TESL Ontario Announces ESL Week October 12-18 Across Ontario

TORONTO, ON--(Marketwired - September 17, 2014) - TESL Ontario (Teachers of English as a Second Language) has established October 12 - 18, 2014 as ESL Week throughout the province of Ontario with more than 40 communities to date having officially proclaimed ESL Week in their respective areas.

The annual celebration of ESL education and learning has been endorsed not only by Ontario communities, but also by thousands of ESL educators, students of all ages, and many learning institutions and school boards.

ESL Week continues to raise awareness of the importance of ESL education for Ontarians and newcomers to Canada. It is anticipated that last year's record number of Ontario communities officially proclaiming ESL Week will be surpassed in 2014.

"ESL Week enables us to thank the language training professionals who help new Canadians adapt to our culture," says Renate Tilson, executive director of TESL Ontario. "At the same time ESL Week acknowledges the determination of those new to our country to learn English" she adds.

A highlight of ESL Week is the honouring of winners of the ESL Creativity Contest that is open to both instructors and learners of the many different ESL programs across Ontario. This popular province-wide, multi-category contest grew out of earlier ESL Week activities as a vehicle to showcase talented ESL educators and learners. One Grand Prize winner and two Runners-up were chosen in each division (Instructor and Learner) for their submissions that were created from one of a selection of six different activities.

This year's winning entries range from electronic media (videos and a blog) to traditional media (short story, essay and a visually creative poem). All entries, background and synopses can be viewed at http://www.teslontario.net/esl-week and will be displayed at the annual conference where winners will be honoured. (http://vimeo.com/80500708)

The key highlight of ESL Week is the 42^nd annual conference of TESL Ontario #TESL2014 titled: "Integrating Language and Transcending Boundaries", taking place at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, South Building October 16 - 18, 2014. It is the largest conference of its kind in Canada, hosting more than 1000 delegates. A variety of interactive workshops, presentations, technology labs, panel discussions, research symposia, technology fair and more will be offered to language training professionals from public and private sectors, academics, researchers and government representatives.

TESL Ontario, established in 1972, is a non-profit organization serving the needs of teachers of English as a Second Language. It represents more than 4,600 language training professionals working in immigrant serving agencies, school boards, publicly funded sites across Ontario, colleges/universities, elementary/secondary and private language training schools. TESL Ontario's expertise is in teaching, advocacy, accreditation and professional development. The organization is instrumental in influencing the success of many thousands of English language learners throughout the province. 

For more information visit www.teslontario.org and follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest 

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