[[ SAAL ]]

PRESIDENT’S SPEECH

25th SAAL AGM

24 September 2010

RELC, Room 506, 6 pm

Singapore Association for Applied Linguistics (SAAL)

A very good evening SAAL Patron, Exco members and dear SAAL Members. Thank you so much for being here, taking precious time off on a sacred Friday evening to join us in our 25th SAAL AGM.

This year is a special year for SAAL as we turn 25. ‘SAAL Sparkles at 25’ is the theme that we have selected for next week’s 25th Anniversary Dinner. Like a young lady of 25, SAAL is at the prime of her life, with boundless energy and endless opportunities that are awaiting her. SAAL has a healthy 121 suitors (I mean members) about half of which will be turning up at our celebratory dinner next week. This evening is also special as we will be electing our lucky 13th Executive Committee to serve SAAL. In the past two years since I took over the presidency, I have focused on three main strategic directions:

(i) increasing the publication profile of SAAL

(ii) reaching out to our regional partners, and

(iii) growing the multilingual and pedagogical foci of SAAL

On the first strategic thrust, while the idea of the SAAL Review is still being explored with great depth and rigour, the publication profile of our SAAL members have grown from strength to strength:

(i) Increasing the publication profile of SAAL

In late 2008, a publication — Language as Commodity: Global Structures, Local Marketplaces — edited by two SAAL Exco members, Peter Tan and Rani Rubdy, was published by Continuum press. This volume arose from a 2004 SAAL Forum on mother tongue issues in multilingual communities.

The journal of our parent association, the AILA Review 22 Multilingual, Globalising Asia: Implications of policy and education (in press 2010) has SAAL members Lisa Lim and Low Ee Ling as guest editors and contributors, as well as a contribution by SAAL Exco member Ruanni Tupas.

SAAL members have also been invited to be plenary and symposium speakers at international Applied Linguistics conferences such as the RELC International Seminar, TESOL Convention to name a few of the many that we are aware of.

World Englishes 29:3, special issue on English in Southeast Asia was guest edited by Low & Pakir and features articles by the editors and also SAAL members (past and present) David Deterding, Lubna Alsagoff, Lim Beng Soon & Kirsten Schaetzel.

SAAL members (e.g. Larry Zhang, Beatriz Lorente, Ruanni Tupas, Rani Rubdy and Low Ee Ling) have also been invited to be plenary, featured and symposium speakers at international Applied Linguistics conferences such as the RELC International Seminar, the 2010 Linguistic Society of the Philippines Annual Conference & GE, 1st International Conference on Language Learning & Teaching 2009, the 2010 TESOL Convention in Boston, the 10th Annual International Symposium on Second Language Writing, Bloomsbury International Student Conference in Applied Linguistics 2009 and the 4th ELC Conference on English language Teaching: English Today for Tomorrow — just to name a few of the many that we are aware of.

The new research and publications team will continue the pioneering and sterling work done by Rani Rubdy and her team and work on a concrete project either rolling out a journal or a book series by an international publisher. We welcome your expertise, ideas and contributions in this area and invite you to come on board if you have the time to serve.

Meanwhile, SAAL continues to publish our Quarterly, which features abstracts of plenary papers given by SAAL members, abstracts of PhD theses and dissertations submitted by SAAL members, abstracts of journal articles, featured seminars, and calls for papers for related international conferences. In the past year, the SAAL Quarterly Nos. 87–90 were published at the usual intervals, in August 2009, November 2009, February 2010 and May 2010.

(ii) Reaching out to our regional partners

On reaching out to regional partners, SAAL hopes next week to concretize plans to host a joint symposium focusing on Applied Linguistics with the Humanities & Ethics Research Cluster of the University of Malaya. Through this partnership, SAAL hopes also to tap on regional expertise to grow professionally.

(iii) Growing the multilingual and pedagogical foci of SAAL

In accordance with growing the multilingual focus of SAAL, the 26th SAAL Lecture was delivered by Professor Andy Kirkpatrick, Chair Professor of English as an International Language at the Hong Kong Institute of Education and Director of the Institute’s Research Centre on Language Education and Acquisition in Multilingual Societies on the topic of ‘English as an Asian lingua franca and the multilingual model of ELT’. About 75 people attended the lecture.

SAAL continues to grow her multilingual focus mainly through our partners the Malay Teachers’ Union and having Exco members from the Asian Languages & Culture Academic Group at the National Institute of Education on board. A large proportion of our SAAL Exco members are teacher educators and we will continue to tap on this existing expertise to provide professional development workshops for our teachers. We hope to continue to forge strong bonds with the Singapore Teachers’ Union and consider them to be precious partners.

A SAAL talk co-organized by the School of Arts and Social Sciences at UNISIM was delivered by Professor Gerhard Leitner, Professor of English Linguistics , Free University Berlin and honorary member of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, on ‘Bringing back RP and standard British English?: The relative decline of received norms and RP’.

Vote of Thanks

It leaves me now to thank the 12th Executive Committee of SAAL for their passion, dedication and commitment without which none of the above would have been possible. I need to make special mention of 3 Exco members who have decided not to stand for elections in the coming year: Dr Zhu Shenfa, our Honorary Treasurer who straightened us out fiscally, and for simplifying yet preserving the integrity and the financial rigour required for our accounts. We are very sorry to let you go, but understand that you will need a break. Next, Associate Professor Rani Rubdy who has done a lot of groundwork to help us to steer our thinking about which direction to take for the next in SAAL’s publications in the years to come. Thank you for offering us your wisdom and expertise, we are also very sorry to lose you from our new Exco. Finally, my thanks go to our lovely social secretary Jackie Teo who is helming the organization of next week’s SAAL Anniversary Dinner.

To my Vice-President Peter, without you, SAAL’s administrative processes will never be tidy and for your careful editorial eye in editing our minutes and SAAL quarterly publications, thank you! To the Honorary Secretary Bea and Assistant Honorary Secretary Larry, thank you for keeping book even when your own work got overwhelming! SQ editors Ludwig and Ruanni, again, thanks to you for seeing to the timely publication on top of the demands of your academic work. SAAL Exco members AO Ran, Stefan, Beng Soon & Seetha: without you all, our meetings and events simply could not have seen the light of day.

Before I conclude, I’d just like to once again warmly invite you to SAAL’s 25th Anniversary Dinner to be held next week, 1 October from 7 PM at the Dunearn Ballroom of the Raffles Town Club. See you sparkling there, and thank you for your kind attention!