The 21st century higher education field is diverse, complicated, multifaceted and glocal. Such diversity and complexity are also reflected in the recent changes in English language teaching (ELT) in higher education system in North American and many parts of the world. Recent educational innovations have focused on cross boundary, cross-disciplinary collaborations and the integration of soft skills in curriculum and instruction. In this workshop, the speaker will share major trends in the higher education ELT field and implications for curriculum reform and pedagogical approaches in English medium universities like University of Macau.

Bio: Yilin Sun, Director of English Language Centre of University of Macau, received her Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics/Curriculum & Instruction, from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE)/University of Toronto, Canada. She is past President of TESOL International Association (2015-2016) and President of TESOL (2014-2015). TESOL International Association is the largest international professional association of its kind in the world. This is the first time in TESOL’s 50 years history that an Asian nonnative English speaking female ELT professional served as president of TESOL. She also served as Chair of the Affiliate Leadership Council of TESOL in 2007 and President of Washington Association for the Education of Speakers of Other Languages (WAESOL) in 2003 and 2007.

In 2011-2012, Dr. Sun worked as a Fulbright Senior Scholar in Taiwan coordinating the Fulbright English Teaching Assistant (ETA) Education Program and teaching TESOL graduate courses as a Visiting Professor at the National Taiwan Normal University.

Professor Sun joined the University of Macau in July 2016. She has over 29 years of experience in the field of TESOL as a MA-TESL teacher trainer, a researcher, a classroom teacher, and a program leader with a variety of higher educational institutions in China, Canada and U.S.A. She is also an English Language Specialist for the U.S. Department of State and has conducted teacher training workshops in many countries including Cambodia, China, South Korea, Laos, Russia and Thailand.

Yilin is the author of books, book chapters and research papers in refereed professional journals including TESOL Quarterly and TESOL Journal. She is also a frequent presenter at national and international ELT conferences as a keynote and/or featured speaker.