LTS faculty member Trish Pashby spent the winter holidays conducting English teacher training workshops in Lahore, Pakistan.

Tell us about your trip to Pakistan. What exactly were you doing there?

I received a grant from the American Institute of Pakistan Studies (AIPS) http://www.pakistanstudies-aips.org/ to present a series of workshops for faculty at a university in Pakistan over a period of three weeks. They sent me to University of Education (UE) http://ue.edu.pk/ in Lahore to work with the English Department at their Township campus, which turned out to be fantastic. The administrators and faculty there were incredibly kind and really fun. They gave me an office, made sure I had everything I needed, and fed me delicious lunches every day. I met with some faculty one-on-one to discuss their professional development ideas and classroom practices—which were all very interesting and impressive. The workshops were attended by faculty (and some students) from Township campus as well as instructors from other UE campuses in Lahore and as far away as Vehari and Multan.  Sessions included “Professional Development for Very Busy Instructors” “Multimodal Learning” and “Creating Balanced Lessons” and were designed to be as interactive as possible. The participants were lively, experienced, and full of great ideas. I loved the way they were willing to engage in all kinds of activities and admired their dedication to their students and academic careers. I learned a tremendous amount from all of them.

While I was there, the university hosted their International Conference on English Literature, Linguistics and Teaching (ICELLT 2018), which featured speakers from all over Pakistan and the world. It was a very exciting three days of amazing sessions and plenty of socializing. I was happy to give a keynote talk (“Revisiting Motivation in Language Learning”), attend dozens of presentations, and get to know attendees during the tea breaks, lunches and the lovely “Culture Night” event, where a number of UE English teachers stepped up to the microphone to sing beautiful songs from their provinces.

AIPS also sent me on a quick trip to Islamabad to participate in the International Student Conference and Expo at a session titled “Student-Centric Learning.” What a treat to meet this group of students from universities all over Pakistan and hear about their classroom experiences and preferences.

You were in Pakistan before, right?

Yes, I traveled to Pakistan three times before as part of a U.S. State Department partnership grant University of Oregon had with Karakoram International University up in Gilgit, all really wonderful adventures. But this was my first trip to Lahore, which was very different from the cities of Islamabad and Gilgit. Lahore was bursting at the seams with energy: The streets were packed with cars, motorcycles, donkeys (pulling carts), pedestrians. The city has a great vibe, friendly people, and fabulous food.

 

 Were you able to do much sightseeing on this trip?

Some! I spent a magical Sunday wandering through the Walled City (eating a traditional brunch at the fantastic Faqir Museum hosted by the owner, searching music shops for small instrument to use in my workshops), visited the incredible Badshahi Mosque, and then strolled around the historic Lahore Fort at sunset. I also took a lovely walk in Shalimar Gardens one afternoon and went to a really fun Rahat Fateh Ali Khan concert. Otherwise, I enjoyed exploring the little neighborhood where I stayed, with its parks and shops. I feel I’ve just started to get to know Lahore and will definitely have to return.