Adequate language proficiency is essential for student success, and so getting language-related policies and programs right has big consequences.  But for recruitment, admissions, and student services staff and policymakers, it can be challenging to keep up with the ever-evolving world of language testing and the latest research on the critical links between language proficiency and the student experience.

This workshop focuses on what recruitment, admissions, and student services staff and policymakers need to know about language proficiency and testing. Participants will come away with a better understanding of the major English language assessments for postsecondary admissions in Canada, and the related challenges currently faced in Canada and elsewhere in the Anglophone world. Strategies for policy and program development and review will be discussed.

Demand in Canada’s language programs is changing, with interest in general English programs decreasing. Some programs have found new opportunities designing specialized language programs—English for specific occupations, academic disciplines or programs, or industry sectors—for international partners, cohorts, or within their own public-sector institutions. From pre-MBA, to English for STEM, to Legal English, participants in this workshop will learn tools and strategies related to how to design these specialized programs, through the proposal, marketing, curriculum, and delivery stages.

Native-speakerism—the erroneous view that native-speaking users of English naturally make the best language teachers, and are the ideal language learning target—is still a commonplace in the world of English Language Teaching (ELT) worldwide and in Canada. Though things have improved in recent years, this view has not disappeared completely from the minds of some teachers, leaders, students, agents and others. However, it marginalizes ELT colleagues who use English as an additional language and is at odds with the rich linguistic diversity of the ELT sector in Canada.
Through case studies drawn from Canadian ELT contexts, and discussions, in this workshop, participants will reflect on the ways native-speakerism might manifest itself in their educational context. Strategies to challenge native-speakerism through policy, marketing and recruitment, curriculum and professional development will be presented.

GenAI has brought about big changes to language education, for students and teachers. The scope of many of the responses to these changes have focused on the individual classroom teacher, for example, how GenAI can be used in their teaching or how to prevent students from using it in unauthorized ways. As a result, you have instructors struggling alone yet in parallel with how to deal with GenAI and the challenges it’s posing to academic integrity. A clear response on the program level, be it from the school, centre, or department, can go a long way.
This workshop discusses strategies for managing GenAI from a program leadership and management perspective. From policy, processes, professional development, participants in this workshop will learn strategies for crafting a program approach to AI to ensure clarity, supported teachers, student satisfaction, and a culture of academic integrity.