Invited by the Planning Committee, Dr Alvin pang, TEFLIN sent a representative to the 57th RELC International Conference. The conference took place on March 13, 2023 – March 15, 2023, at SEAMEO Regional Language Centre, 30 Orange Grove Road, Singapore 258352. The conference theme was “Rethinking English Language Teaching and Learning for a COVID-19 Endemic World: Global, Glocal and Local Perspectives”. The TEFLIN representative was Ikhsanudin, the coordinator of TEFLIN Kalimantan Barat Chapter and a lecturer for Universitas Tanjungpura. His topic was “Delphi Made Easy: Teacher-Made ELT Evaluation as a Local Response to Global Culture”.
The conference was opened by the Minister for Education of Singapore, Mr Chan Chun Sing. In his opening speech, the minister told a story of how important educational administration across ASEAN is in understanding the challenges and opportunities of English language teaching faced by teachers. He also expressed his support to the conference and the teachers across ASEAN to share expertise and experience to overcome the more challenging age of education that is already at the doorstep. Over 300 offline speakers and participants attended the conference. The online speakers and participants from different parts of the globe presented and participated synchronously made this RELC hybrid conference rich in ideas, inventions, and shared experiences.
As the TEFLIN representative, besides performing as one of the featured speakers on the first day of the conference, Ikhsan also performed as a TEFLIN “diplomat” to strengthen and enlarge TEFLIN’s networking. To show his respect to the committee and other speakers, he attended other speakers’ presentations in plenary and parallel sessions. During the tea and meal times, he approached the organizer, sponsors, keynote speakers, featured speakers, and committee members to extend the TEFLIN board members’ sincere regards. Ikhsan also expressed TEFLIN’s gratitude to the organizer for inviting a TEFLIN delegate to the conference. The organizer and committee board members showed warm respect to the representatives of RELC partner organizations, particularly the TEFLIN presenter.
