'By the teachers and for the teachers' is how Dr. Richard Smith introduced the audience to the second Annual Latin American Conference for Teacher-research in ELT on Saturday 6 May 2017 at the Instituto de Educación Superior en Lenguas Vivas “Juan Ramón Fernández”. More than 100 teachers participated in the event and shared their experiences in ELT-research with others. It featured presentations by British Council Aptis Action Research Award Scheme winners and by other teachers across Latin America.
The conference was co-organized by the British Council Argentina, FAAPI (Federación Argentina de Asociaciones de Profesores de Inglés) and APIBA (Asociación de Profesores de Inglés de Buenos Aires).
During the day, the first plenary session showcased the work of ARAS projects: Fernanda Goncalves (Brazil), Johana Andrea Melo (Colombia), Bertha Ramos Holguín, with Jahir Aguirre Morales (Colombia), Víctor Peña Villarroel, with Elena Adriana and Llanquileo Aranda (Chile), and Leyla Verónica Núñez Aguilera (Chile). They were introduced by Richard Smith, Alex Wood, Carlos Rico Troncoso and Paula Rebolledo. This was followed by poster presentations in different rooms, where teachers explained their ELT-research projects to other teachers and interacted in group discussions.
After lunch, the second ARAS project presentations took place. They featured Mercedes Perez Berbain and María Laura García (Argentina), Mariana Acosta Guimaraes and Paula Trejo (Argentina), Laura Flores, with Natalia Bonello, Leticia Dobrotka, Fabiana Silveira and Valentina Perini (Uruguay), Mariana Serra and Silvia Severino (Argentina), and Maria Cunha, with Debora Muramoto Castilho, Marcia Reis, and Mariana Caldas (Brazil). Another session of poster presentations followed, where teachers had the opportunity to share and learn about their colleagues’ research experience.
The day ended with a round-up plenary & evaluation, and an extremely positive feedback from the participants. Another conference was announced to take place in Colombia next year.
