Selene Nuñez López, Administrative assistant to the Associate Director of internationalization, Coordinator of the Language Center at the Universidad Tecnológica de la Costa Grande de Guerrero, México.

My name is Selene Nuñez López, I'm from Guerrero, Mexico. I’m the administrative assistant to the Associate Director of internationalization. In addition, I have been the Coordinator of the Language Center at the Universidad Tecnológica de la Costa Grande de Guerrero for the past 7 years. I’m in charge of managing almost ten teachers and one administrative assistant who help me with the activities.

I enjoy working with teachers and students, I love coordinating all the logistic about their classes and I feel very grateful to be part of this team.

Our language center offers English and French courses for children, adolescents, and adults. It has a duration of 2 years with the option of preparing for an international certification in languages and is open to university students as well as the public.

In fact, the language center also gives the opportunity to certificate the French level according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (A2, B1, B2). Currently, we have around 160 students.

https://utcgg.edu.mx/centro-de-idiomas/

Lluís Miret Pastor, Director of the Language Area of the Universitat Politècnica de València.

Lluís Miret Pastor (Gandia, 1973), M.A. in economics, PhD in Business Organization and professor at the Universitat Politècnica de València. He has been until recently the Academic Director of the Degree in Tourism at the UPV and is currently Director of the Language Area of the UPV. He has published more than twenty articles in high impact journals, leads several research projects and has participated in numerous international conferences. Outside the academic field, his passion for literature has led him to publish ten books for children, teenagers and adults, having won numerous prestigious literary awards.

https://cdl.upv.es/

Wilfredo Alfonso Marroquín, Head of the School of Languages at Universidad Tecnológica de El Salvador.

I am Wilfredo Alfonso Marroquín, Head of the School of Languages at Universidad Tecnológica de El Salvador. I have been an English professor for over 30 years now. I have a bachelor’s degree in English, a master’s degree in Higher Education, a master’s degree in educational policies, and I am currently in the process of obtaining a doctorate in Latin American Studies.

In relation to my professional experience, coordinating teachers at the School of Languages at UTEC and managing the educational process as a whole, with a young student population of 1,500, has created the opportunity of articulating teaching, research and community work programs in the search for solutions to problems related with learning English or with education in general. All this work, and the institutional support to the different programs and activities, have led to providing our society young professionals with critical thinking abilities and social responsibility.

During my life at the university, I have been involved in different strategic activities with the purpose of facilitating international mobility and scouting young students to participate as candidates for international scholarship programs, an opportunity that allows further promotion of English language learning.

I have also conducted different research, mainly in the field of educational policies. In addition to this, I have conducted research, trainings and certifications for returnees from the United States with native English language competencies; people who returned to the country with acquired experience in different fields like machinery and equipment operation.

Being an alumnus of some academic programs from the Embassy of the United States in El Salvador has allowed me to ask for grants and cooperation to carry out projects that benefit Salvadoran society. Some of the proposed topics have included the following: entrepreneurship, English teaching at public schools, ethical development of digital content for social networks, a Techcamp, and trainings for teachers in the public school system.

Another international cooperation program that I am coordinating is the Sejong Institute San Salvador, an institution in charge of disseminating and teaching Korean culture and language whose staff are native Koreans. This program was an initiative proposed to UTEC authorities by the International Relations Department at our university.

Dr. Cheryl A. Ernst, Executive Director of the American English Institute at the University of Oregon.

Dr. Cheryl A. Ernst is the Executive Director of the American English Institute at the University of Oregon. Her previous director experience was the at the Center for English as a Second Language (CESL) at Southern Illinois University. She earned her Ph.D. from SIU and her MA-TESOL from Northern Arizona University. She has over 25 years of teaching and administrative experience in programs in Finland, Japan, and at several U.S. institutions including Harvard University, The University of Findlay, and the University of Alaska, Anchorage. Cheryl is the past-president of University and College Intensive English Program (UCIEP) and past chair of Study Oregon. She is professionally active making presentations, submitting and managing grants, and serving on professional committees at the local and international levels. She conducted teacher training sessions in Santa Rosa de Copan and San Pedro Sula, Honduras through the International Network of Language Centers and the US Embassy, Santiago, Chile, for the Ministry of Education and the Fulbright Commission, and at Tokushima University in Japan. She presented a guest lecture at National Cheng Kung University in Tainan City, Taiwan, as part of her long-term workshops for elite Students, and she has trained business managers and executives. A passionate international educator, Cheryl believes English language training and intercultural experiences are the foundation of soft diplomacy. Building bridges and providing a rich educational experience is always her goal.

