Dr. Kyle Lachini

Kyle Lachini, PhD, is an educator, edutuber, author, and researcher with over 40 years of experience teaching English across the Middle East, GCC countries, and Canada at all levels, from secondary to postgraduate.

He has held academic leadership roles and extensively presented and published in language education and assessment. His major works include A Handbook of Critical Review in Applied Linguistics (2025), a pioneering guide for scholarly evaluation, and An Introduction to Research Quality: A Practical Approach (2024), whose 2025 second edition focuses on AI-assisted research quality assurance.

Dr. Lachini has supervised numerous Master’s and PhD theses in applied linguistics, language testing, and methodology. His research explores AI-assisted evaluation, language assessment, and linguistic inequality, and he coined the concepts of langlism (bias against non-native Englishes), acadism (discrimination based on academic title or rank), and dunceocracy (rule by anti-intellectuals).

He is the founder of the International Authority for the Critical Review of Applied Linguistics (IACRAL), editor-in-chief of the Journal of Applied Linguistics Critiques (JALC), and a trustee of the English Language and Testing Society (ELTSociety) based in Davis, CA. USA. Through his YouTube channel, he promotes research ethics, critical review literacy, and peer review reform.

Keynote Session: Reimagining Language Assessment in a World of Englishes: Towards More Ethical and Inclusive Practices

As English language teachers increasingly engage with learners from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds, the question of how we assess language proficiency has never been more pressing. Traditional standardized tests often rely on monolithic norms that privilege native-speaker models and reinforce a narrow definition of correctness. In this keynote, I challenge these conventions by proposing a shift toward a more inclusive, ethical, and context-responsive approach to assessment.

Drawing on my decades of experience in ELT, language testing, and teacher education, I explore how concepts such as intelligibility, communicative effectiveness, and fairness can reshape our understanding of what counts as “proficiency.” I introduce the idea of “langlism”—a form of linguistic bias that marginalizes non-native varieties of English—and examine how it intersects with current assessment practices. I also consider the potential of AI-supported tools to assist educators in designing assessments that are flexible, formative, and aligned with learners’ real-world communication needs.

The keynote invites participants to reimagine assessment not as a gatekeeping mechanism, but as a tool for empowerment. By centering learner identity, context, and purpose, we can move beyond deficit models and toward a more just and forward-thinking vision of English language teaching.

Dr. Bonny Norton

Dr. Bonny Norton (FRSC) is a University Killam Professor and Distinguished University Scholar in the Department of Language and Literacy Education, University of British Columbia.

Her primary research interests are identity and language learning, critical literacy, and the open access Global Storybooks project (globalstorybooks.net).

She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and the American Educational Research Association, and was elected BC Academic of the Year in 2020.

Her 2013 book on Identity and Language Learning is freely available on her website at https://lled.educ.ubc.ca/bonny-norton/

Keynote Session: Global Storybooks and Multilingual Identities: A Decolonial Option?

In a 2016 TESOL Quarterly article, Kumaravadivelu (2016) challenged the field of English language teaching to pursue a results-oriented “decolonial option” to disrupt unequal power relationships in the field. In this presentation, I respond to the Kumaravadivelu’s challenge to restructure “center-produced” language education materials by sharing over a decade of work on the multilingual Global Storybooks project (globalstorybooks.net), which has its origins in the African Storybook initiative (africanstorybook.org). To this end, the presentation addresses the following two questions: To what extent can Global Storybooks be considered a “decolonial option”? How can Global Storybooks promote the multilingual identities of language learners and teachers in Canada and the international communiity? The presentation draws on a trajectory of collaborative research in both the Global South and the Global North to make the case that the innovative use of freely available digital African stories can disrupt unequal power relationships in the field and promote investment in language learning (Darvin & Norton, 2015, 2023). In doing so, the materials can enhance the multilingual identities of language learners, teachers, teacher educators, and translators. I conclude, in the spirit of Indigenous scholarship (Engman & Hermes, 2021), that language education “materials” are not simply cultural artifacts; they are best understood with reference to systems of relationships in place and space.

Dr. Souroush Sabbaghan

Dr. Soroush Sabbaghan is an Associate Professor at the Werklund School of Education and the Educational Leader in Residence in Generative AI at the Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning, University of Calgary.

His work explores the intersection of language education, educational technology, and ethical innovation, with a particular focus on how generative AI can support more inclusive, learner-centered educational practices.

Dr. Sabbaghan leads several projects and authored academic publications that examine how students and educators engage with co-designed generative AI tools. His projects are widely recognized for foregrounding human-centered design and addressing the social, pedagogical, and ethical implications of AI in education.

He is the editor of the volume Navigating Generative AI in Higher Education: Ethical, Theoretical and Practical Perspectives, and contributes to public discourse and policy development around AI literacy, assessment, and access in Canadian education.

