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Keynote Speaker: Dr. Alister Cumming

We are pleased to anounce that the very distinguished Professor Alister Cumming from the University of Toronto will be our keynote speaker for the June 2006 Communication Symposium.   He will give the initial talk for the symposium, entitled "Curricula, Teaching, and Assessment Practices of Experienced ESL/EFL Writing Instructors in Six Countries."

Dr. Alister Cumming teaches several graduate courses in the Second Language Education program, including "Processing Second Language Data," "Second Language Assessment" and "Writing in a Second Language."

His recent research has focused on the learning, teaching, and assessment of writing in English as a second/foreign language, the evaluation of programs and curricula for second language education and immigrant settlement, and the development of assessment instruments and procedures in academic, professional and settlement contexts.

He is recipient of the R.B. Jackson Award, Canadian Educational Researcher's Association, Best article appearing in the Canadian Journal if Education, 1994. In addition to being the Executive Director for the journal Language Learning, Dr. Cumming is on the editorial boards of Asian Journal of English Language Teaching, Assessing Writing, Journal of Second Language Writing, Language Assessment Quarterly, Language Testing, Prospect: A Journal of Australian TESOL, and TESOL Quarterly.

Dr. Cumming has received a variety of grants from federal government agencies, such as SSHRC and Heritage Canada, and conducted research contracts for various ministries and school boards as well as Educational Testing Service (ETS). His most recent project is "Goals for Writing Improvement in ESL and University Courses", which described the goals and writing practices of a sample of adult students, and their instructors, as the students moved from ESL preparation courses prior to university programs then into academic studies in a range of disciplines at university.