https://aei.uoregon.edu/

Gloria Ulloa, Director of the Languages Center at Universidad Pedagógica Nacional Francisco Morazán, President of The International Network for Language Centers and Programs

EFL Students have a special way to surprise even the most experienced teachers and make them turn our eyes to look at them with admiration and respect. When young people know how far they want to get in life, they can accomplish their most desired academic goals. Thus, universities are to provide interesting and challenging opportunities for students to see beyond the language English classes.

I was recently invited by  Kalashnikov Izhevsk State Technical University to participate with our students from the Language Center at Universidad Pedagogica Nacional Francisco Morazan in Honduras in a writing contest. Our participants were highly motivated and even when this was an international contest, they believed they could write their essays and show what they have learned throughout a year of intensive English classes.

As I and their teacher followed their participation in the international contest, I understood once again, that exposing students to new academic experiences is very important for their future professional life, the fact that has been clearly understood by the University of Kalashnikov Izhevsk State Technical University as they successfully lead a very well-organized contest that includes the composing of essays according to two different categories, for linguistic and non-linguistic majors, and close with the description of such essays in videos created by the finalists.

Later in the process, I was invited to participate as part of the jury. This part of the process was also very well explained, and support was always offered by the organizers. The participants I had to judge, were extremely well prepared and their mastery of the language and understanding of the topics were amazing. Students, regardless of their young age, were able to explain in a very professional way their beliefs about technology in education. As an EFL/ESL specialist, I was able to see the different competences a fluent speaker of English as a foreign language can develop. I was in awe to see how well the participants had prepared their presentations, but most amazing of all, how well they were able to orally develop their topics.

As the Director of The International Network for Language Centers and Programs, I want to thank  Kalashnikov Izhevsk State Technical University, active member of the Network, for this activity that has included the participant universities in this Network. Their international view strengthens collaboration among different universities over the world as well as the internationalization of the academic activity. As a Network, we greatly appreciate the efforts of the Kalashnikov Izhevsk State Technical University as they continually seek for excellent and academic collaborative professional work.

My deep respect for a work well done!!!

Ricardo Valderrama Bastía, Director of the English Pedagogies School of the University of Talca (Chile).

Ricardo Valderrama Bastía is the Director of the English Pedagogies School of the University of Talca (Chile). He is an English-German-Spanish translator from the University of Concepcion and an English professor at the Universidad Andres Bello. He holds a Master's degree in Applied Linguistics from the Universidad Católica de la Santísima Concepción. He has taught at different universities and technical-professional training centers in Chile, mainly in the use of technologies for initial teacher education.

His interests focus on user perceptions of immersive virtual reality environments for learning additional languages.

https://www.pedagogiaingles.utalca.cl/html/escuela/presentacion.html

 

https://www.cienciasdelaeducacion.utalca.cl/?p=44

Felipe Opazo Oyarzo, Director of the Language Center (CODI) at Universidad de la Frontera

Director of the Language Center (CODI) at Universidad de la Frontera since 2019. He is a Spanish-English Translator from Universidad Católica de Temuco and has a master’s degree in Applied Linguistics with specialization in TESOL from the University of Melbourne, Australia. 

The Language Center at Universidad de la Frontera (CODI) offers English courses, from A1 to B1, to all undergraduate students that do not comply with the English Language requirement at the university. Additionally, it offers electives courses on the following languages: French, German, Italian, Mandarin Chinese, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, Spanish (for mobility students) and sign language.

CODI also offers English courses, workshops and conversation sessions to postgraduate students, Alumni, and professionals.

https://codi.ufro.cl/