Head of Academic Division, Faculty of Letters, the National University of Laos

 E-mail: kattatiya2014@gmail.com 

Latsanyphone Soulignavong, a lecturer of English, has been teaching English at the Department of English, Faculty of Letters (FLE), the National University of Laos (NUOL) for nearly three decades. Her major is English language teaching, testing, evaluation and school organization and administration. She is also interested in doing research in language education. English teaching, cross cultural awareness, communication in the workplace, and other related to her field. She holds her M.A. both in Australia and Japan. She also holds her Ph.D. in Educational Science from Minho University in Braga, Portugal in 2017.

    Professor Jack C. Richards (Ph.D, Université Laval, Quebec) has had an active career in the Asia Pacific region and has held chair professorial positions at the University of Hawaii, City University of Hong Kong, and the University of Auckland.  He is currently an honorary professor in the faculty of education at the University of Sydney He has also had a long association with the Regional Language Centre in Singapore. He has written over 150 books and articles on language teaching as well as many widely used classroom texts. His recent publications include articles on language teacher identity and English Medium Instruction.

    Professor Jack Richards also has active interests in music and the arts. He has been awarded an honorary doctorate of literature by Victoria University, Wellington, for his services to education and the arts and also received the Award for Patronage from the Arts Foundation of New Zealand. The International TESOL organization honored Jack Richards as one of the 50 TESOL specialists worldwide to have made a significant impact on language teaching in the last 50 years.

    He is renowned for his contributions to English language teaching, having authored numerous professional books and widely used textbooks, including the best-selling Interchange series. His work has been translated into multiple languages, making a global impact on language education.

    Professor Jack Richards is also an active speaker at conferences and workshops, sharing his expertise with educators worldwide. You can learn more about his work and contributions on his official website: www.professorjackrichards.com.

Sharon Torkelson is an American educator and a first year English Language Fellow at the National University of Laos.  A dedicated language educator with more than 20 years’ experience teaching in the U.S. education system, Sharon is passionate about empowering teachers with engaging and effective classroom strategies that foster fluency and proficiency in language learning. Fluent in English and Spanish, Sharon’s undergraduate studies focused on foreign language education and second language acquisition. She earned her master’s degree in educational leadership from the University of West Florida.

  In 2022 Sharon accomplished lifelong goal, becoming a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer in Colombia.  During her service, she partnered with Colombia’s National Ministry of Education to provide professional development support for English teachers through curriculum design, teacher training, and classroom teaching demonstrations.

  Influenced by the pedagogy of TPRS Founder Blaine Ray and the second language acquisition research of Dr. Stephen Krashen, Sharon is an advocate for acquisition driven instruction through storytelling and comprehensible input. As Director of World Languages for Viera Charter school, she initiated the transition from grammar-based instruction to communicative teaching practices through comprehensible input and storytelling. In 2021, she was awarded Best in Conference by the Florida Foreign Language Association for her presentation Breaking up with your Textbook.

  Alastair Graham-Marr has taught for 32 years. He is a recently retired professor at the Tokyo University of Science. His main research areas include how to best teach listening, and also how to best develop student motivation. He is also fluent in Japanese. In addition to his research, he is also a well-published author.