The Department of English congratulates Nord University PhD fellow David Valente, who with co-editor Daniel Xerri of the University of Malta, recently published the edited book Innovative Practices in Early English Language Education (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022).
At a virtual launch event held on Zoom on 24 March 2023, with over 40 participants from around the world gathered to celebrate the publication, David Valente presented the volume and highlighted the contributions of its authors, as well as its inspiration. The idea for the collection was conceived at the ELT Malta Conference in 2018, as a collaboration between the ELT Council, which Xerri leads and, the IATEFL Young Learners and Teenagers Special Interest Group, which Valente previously led. Valente pointed to a key concept which unified the chapters throughout the book as that of Ubuntu, an African cultural competence used by speakers of Bantu languages and translated by Leketi Makelela (2016) as “a human is a human because of others.” In this spirit, the volume looks at underexplored topics in TEYL academic literature, or topics that are familiar in early language academia but reimagined through a fresh lens. Its various themes include intercultural competence, learner agency, post-pandemic learning environments, picturebooks, teacher identity, metacognition, and multilingualism.
On hand to welcome guests to the book launch, and to celebrate the scholarly achievement of a Nord University PhD fellow, was FLU Dean, Professor Rose Martin. Her opening speech was warm and expressive of the academic comradery of the occasion. She remarked:
We know that education must adapt and move dynamically and with care to respond to the needs of students and teachers and wider communities today. Innovative Practices in Early English Language Education provides the reader with a wonderful jewel box of 15 chapters, and a lovely introduction. Throughout, it is the thread of innovation that runs through my reading of it. I see the sense of community evidenced in the pages of this book, and I think it’s so fitting that the spirit of Ubuntu is captured in the book. Congratulations to David, Daniel, and all the contributors!
Among the book’s contributors, who each shared summaries of their respective chapters, Nord University colleague Dr. Nayr Ibrahim shared highlights from her chapter, entitled “Educating Early Years and Primary English Language Teachers Multilingually.” In addition to these speakers, and others, the author of the foreword to the book, Dr. Annamaria Pinter, a renowned specialist in early language learning at the University of Warwick, UK, expressed her warm congratulations to Valente and all the contributors.
