Prince Sultan University’s teaching and learning center has announced it will be hosting the first English language and translation forum this week.

The forum will be held on April 24-25 in Riyadh and includes workshops, organizational exhibitions, platform presentations and various keynote speaker sessions.

“Our aim in hosting this forum is to establish self-sustaining and high caliber education. We will discuss the best practices for enhancing the quality of the English language education in the Middle East,” Amena Shahid, associate director of the teaching and learning center at Prince Sultan University, told Arab News.

She said the forum also seeks to actively engage higher education institutions, both from within and outside the Kingdom in taking steps to provide an innovative, high quality and inclusive English language teaching and learning experience. “We also want to establish dialogue between educators and professionals on the local, regional and international levels to better understand the requisites for learning English and to be able to provide international standards of teaching,” Shahid said.

The forum will discuss such issues as quality assurance and standards in language teaching, applied linguistics training, English language training management and methodology, and means of accurately translating English and Arabic text. A number of educators from international, regional and local universities have been invited to attend and speak at the event including US-based University of Maryland-Baltimore County, Pearson Institute of the Netherlands, University of Warsaw, the American University of Sharjah and Zayed University. In addition, faculty members from King Saud University, KFUPM, Taif University, Tabuk University, King Abdulaziz University, as well as the British Council, Ertiyad Training and Taibah University will be attending the event from within the Kingdom.

“The event is an effort to shed light on how language learning plays a vital role in the economy and growth of our nation. Universities are vital institutes as they graduate the future leaders and pioneers in the country,” Shahid concluded.