What happened at the 3rd Annual CLIC Talk Series

The 3rd annual edition of the CLIC Talk Series held on April 21st, 2023, was a huge success! The conference was organized by the CLIC Student Group under the supervision of English instructors Jaime Demperio and Martyna Kozlowska.  

CLIC TALK SERIES 2023

This year’s audience was our largest so far! We hosted well over 100 participants–teachers, students, our families and friends–who gathered to listen to inspiring presentations from UQAM English learners about their achievements and struggles, insights and journeys. Presenters shared their experiences candidly. Some of the perspectives shared included: living (and studying) with ADHD; the challenge of teaching English in Quebec as a non-native speaker; and the advantages of working with others who inspire and represent marginalized people. 

Professor Luis Javier Penton Herrera was invited from Akademia Ekonomiczno-Humanistyczna w Warszawie, Poland to deliver the keynote presentation. Luis shared his personal journey of identity, emotions, and lifelong language learning. His is a story that validates the experiences of many language learners and highlights our uniqueness and many commonalities. 

As CLIC Project members, we also contributed to the day with our own unique presentation. First, we individually interviewed someone in our community who we wanted to learn more about, then we synthesized these interviews into one presentation entitled, “Voices from our Community”. Hopefully our presentation encouraged everyone to reflect on concepts and words that seem so common but can be understood so differently. What does it mean to ‘have a voice’? What is ‘community’ and ‘culture’? The purpose of our enquiries was to delve into others’ truths and to reflect upon how these truths overlap (or not) with our own. 

Organizing this annual conference for the CLIC Project was as a rich experience for the group. We hope that the positive energy and mutual support that we feel during events like this will carry us all forward as we continue to build a supportive community of second language speakers at UQAM! 

We look forward to the next edition of the Speaker Series in April 2024!

In the meantime, if you are interested in learning more about The CLIC Project and its mission, visit our homepage.