BC TEAL 2026 Annual Conference

We can conceptualize language in different ways, and these conceptualizations shape how languages are taught, learned, and valued in society. For example, Ruíz (1984) proposed a framework of language as problem, right, and resource. He wanted us to reflect on “what is thinkable about language in society” so we can imagine new possibilities (p. 16). Among these orientations, the language-as-resource orientation has been widely embraced as a progressive counter to deficit perspectives (Hult & Hornberger, 2016). However, in contemporary conditions of neoliberal globalization, language-as-resource has increasingly been mobilized within market logics that treat language as a form of capital or commodity. The global expansion of English language teaching and high-stakes proficiency testing illustrates how language abilities are packaged, marketed, and consumed (Cameron, 2012).
This presentation argues that, while language-as-resource has opened important possibilities, it is insufficient for resisting the commodification of languages. I therefore propose a complementary fourth orientation: language-as-gift. Drawing on Robin Kimmerer’s (2013) work on gift economy, I conceptualize language as a relational offering sustained by gratitude, reciprocity, and responsibility. From this perspective, language practices are not merely transactions for individual gain but contributions to shared meaning-making and community wellbeing.
I ground this theorization in examples from my recent study of argumentative writing in English for academic purposes. Analysis of interview data and student writing samples suggests that the genre of argumentative writing can position language as a personal resource for displaying competence and winning arguments. In contrast, a language-as-gift orientation reframes argumentation as dialogue oriented toward understanding, relationship-building, and the co-construction of knowledge. The presentation concludes with pedagogical implications for EAL educators, including ways to design tasks, assessment, and feedback practices that foreground reciprocity, ethical communication, and relationality in a rapidly changing world. Attendees will leave with practical strategies and reflective questions for their own teaching contexts.

Avenue transitioned to Moodle 4.5. As a result, instructors and administrators have access to a cleaner interface, improved navigation and new tools designed to support more efficient course design and delivery. This practical demonstration focuses on tips and tricks that help educators quickly adapt to Moodle 4.5 while making the most of Avenue’s teaching and learning environment.


Session participants will explore key interface changes, smarter ways to organize courses, content and efficiencies that will improve the Avenue learning experience for both instructors and learners. The session also includes navigation shortcuts, activity setup efficiencies and accessibility enhancing design choices. These can make Avenue courses easier to manage for educators and more intuitive for students.


Designed for educators with varying levels of Moodle experience, this session emphasizes what’s new, what’s different and what’s useful right now. Participants will leave with practical knowledge and strategies they can immediately apply in their Avenue courses to enhance usability, learner engagement and instructional efficiency.

This study examines how emotional and material entanglements shape the identities of six immigrant women teachers living across Canada. Drawing on qualitative interviews and visual narratives and analyzed through a material-discursive framework (Barad, 2007; Deleuze & Guattari, 1978/2020), the research explores how objects—such as jewelry, coins, and handwritten notes—act as emotional anchors that mediate belonging, literacy practices, and professional identity. Through these affective-material encounters, participants narrate how their emotional connections to objects sustain their resilience, foster multilingual literacy practices, and bridge transnational ties between home and host countries. The findings reveal that literacy development among immigrant educators extends beyond textual practices to include embodied, affective, and material dimensions of meaning-making. By highlighting the agency of emotions and objects in shaping self-perception and pedagogical engagement, this research contributes to new materialist perspectives in applied linguistics and immigrant teacher education. It advances understandings of literacy as a relational practice embedded in emotional and material life, challenging skills-based paradigms and offering implications for inclusive literacy policies and practices that honour teachers’ transnational experiences.

The presenter showcases an experiential, TESOL Canada–accredited micro-credential for Business English course design. Participants discover how real workplace tasks and AI trends inform curriculum development through Kolb’s experiential cycle and UDL principles. Attendees leave with interactive strategies to align Business English teaching with current workplace communication demands.
This practice-oriented workshop introduces the Teaching Business English Certificate (TBEC), an experiential micro-credential program that equips English instructors to design business English courses aligned with authentic workplace communication tasks and emerging AI influences. Grounded in Kolb’s experiential learning theory (Kolb, 1984) and Universal Design for Learning, TBEC emphasizes learning by doing. Instructors engage in the full cycle of concrete experience, reflection, conceptualization, and experimentation, ensuring that classroom activities mirror real job tasks like business emails, presentations, and meetings. By aligning training with labour-market needs, the program ensures relevant, job-ready skills; unlike traditional degrees, micro-credentials focus on specific, industry-demanded competencies that translate directly to improved workplace performance (Zukowski, 2025).
The workshop clearly models TBEC’s approach. The presenter guides participants through adapting a workplace scenario into a lesson plan: attendees experience a sample business communication task and collaboratively reflect on the language and soft skills involved. Using UDL principles, the session demonstrates how to design inclusive course materials that are “accessible, inclusive and challenging for every learner” (CAST, 2024). For example, participants see how multiple means of engagement and expression can support diverse learners in a business-English context. The session also addresses current AI trends in workplace communication (e.g. AI writing assistants) and discusses how these can be incorporated ethically into course design, so instructors stay ahead of technological shifts. Throughout the workshop, interactivity and reflection are emphasized: participants brainstorm course ideas, evaluate alignment with learning outcomes, and exchange feedback.
By the end, attendees will have gained a framework and practical techniques for designing Business English curriculum that is experiential, inclusive, and tightly connected to the evolving communication needs of today’s workplaces.
 
References 
CAST. (2024). Universal Design for Learning Guidelines 3.0. CAST.
Kolb, D. A. (1984). Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development. Prentice Hall.
Zukowski, S. (2025, April 3). Microcredentials: Empowering modern learners & employers. The EvoLLLution.