This conference that was held in celebration of the 20^th Anniversary of Sookmyung TESOL and the 25^th Anniversary of KOTESOL became a scene of discussion that reflects the times of creativity and convergence based on the topic that combines neuroscience research and English education.

During her congratulatory message, President Jungai Kang said, “We will give our best to foster outstanding women human resources who will lead the future era as we celebrate the 111^th year since the founding of our university,” and “as an extension of such efforts, we will not settle for the current reputation of Sookmyung TESOL, but continuously move forward so that we can truly realize ‘only the best can bring changes’ through active exchanges with new fields.”

The conference was conducted under the title “Boosting the Power of ELT – FABulously,” where over 200 academic lectures and presentation/promotion sessions by English education-related enterprises took place during the two days. Especially, expert in neuroELT (field that applies neuroscientific research in the field of English education) Robert S. Murphy, Professor Curtis Kelly from Kansai University in Japan, and Professor Curtis Kelly from University of Kitakyushu in Japan enriched the general meeting based on the topic “What Neuroscience Tells Us About Language Learning.”

From our university, Head Professor Yeom Gyeong-suk from Sookmyung TESOL opened a colloquium with the topic called “Redefine TESOL’s Tomorrow” along with Professor Joanne Crandall from UMBC. Above all, there was great emphasis on fostering international human resources with language skills who are needed in each field in terms of “Global Competence,” in other words, multicultural awareness. In addition, in consideration of the English education in Korea that has over 100,000 students (on a 20% increasing trend in the recent year) from multicultural families, introduction of future-oriented English education system and teacher training in line with the multi-language environment were also emphasized.

Meanwhile, Sookmyung TESOL has been introducing innovative educational models to experts in the English education field by consistently holding symposiums since 2004. Officials of Sookmyung TESOL said, “We have been holding a variety of events since last year to celebrate the 20^th Anniversary of Sookmyung TESOL,” and “through this conference, we plan to publicize the detailed direction toward the next 20 years.” Sookmyung TESOL is recruiting new SMU/YL-TESOL students from June 19 to 26.