INFORMATION ON THE ORGANIZATION OF THE XI INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH

On the 2^nd and 3^rd of November 2018, the Department of English organized the 11^th International Conference on the topic “New Dimensions and Approaches in English Studies”, where there were presented 51 papers on the area of linguistics, teaching and methodology of foreign languages, translation studies, literature, cultural and communication studies, prepared by 58 scholars and lecturers of Albanian and foreign Universities.

In his remark during the plenary session, the Dean of the Faculty of Foreign Languages, Prof. Dr. Artur Sula, thanked the organisers of this conference and acknowledged the importance of the English Department, not only for the Faculty of Foreign Languages but also for the University of Tirana, further, he noted the sustainable cooperation with the Public Affairs Office of US Embassy in Tirana and British Council in Tirana.

In his appreciation remarks, Prof. Sula stressed particularly the involvement of the English Department, its cooperation and its numerous exchanges during the period of the last two conferences, with the European universities and not only, in the context of ERASMUS + and CEEPUS Programs, as well as the upcoming involvement in cooperation Projects with the University of Pecs, Hungary.

Moreover, in this context, the continuous efforts to achieve targets for a better teaching and educational process for students were acknowledged, so that they can face challenges of the future. The previous and the potential upcoming cooperation were considered as helpful for the assurance and management of quality in educating students conform to the requirements of the national, regional and international labour market.

Two professors and renowned scholars were invited as keynote speakers of the plenary session, namely Prof. Dr. Shpresa QATIPI with her paper “It used to be the Word… it is the Word! Communication through the Word… an overview of Bible’s words of wisdom” and the American professor Aileen HALE, Ph.D. with her paper “Differentiating language acquisition from language learning – the what, why, and how”.

The participants continued with the presentations of their papers according to their respective areas of study and research in concurrent sessions, which were accompanied with questions, discussions and suggestions about the future of research in this field. The conference and the papers on different areas of studies of the English language, were useful to scholars, particularly to the young scholars and students of Master of Science Programs in the Faculty of Foreign Languages, who attended with a great interest some of these sessions, to the teachers of English language, as well as to different stakeholders in the institutions of higher education in exchanging their experiences, strengthening and deepening further the professional inter-institutional cooperation, as well as expanding the professional and interpersonal cooperation network in this particular field of teaching and research.