HUPE PROUDLY PRESENTS
PLENARY SPEAKER
30th Annual International HUPE Conference
11 – 13 November 2022
Valamar, Poreč

Jelena Mihaljević Djigunović:  Old practices and new insights: Making the match

Biography:

Jelena Mihaljević Djigunović worked as Professor of SLA and TEFL at Zagreb University, Croatia. She was also involved in teacher training programs in Poland, taught MA and PhD courses at the University of Pécs, Hungary, and served as external examiner of doctoral dissertations in the UK (University of Reading), Sweden (University of Umea) and Hungary (University of Pécs). She has participated in numerous large-scale national and international research projects (the latest one being the Early Language Learning in Europe - ELLiE). Her main professional interests include teacher education, teaching modern languages to young learners and the role of affective factors in language learning. Besides three sets of EFL coursebooks and handbooks, her publications also include two research books on affect in FL learning and over 130 research papers and book chapters. After retiring from Zagreb University in 2014 she has continued to be active in the field by supervising PhD. students, presenting at national and international conferences, publishing research papers and editing books.

Abstract:

In this plenary I will look back at the past 30 years by identifying the main trends in ELT which have prevailed and new insights that have emerged. My focus will be on both the teaching / learning processes and on the key protagonists in ELT: the learner, the teacher, parents, and policy makers. Using illustrative examples of what has changed and what has not, I will suggest ways of aligning old practices with new insights.