Explore ELIPro Events & Activities
From conferences and workshops to community discussions and seminars, discover the diverse activities that bring the ELIPro network together. Explore upcoming ELIPro seminars, workshops, and international events—all in one place. Stay connected and see what’s happening across our global network.
ELIPro Seminars
Regular seminars featuring invited speakers and panel discussions on key topics in education, languages, and internationalisation.
Upcoming Seminar Highlight
Join us for our next live session on Feb 12, 2026 2pm (UK time) with Professor Yuko Goto Butler from Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania, U.S.A., speaking on “Children’s English Learning in Global Contexts: Assumptions and Challenges.”
Presenter Bio
Yuko Goto Butler is Professor of Educational Linguistics at the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania. She is also the director of the Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) program at Penn. Her research interests have primarily focused on improving additional language education for young learners in response to the diverse needs of an increasingly globalized and digitalized world. Her work has centered on identifying effective teaching and learning strategies, as well as assessment methods, that account for the linguistic and cultural contexts in which instruction occurs.
Seminar Abstract
As English is recognized as a powerful lingua franca, there is a global trend of increasingly younger children learning English. Two major motivations can be identified behind this enthusiasm for English learning among children (defined here as those up to age 12 learning an additional language in an instructional setting) and the strong parental support often referred to as “parentocracy.” These motivations include: (a) a neoliberal ideology that assumes English proficiency leads to social and economic success for individuals and nations, and (b) the belief that “the younger, the better.” While the formal education system aims, in part, to provide all children with the opportunity to learn this influential language, such policies often lead to unintended consequences—namely, the widening of disparities in the quality of English education and levels of English attainment based on children’s socioeconomic and regional backgrounds. In this talk, I will analyze the assumptions and complexities surrounding early English education for children from a global perspective.
Past Seminars
- In December 2025, Stephanie Ann Houghton presented on Native-speakerism.
- In June 2025, Yu Kanazawa & Chie Takeda presented on Active learning × Epistemic emotion day – 1st Presentation: Theories and practices of epistemic emotions in active learning – 2nd Presentation: classroom interaction through epistemic emotion-rich active learning.
- In June 2025, Carol Griffiths presented on Teacher burnout in EMI.
- In June 2025, Alissa Keith presented on The native-like speaker myth: Challenging native-like proficiency as the only measure of additional language success.
- In May 2025, Christopher J. Hall presented on Ontological and ideological clarity about English for ELT.
- In May 2025, Zoe Handley presented on Online and in-person language contact during study abroad: Using the Lang Track App to explore the experiences of international masters’ students studying in the UK.
- In January 2025, Adrian Holliday presented on Putting aside native-speakerist labelling to find linguistic and cultural hybridity and the “translingual instinct”.
- In October 2024, Francisco Javier González Ruiz presented on Constructing personal identities on social media: Spanish Tourism University graduates’ attitudes towards translanguaging and VELF.
- In October 2024, Berta Torras Vila presented on English as an International Language: Classroom Implications.
- In June 2024, Eda Akgün Özpolat, Başak Çermikli Ayvaz, H. İrem Çomoğlu, & Emily Phillips Galloway presented on Multilingual identity navigations of pre-service English teachers in Türkiye: Takeaways from the project DIVE.
- In June 2024, Işıl Günseli Kaçar presented on Online flipped learning and task design for inclusive and engaging learning environments: EFL students’ and preservice teachers’ perspectives.
- In May 2024, Nicos Sifakis presented on ELF, ELF awareness and the three major shifts in teaching and teacher education.
- In April 2024, Ryuko Kubota & Ryosuke Aoyama presented on Antiracist and decolonial approaches to teaching English as an international language.
- In March 2024, Davran Gaipov presented on Developing holistic approach in EMI provision: institutional and instructional levels.
- In February 2024, Jepri Ali Saiful presented on Eco-ELT for environmental practice and research in ELT.
