Page 32 - Languages Victoria December 2019

Languages Victoria
Sean Pratt, General Committee Member
Sean has taught in both government and private schools since 2001 before receiving a Monbukagakusho Scholarship in 2007 and spending two further years in Japan. On his return to Australia, Sean taught French and Japanese at Haileybury College’s Castlefield Campus before moving to Ivanhoe Grammar in 2012 where he taught IB SL Japanese B, VCE and also primary school Japanese. He is currently Languages Learner Leader at Parade College. Sean has been a VCE Oral
Assessor on multiple occasions since 2005, was a member of the second LOTEHat program, and was recently involved in a case study in the Melbourne University Research Paper ‘Different Countries different approaches to teaching and learning’. He co-presented at the JLTAV Conference in 2006 and 2018 and has more recently contributed to projects such as the development and review of online languages testing materials for the Australian Council of Educational Research as well as contributing, as a languages expert, to a webinar highlighting links to the Victorian Curriculum and showcasing how teachers could work with their student both before and after seeing a Japanese film included in the Melbourne International Film Festival Schools Program.
Dr. Felix Siddell, General Committee Member
Felix is currently an Education Officer (Languages) at the Catholic Education Office Sale. He has taught secondary Italian courses in Catholic, Independent and Government schools. From 2006 to 2013 he was the Network Leader for Italian teachers in Catholic schools in the north-western suburbs of Melbourne. He successfully completed the LOTEHAT3 program in 2012. He spent three years in Milan,
where he coordinated the English language component of tertiary ICT courses. Following completion of a PhD in Italian Literature in 1996, he taught Italian language and literature at both the University of Melbourne and Monash University. A Research Affiliate at Monash University, his research interests range from spatial constructs in Italian literature to language pedagogy and theories of translation. He has published a book and numerous articles in the area of Italian Studies and has presented at international conferences in Australia, Italy, the Netherlands and Singapore. His ongoing commitment to positive outcomes in the languages classroom is demonstrated by his contributions to the writing and review of the Australian Curriculum and to the development of languages assessment materials for VCAA and ACER.
Page 32 Volume 23 Number 2