With a background in English language teaching and mathematics education , Dr. Sabbaghan brings a grounded and critical lens to questions of language, equity, and the future of learning—particularly as they relate to immigrant learners and the evolving role of technology in their educational journeys.

Keynote Session: Teaching Forward: Reimagining Language Learning in an Age of AI and Austerity

The recent decision by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) to phase out funding LINC programs represents more than a policy shift—it signals a structural setback in the country’s ability to meaningfully support newcomer integration. Intermediate-level English learners, many of whom are professionals, parents, and permanent residents, will now face diminished access to the language education needed for workplace communication, career advancement, academic upgrading, and civic participation. This keynote responds to that gap by exploring how we might reimagine the future of language learning in a time of shrinking public infrastructure. Drawing from my work at the intersection of language education and generative AI, I argue that while formal pathways are narrowing, informal and self-directed learning opportunities are expanding—with the right supports. I will showcase how generative AI can act as a bridge, offering low-cost, context-sensitive, and adaptive learning support for intermediate learners. But AI alone is not enough. This session emphasizes the educator’s role in shaping these tools ethically and pedagogically, so they serve human dignity and learner agency. As ESL instructors, program designers, and advocates, we are called not only to adapt but to lead. This moment demands we “teach forward”—to connect new technologies with enduring values, to empower learners beyond classroom walls, and to reimagine language learning as a shared project of equity, inclusion, and possibility.

Dr. Rekiyat (Gifty) Siyaka

Dr. Rekiyat (Gifty) Siyaka is currently a faculty member and educational developer at Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) where she has held multiple roles since 2015. She earned her PhD in education from the University of Alberta in 2022 and prior to that, completed a Master’s degree in Applied Linguistics and English Language Teaching from the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom.

Gifty has worked extensively in the TESL field in the last 20 years as an ESL instructor, curriculum lead on multiple institutional collaborations, ESL program manager, and teacher educator. Keenly passionate about ESL teaching and research, her interdisciplinary research interests in TESL and education span the areas of curriculum theory and philosophy, intercultural communication competence, ESL curriculum design, critical theory, inclusive teaching practices in ESL curricula, hermeneutics and African indigenous philosophies.

Over the years, her research and teaching practice has asked an overarching question: How might we reimagine ESL classrooms and curricula as sites of inclusion and what does inclusion look like in complex, ever-changing ESL classroom spaces? Drawing from research in intercultural communication competence, second language acquisition, anti-racist pedagogy, critical theory, and African indigenous wisdom philosophies, Gifty’s most notable contribution to ESL research has been the unique interdisciplinary and ethical lens she brings to asking difficult questions about teaching ESL in Canada. Her ground-breaking PhD research lays out a relational and ethical model for approaching intercultural and inclusive ESL pedagogy and curriculum design. This relational approach to inclusion and diversity has informed the unique lens she also brings to the field of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI). Gifty is a Canadian Certified Inclusion Professional (CCIP).

At SAIT, she leads faculty development efforts in the areas of belonging and accessibility for learners, culturally responsive teaching, and inclusive teaching considerations for teaching in linguistically and culturally diverse classrooms. She also designs and delivers faculty development training in the areas of intercultural communication.

Gifty serves on multiple boards involved in providing advocacy for students and professionals who speak English as second or additional language. She is currently a board director at the Alberta International Medical Graduates Association (AIMGA) where she provides advocacy and language support for internationally trained medical graduates who speak English as second or additional language.

Keynote Session: Reimagining ESL Pedagogy: A Relational Framework for Inclusion, Belonging, and Community in Difficult Times.

In the last decade, ESL educators have both embraced and practiced principles of inclusive teaching in curricula and pedagogy, but in the face of current and future transitions, how might we further expand our thinking about an inclusive ESL pedagogy to appropriately respond to emerging learner needs and reality? What might teaching for the future look like in times where the present is so constantly disrupted? These times call for a reflection about our place as inclusive practitioners and how we might leverage pedagogical practices to promote belonging in times of profound and widespread sense of displacement for both learners and educators.

This keynote session will explore an alternative framework for thinking about and conceptualizing inclusion in the ESL classroom by sharing an ethical and relational approach for inclusive teaching. Drawing insights from an interdisciplinary lens informed by indigenous African philosophies, critical theory, and research in intercultural communication competence, this session invites us to a relational understanding of inclusive teaching that is guided by our ethical obligations to others, and it theorizes a relational ethics of intercultural communication for ESL curriculum and instruction. Such a relational approach to inclusive teaching in the ESL classroom makes room for contemplating the complexities of ESL learner needs and experiences in current times and to reimagine a future state for our ESL pedagogy that is both inclusive and regenerative.

The concluding part of this session will tease out a call for hope in these times and offer wisdom approaches for combating grammars of despair. It will also explore strategies for building belonging, connection, and community for both educators and learners for an ethically sustainable inclusive ESL curriculum and pedagogy.