XAVIER ATENEO TEAM. XU Junior High School English Department faculty members pose together with 1st NCWoLL 2017’s partner Dr Joel Chavez of Far Eastern University and keynote speaker Dr Jaime An Lim.
ILIGAN CITY, Philippines — All eleven faculty members of Xavier Ateneo Junior High School participated in the 1st National Conference-Workshop on Language and Literature (NCWoLL) held at the Mindanao State University – Iligan Institute of Technology (MSU-IIT) from November 9 to 11.
The conference was organized by MSU-IIT College of Arts and Social Sciences and the Department of English, in partnership with Far Eastern University (FEU). This year’s theme was “Rethinking Literature and Languages: New Paradigms in the Teaching and Reading of the English Language.”
More than 300 participants from Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao converged in the three-day conference-workshop aimed “to gather scholar-academicians, practitioners, researchers, teachers, and students in an engagement that fosters interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary collaborations in research and practice in the study of language and literature.”
Palanca Awardee Dr Jaime An Lim delivered his keynote speech “The Politics of Language and Literature,” while James McLellan of Universiti Brunei Darussalam, Dr Melanie Estacio of DepEd Region XI, Dr Aurelio Vilbar of UP Cebu, Dr Steven Patrick Fernandez of MSU-IIT, and Dr Rolando Tolentino of the UP Film Institute provided insightful speeches as plenary speakers for the event.
Xavier Ateneo JHS faculty Jet Hokin Paclar and Anito Librando were both selected to showcase their paper presentations during the parallel sessions in the conference.
As part of the workshop component, participants were to choose from the following: “Discovering Iligan’s Diyandi through a Grammar Class,” “Postponement and Performance,” “Storytelling workshop with Michelle C,” “Doing Action Research in Language and Literature,” and “The Language of Peace and Conflict Resolution: Conversations on the Construction of Meanings and Non-Violent Processes.”
Last August, a delegation from MSU-IIT Department of English headed by their chairperson, Dr Nelia Balgoa, made a courtesy visit to the Pueblo campus to formally invite the English teachers from XUJHS.
“The NCWoLL 2017 experience was an insightful one. The ideas of the brilliant presenters allow me to examine again the practices that my colleagues and I do in our English classes,” XUJHS English Department chairperson Jennifer Yu.
“Indeed, it was a fruitful encounter. I am very thankful to XUJHS for being supportive in our pursuit of professional growth all for the betterment of our instruction,” she added.∎
ENGLISH TEACHERS. XUJHS English Department faculty members, together with other NCWoLL 2017 participants, listen to one of the plenary speeches. Photo from NCWoLL 2017 Facebook page.