BYU-Hawaii hosted over 200 teachers and students from Hawaii's public and private schools in a conference for Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL).
The conference consisted of seminars and workshops on new methods for improving English instruction. It also featured guest lecturer Paul Nation, professor of linguistics and applied language studies at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand.
Dr. Nation's research shows that non-native speakers are not learning enough conversational or reading vocabulary. They should be learning high frequency vocabulary. Students in higher level education should also focus on academic vocabulary.
"Finding out how much vocabulary you need to do normal, daily things is what we need to find out," said Nation. "Recent developments in these areas are bringing more information and detail into [TESOL and EIL]."
"Having a several-day series of workshops with Dr. Nation - one of the world's foremost experts on language teaching - was a wonderful opportunity for the faculty in the EIL and TESOL programs," said Mark James, chair of this year's conference and the English Language Teaching and Learning Department at BYU-Hawaii.
University president Eric B. Shumway explained why continuing research in TESOL is of particular interest to BYU-Hawaii and the significance of the conference being hosted on its campus.
"With over half of our student body ranging from 70 different countries and speaking English as a second language, TESOL lies at the heart of BYU-Hawaii," he said.
"Within a few years of the establishment of BYU-Hawaii (then Church College of Hawaii) the administration and faculty recognized that this campus was, by necessity, going to be a leader in teaching English as a second language," James added. "Fortunately, since those early years, the university has been successful in attracting bright, progressive faculty in TESOL and linguistics that have kept the university's name in the lights since the days when the profession was born in the early 60's. Hosting the statewide TESOL teachers conference was just one more reminder that the university continues to have a serious commitment to the profession."