IAFOR > The European Conference on Language Learning (ECLL) > ECLL2020 > Speakers

Speakers

The European Conference on Language Learning 2020 (ECLL2020) is a multidisciplinary conference held concurrently with The European Conference on Education 2020 (ECE2020). Keynote, Featured and Spotlight Speakers will provide a variety of perspectives from different academic and professional backgrounds. Registration for either conference will allow participants to attend sessions in both.

This page provides information about presenters. For details of presentations and other programming, please visit the Programme page.

  • Woon Chia Liu
    Woon Chia Liu
    National Institute of Education (NIE), Singapore
  • Thanassis Rikakis
    Thanassis Rikakis
    Virginia Tech, USA
  • Li Wei
    Li Wei
    University College London, Institute of Education, UK

Previous Speakers

View details of speakers at past ECLL conferences via the links below.

ECLL2019ECLL2018ECLL2017
ECLL2016ECLL2015ECLL2014
ECLL2013
Woon Chia Liu
National Institute of Education (NIE), Singapore

Biography

Woon Chia Liu is an Associate Professor with the Psychology and Child & Human Development Academic Group at the National Institute of Education (NIE), Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. She is a founding member of NIE’s Motivation in Educational Research Laboratory (MERL), and the Immediate Past Dean of Teacher Education. During her deanship, she led and developed the NTU-NIE Teaching Scholars Programme, reviewed and enhanced the Bachelor of Arts (Education)/Science (Education) and the Postgraduate Diploma in Education programmes, and conceptualised and launched the IoT@NIE Learning Lab in collaboration with Info-communications Media Development Authority (IMDA), Singapore. In addition, she was a key member of the steering committee and a co-chair of the working committee that shaped the Singapore Teaching Practice model that makes explicit how effective teaching and learning is achieved in Singapore schools.

She was previously the Associate Dean of Practicum and School Partnerships (2009 to 2014) and the Sub-Dean of Diploma Programmes (2008 to 2009). From 2008 to 2009, she served as a co-chair of the Theory-Practice Task Force in NIE’s Programme Review and Enhancement (PRE) initiative, which culminated in NIE’s Teacher Education Model for the 21st Century (TE21). Thereafter, she was a co-chair of the Theory-Practice Core Team for the TE21 implementation steering group. She led her team in conceptualising and implementing the enhanced practicum model, with its use of professional focused conversations to deepen inquiry and strengthen theory-practice nexus, and the use of purposeful mentoring to help pre-service teachers improve their teaching competencies whilst developing their sense of teacher personhood. Furthermore, she was instrumental in advocating and shaping the Professional Practice and Inquiry portfolio in all pre-service programmes that allows pre-service teachers to aggregate and integrate their learning.

She is the Immediate Past President of the Educational Research Association of Singapore (ERAS), and represented Singapore in the World Education Research Association (WERA) Council. She was also the co-convener of the WERA-IRN (International Research Network) titled “Teacher education for the 21st century: Developing teachers who are thoughtful, reflective, and inquiring.”

Her research interests include motivation, teacher education, innovative pedagogy, e-portfolio and clinical practice.

Keynote Presentation (2020) | Creating a Motivating School: Considerations and Challenges
Thanassis Rikakis
Virginia Tech, USA

Biography

Thanassis Rikakis is professor of Bioengineering and of Performing Arts. His research spans systems design, arts and technology with a special focus on interactive neurorehabilitation, experiential media, adaptive learning and cyber-human intelligence. He is the founding chair of the Calhoun Honors Discovery Program and director of the Calhoun Center for Higher Education Innovation. These initiatives focus on adaptive, transdisciplinary learning and on advancing the interconnection of difference and excellence. They furthermore investigate life-long learning structures spanning K-12, higher education and industry. From 2015 until 2017 Thanassis served as executive vice president and provost at Virginia Tech. He led the development of transdisciplinary discovery communities (Destination Areas) and a new resource model (Partnership for an Incentive Based Budget). From 2012 to 2015 he served as vice provost for design arts and technology at Carnegie Mellon University where he founded the Integrative Design, Arts and Technology (IDEATE) network. He has also served as founding director of the School of Arts, Media and Engineering at Arizona State University and Associate Director for Research and Development of the Computer Music Center at Columbia University.

Keynote Presentation (2020) | Presentation information will be added here shortly

Previous ECE Presentations

Keynote Presentation (2019) | Trandisciplinary Knowledge Ecosystems can Advance Interdependence and Agency
Li Wei
University College London, Institute of Education, UK

Biography

Li Wei is Chair of Applied Linguistics at the UCL Institute of Education, University College London (UCL). His research interests are in the broad field of bilingualism and multilingualism. He is Principal Editor of the International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism and Applied Linguistics Review. His publications include Translanguaging: Bilingualism, Language and Education (with Ofelia Garcia), which won the 2015 British Association of Applied Linguistics Book Prize. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, UK.

Keynote Presentation (2020) | Multi-Competence, Translanguaging and Multimodal Learning