Call for Submissions…

1. INNOVATING EFL TEACHING IN THE ASIAN CONTEXT

The intention of the book is to capture the innovative things that teachers based in Asia are doing, in adapting theory to their own contexts (such as applying TBLT in India) or in developing theory based on local contexts, independent of or complimentary to theories coming out of western countries.

We started the project because we were struck by the fact that such a book hasn’t been published previously; most books follow a thematic structure, exploring a particular topic or methodology, but we have yet to find one that tries to encapsulate a regional perspective.

The book is organized into four sections:

Defining the Asian EFL Context — This section is primarily concerned with describing the context and working practices, and has chapter titles such as “Language learning styles and beliefs of EFL students in Korea: Are they really stereotypical?” and “Global cultures and identities: Refocusing the aims of ELT in Asia through intercultural awareness”.

Empowering Asian voices — This section concerns narrative inquiry in the Asian context and has chapters like “Learner Autonomy in Asia: How Asian teachers and students see themselves ” and “Co-constructing teacher beliefs towards qualifications: Insights from interviews in the Japanese context “.

Innovating teaching methodology in Asia — This section deals with issues of teaching methodology, with chapters like “Innovating, introducing, and integrating a vocabulary learning strategies program into the Asian context” and “Promoting strategy teaching as an innovative practice in the Asian EFL oral classroom: What do low-proficiency learners tell us?”.

Teaching young learners in Asia — This section is concerned with investigations into the teaching of young learners, an area that, despite the huge amount of classroom time devoted to it, receives relatively little attention in the literature in our opinion, and includes chapters like “Exploring teachers’ implementation of the curriculum innovation in ELT in Turkish primary education” and “Using English picture books as a means to adapt to English as a global language: An ethnographic study of collaboration between primary school teachers and TEFL practitioners in rural Japan”.

Innovating the teaching of writing in Asia — This section deals with the teaching of writing, with chapters like “Extensive writing: A fluency-first approach to EFL writing” and “Who takes the floor: Peer assessment or teacher assessment? Using peer assessment in Chinese university English writing classes”.

Regarding a timeline, there won’t be time for someone to conduct the research at this point; we are going to need a contributor who has already completed their research and is looking to publish it. If they could send a 500 word description of their research by the end of the month for us to look over, hopefully we would be able to receive the draft of their paper by the end of November.

Visit the MASH Collaboration website.

Pyrta is a journal of poetry and other things based in Shillong – a small hill-station town in Meghalaya, India.

Pyrta aims to be a vibrant multicultural space – we’d like voices from all over to contribute quality work categorised broadly under Poetry, Photo Essays, Prose, Sketches and Local morsels.

Deadline: 1st December 2010.

Familia Books is buying stories from writers in India for an Indian edition of the anthology, Wisdom of Our Mothers. Fifty per cent of Familia’s profits from the book will be donated to shelters for mothers and their children escaping abusive relationships. Eight stories will be chosen for a “Stories from India” chapter to be added to the book which was released recently.

If a work is accepted, the writer will be paid US $100 or the equivalent in rupees per story upon publication of the Indian edition of the book.

The maximum length is 3,000 words (no minimum), but preference is given to stories in the 1,000-2,000 word range. Stories will be published in English. Stories may be submitted preferably by e-mail to [email protected].

The tentative deadline is December 31, 2010.