies at Dubai Men's College, Higher Colleges of Technology. Christine has published many books in areas like testing/assessment, teacher professionalism and effectiveness, multilingualism in TESOL, leadership in ELT, TBLT and research methods. Dr Coombe is Past President of the TESOL International Association (2011-2012).

Chadia Mansour

Session Title: Open Educational Resources: From Curation to Creation

Dr. Chadia Mansour is an expert in digital and distance education, applied linguist, experiential learning and language educator. She also serves in various Professional Associations as an Executive Board Member, Chair of multiple CoPs, Ambassador for the International Council for Distance Education (ICDE) and OER Advocacy Committee member.

Grazzia Mendoza

Session Title: Bi/Multilingualism as a Tool for Empowerment and Agency

Grazzia Mendoza is a researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison/SoE/WCER/WIDA supporting bi/multilingualism. Former Education Specialist at USAID Honduras supporting the Ministry of Education and recognized by the US State Department for her global projects to support teachers as well as by TESOL International Association for Scholarship and Service through the Virginia French Allen Award and for Advocacy through the Outstanding Advocacy Award.

Shahid Abrar-ul-Hassan

Session Title: Language assessment literacy for learner-centered instruction

Dr. Abrar-ul-Hassan has worked as a language educator, researcher, and teacher development professional for over two decades in many regions of the world. He is Professor (English language and communications) at Yorkville University in Canada and his professional areas of interest include ESP/EAP, language assessment, cross-cultural communication, and teacher development.   

Rasheedat Sadiq

Session Title: Fostering Learner Engagement in the English Language Classroom Through Storytelling 

Rasheedat Sadiq is an English Language teacher, literacy advocate and reading coach who runs a mobile library and loves storytelling. She also trains teachers on learner-centered pedagogy with focus on utilizing emotional intelligence to derive learning outcomes. She currently works as an Academic Coordinator at ICICE Al Noor Academy, Abuja, Nigeria.  

Khaled Elebyary

Session Title: ChatGPT-generated corrective feedback: does it do what it says on the tin? 

Dr. Khaled El-Ebyary is a Lecturer in the Department of Education at the University of York in the UK and a member of the Centre for Advanced Studies in Language and Education (CASLE). He published a number of research articles on eye-tracking, WCF, automated writing evaluation, and others.

Anastasia Khawaja

Session Title: Going Beyond Checking the “DEI” Box in the Classroom 

Dr. Anastasia Khawaja (she/her) is an independent scholar developing ESP and EAP English curriculum living in Ramallah, Palestine. Her research grapples with deconstructing the binary understanding of the Palestine/Israel region through language representation, language attitudes, and language use in addition to DEI/JEDI initiatives. Her most recent work can be found in the volume Creating Classrooms for Peace in English Language Teaching.

Atta Gebril

Session Title: Technology-mediated feedback in writing classes: Towards a learning-oriented approach

Dr. Atta Gebril is a professor of Applied Linguistics and associate dean for graduate studies and research at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, The American University in Cairo (AUC). He currently serves as chair of the TOEFL Board of Examiners Research Sub-Committee and on the editorial boards of Language Assessment Quarterly and Assessing Writing. He received several awards in recognition of his work, including the Scopus award representing the highest-impact scholarship in the field of education in Egypt from Elsevier and the Egyptian Knowledge Bank in 2019, among other international awards

Liz England

Session Title: Teacher Transformation In These Changing Times: Lessons From Teachers 

Dr. Liz England is a veteran teacher educator with over 35 years of professional education, publications, experience and service to English language teacher education.  Anchored in the US, Liz’s career began in Cairo in 1984, American University in Cairo, and includes 20 projects and appointments since that time in Egypt and elsewhere in Africa.

Rethabile Mawela

Session Title: Using Home Literacies to Develop Academic Literacy Skills

Dr. Rethabile Mawela is the President of Africa ELTA (2024-2025). She holds a Ph.D. in Education (English Language Teaching) from Rhodes University in South Africa. She taught English at High School for 17 years. She has been a lecturer and teacher developer for ten years. Her focus is on in-service English language teachers. Her research interests are in the teaching of reading through storytelling and multilingualism.