Lights! Camera! Action and the Brain

Maher Bahloul is the Director and General Manager of an Education Through Arts Institute – Maher Language Institute (MLI) – which he founded in 2007 in Paris, France. MLI has been holding language sessions and promoting learning through filmmaking (www.maher-language-institute.com). Dr Bahloul holds a PhD in Linguistics from Cornell University, New York, USA, and a Masters’ degree from the Sorbonne University, Paris III, France. He has taught in a number of graduate and undergraduate programs in the United States, North Africa, and the Middle East. He has also presented papers and conducted workshops in international conferences such as TESOL, ALS, INTED, IVACS, IATEFL. At MLI, he focuses on promoting language learning through bilingual video-project productions, especially films. Dr Bahloul is currently an Associate Professor of English and Linguistics at the American University of Sharjah. See www.bahloul.com for more information.

Carolyn Graham is the creator of Jazz Chants, which connect the rhythm of spoken American English to the beat of jazz. She developed the technique of jazz chanting during her twenty-five years of teaching ESL in the American Language Institute of New York University. She has also taught at Harvard University and has conducted workshops in the NYU School of Education, Columbia Teachers College in New York and Tokyo, and elsewhere throughout the world. She has also worked with regular and special needs learners. Ms Graham is the author of numerous Jazz Chants books, all published by Oxford University Press. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkKLmLNl2hs for more on Carolyn.