Because of her teaching and administrative experience, Dr. Lisa McClure, associate professor of rhetoric and composition, recently served as the keynote speaker at the VIII National Conference for Teachers of English in Honduras.

The American Embassy-sponsored conference, held from Aug. 5-17 in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, is held every other year to provide university and high school teachers with ongoing training in teaching English as a second language.

Ronda Dively, associate professor of rhetoric and composition, said organizers sought McClure’s help with the conference because of her success at SIU. Dively said McClure has helped many international students succeed in the English department, while also instructing them on different teaching techniques.

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“She has developed quite a reputation as an excellent innovative educator,” Dively said. “And students who have experienced her course would certainly back that up.”

Dively said she believes that McClure’s connections with students and faculty in the English department are the reason she was chosen by the embassy to have this high honor of traveling and representing the university and representing the country.

McClure said learning English is important for the people of Honduras in order for them to receive more education. This, McClure said, will then lead to better jobs.

Part of McClure’s goal included the incorporation of technology in ESL classes.

“I admire the teachers in Honduras,” McClure said. “There are some classrooms that don’t even have chairs and the teachers are doing everything possible to help their students learn, regardless of what they have or don’t have.”

She said she thought it was important the people learned English so they would have a greater opportunity to succeed in both their native country and around the world.

Jennifer Hewerdine, a Ph.D. student from Murphysboro studying rhetoric and composition, lauded McClure’s accomplishments. “McClure is a fabulous teacher in terms of pedagogy, and she is a great mentor for students who are learning to teach,” she said.

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McClure said she believes teaching and learning are always valuable and she believes she made an impact on the people attending the conference and their future students. While she taught several different workshops, many integrated technology in the classroom, including two titled “Changing Learning Environments” and “Inquiry-Based Learning and Student-Centered Classrooms.”

“While opportunities are not the same because many people do not have access to the latest technologies, our students live in the same world,” McClure said. “As educators, we must keep in mind that regardless of how little or how much we have, we must do the best for all of our students in preparing them for a world that is driven by technology.”