- In February 2024, Belén Cruz-Durán presented on Song translation in Spanish tertiary education and its applications in the English classroom.
- In January 2024, Syed Abdul Manan & Mir Afzal Tajik presented on Gaps between policy aspirations and enactment: Graduate students’ struggles with academic English amidst a turbulent transition to the EMI environment in Kazakhstani universities.
- In January 2024, Nurmala Elmin Simbolon & Dwi Kartikasari presented on EMI and EAP teachers collaboration for an EMI program: A case from Indonesia.
- In January 2024, Karen Forbes presented on “We are multilingual!”: Theoretical and pedagogical perspectives on developing a multilingual identity in schools.
- In November 2023, Esra Kurtuldu presented on Potential effects of different English accents on non-native English speakers’ listening comprehension and perceptions.
- In November 2023, Ron Chanetsa presented on Cultivating a culture of learning: A catalyst for change leadership.
- In November 2023, Sean Patrick Kang presented on Quo vadis educere amidst metaverse era vis-à-vis the needs of generation Z & Alpha in the 21st century?.
- In November 2023, Yecid Ortega presented on Social justice in language education: Perspectives from an international context.
- In October 2023, María Deseada López-Fernández presented on Teaching linguistic mediation to adults in the English language classroom: A Spanish context.
- In October 2023, Reka R. Jablonkai presented on Pedagogic strategies and competencies in multilingual educational contexts.
- In October 2023, Julie Waddington presented on A teaching innovation network as a catalyst for change and professional development: EME at the University of Girona.
- In September 2023, Hacer Kaçar presented on English language instructors’ perspectives about their self-efficacy on GE topics.
- In September 2023, Nadia Lamprecht presented on Rethinking literature in the South African secondary school EFAL curriculum.
- In August 2023, Zeynep Ceyhan Bingöl presented on EFL instructors’ perceptions and practices on standard English and World Englishes in a Turkish context.
- In July 2023, Gulnissa Zhunussova presented on Multilingualism and EFL teachers’ attitudes towards English in Kazakhstan.
- In July 2023, Christopher Hill presented on Learning from academics: Lessons in EMI engagement.
- In June 2023, Kübra Yağar Besen presented on An evaluation of negotiation of meaning strategies in an ELT coursebook from an ELF-aware perspective.
- In June 2023, Fan Fang presented on Global Englishes and teacher education.
- In June 2023, Annina Dowman presented on To what extent did the exclusion of Creole from the Reunionese high school curriculum in the 90’s impact students’ identity?.
- In May 2023, Elif Kemaloğlu-Er presented on Integrating Global Englishes pedagogy into the English classroom: Novel perspectives, novel practices.
Presenter Bio
Yuko Goto Butler is Professor of Educational Linguistics at the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania. She is also the director of the Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) program at Penn. Her research interests have primarily focused on improving additional language education for young learners in response to the diverse needs of an increasingly globalized and digitalized world. Her work has centered on identifying effective teaching and learning strategies, as well as assessment methods, that account for the linguistic and cultural contexts in which instruction occurs.
Seminar Abstract
As English is recognized as a powerful lingua franca, there is a global trend of increasingly younger children learning English. Two major motivations can be identified behind this enthusiasm for English learning among children (defined here as those up to age 12 learning an additional language in an instructional setting) and the strong parental support often referred to as “parentocracy.” These motivations include: (a) a neoliberal ideology that assumes English proficiency leads to social and economic success for individuals and nations, and (b) the belief that “the younger, the better.” While the formal education system aims, in part, to provide all children with the opportunity to learn this influential language, such policies often lead to unintended consequences—namely, the widening of disparities in the quality of English education and levels of English attainment based on children’s socioeconomic and regional backgrounds. In this talk, I will analyze the assumptions and complexities surrounding early English education for children from a global perspective.
Abstract: As English is recognized as a powerful lingua franca, there is a global trend of increasingly younger children learning English.