Gwangju-Jeonnam KOTESOL December Chapter Meeting
Time: Saturday, November 9, 2013, 1:30 p.m.
Place: Chosun University (Gwangju), Main Building (본관), Room 4211.
Schedule
1:30 pm: Sign-in and Meet-and-Greet
(Admission is free. Future membership is welcomed.)
2:00 pm: PRESENTATION 1
Approaches to Listening: Pre-text to Post-text
Stafford Lumsden (Sookmyung Women's University, Seoul; Seoul Chapter)
2:45 pm: Refreshment Break
3:00 pm: PRESENTATION 2
Experiencing Culture: The 5th Skill
Tory Thorkelson (Hanyang University, Seoul; Seoul Chapter)
4:00 pm: Swap-Shop Session
Share your Teaching Ideas, Classroom Activities, and ELT Games, Books, etc.
(Open to All Attendees. Handouts welcomed.)
4:30 pm: Announcements / Drawing for Door Prizes / Closing
YEAR-END DINNER
6:30 - 9:30: GIC (Jeon-il Bldg., Downtown)
Dinner Details at:
http://koreatesol.org/content/gwangju-jeonnam-kotesol-year-end-dinner
Reserve a seat; get a discount by registering early online:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1rtU6q-hVmdF2JQr0fQdF6PYsGKsIERNrGiN6Sr2...
*** 11:00 AM: Reflective Practice SIG Session. Cafe Natalie (near Chosun University main entrance).
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Presentation Summaries and
Presenter Bio-sketches
A Framework for Promoting Listening: Pre-During-Post
Stafford Lumsden
The Presentation
Listening is the first language skill that we all develop, and just as in language acquisition, having L2 learners pay attention to listening prepares them for speaking and reading. We need to be able to hear a word before we can say it, we need to be able to say a word before we can read it, and we need to be able to read a word before we can write it. So if our learners can't hear it...they can't say it!
This presentation will look at the steps teachers need to take to promote listening with their students, with a focus on young learner strategies especially. It will examine the advantages and disadvantages of using live, versus recorded, listening texts and look at the benefits of doing listening tasks in class as a whole.
The second half of the presentation will consider a framework for teaching listening, the so-called "Pre-During-Post" lesson sequence, and examine its constituent parts, as well as the possible pitfalls teachers need to be aware of when delivering this kind of lesson.
Overall the Pre-During-Post lesson sequence is designed to help students be successful in their listening, providing them with plenty of support and scaffolding before, at the time of, and after encountering listening texts.
The Presenter
Stafford Lumsden (MA TESOL) is an instructor in the YL TESOL program at Sookmyung Women's University where he delivers courses on curriculum design and lesson planning, and approaches to teaching young learners. Stafford is currently serving his second term as president of the Seoul Chapter of Korea TESOL and has served on past KOTESOL International Conference committees.
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Experiencing Culture: The 5th Skill
Tory Thorkelson
The Presentation
While teaching and learning about culture are often discussed and debated by those in Korea, we may take for granted that we are either alone and isolated in dealing with living and working in a cross-cultural environment or learn to support and share with others our positive and negative experiences. Cultural awareness and identity affect everything we do and who we are. They need to be faced, discussed, and made a part of who we are and what we do, or they will become a problem for us in our interactions with our colleagues and the ever-increasing numbers of bi-cultural or international students who are in our classrooms. Here are a few of my tips for dealing with "culture."
1) Culture is neither easy to define nor easy to adjust to for everyone. All Canadians are not the same (and do not have the same experiences) just as all Koreans are not the same (Jeju people are not the same as Gwangju or Seoul people, for example).
2) Bi-cultural people are made, not born. Babies have no preconceptions about any race or language; they will learn what we teach them – consciously and unconsciously. So, too, will your students and colleagues. What you say and do will influence not only your relationships with them but their impressions of every member of your culture and every future teacher they meet.
3) Awareness and open communication are the best tools we have to combat cross-cultural misunderstandings. Eastern and Western cultures are quite different in their communication styles and expectations, and so, both groups need to be extra careful to preempt potential conflicts before they become full blown problems.
4) Even the most comfortable bi-cultural individual has a bad day once in a while – be ready for it and understand. Bennett 1998 and Trifonovitch 1980, for example, give us frameworks to understand this better.
5) No theory can explain every person’s experience, but reading a few good books based on theory and bi-cultural people’s experiences can certainly help. The Third Culture Kids literature is especially helpful here in my opinion.
6) No one’s culture is inherently “right” or “wrong” – they are just different. This is what makes traveling and living abroad so fascinating and, at times, frustrating. Learn from your mistakes and interactions with others, and apply those lessons to future interactions
7) A sense of humor is essential. You have to be able to laugh at yourself before you can laugh at others or learn from your mistakes (of which there will be many!).
8) Building a sense of “home” and “community” wherever you are is crucial. KOTESOL is one place to do this, but any like-minded group of people will do.
9) “Foreigner” is NEVER a positive word in any language I have dealt with – we are all out of place somewhere. Making an all new place for yourself is never an easy task and takes courage.
While this list is not exhaustive, it is a summary of the tools and ideas that I have used to successfully adjust to life in a variety of places. I hope they are equally useful for each of you as well.
The presentation will be divided into 3 parts:
Part 1: Participants will take a “Cultural Awareness Quiz” after which we will discuss the answers. Then, I will show some definitions of “culture” and summarize a couple of the models I favor, illustrating the problems people face when encountering or living in a different culture.
Part 2: I will hand out a sheet of “Cultural Quandries” that I have based on situations that I, or other people I know, have encountered during their time in Korea. Groups will discuss and come up with their own solutions, and share these with the other groups.
Part 3: In closing, I will briefly provide some conclusions and advice, based on my knowledge and experience of living abroad, as well as sharing some of the references that have kept me “sane” during my time overseas.
The Presenter
Tory S. Thorkelson (M.Ed in TESL/TEFL) is a proud Canadian active in KOTESOL since 1998. He was the President of KOTESOL's Seoul Chapter (2004-6), KTT Coordinator, and National KOTESOL President (2008-09). He was Assistant Professor/Research Coordinator for Hanyang University’s PEEC until 2007 when he moved to the English Language and Literature Department. He has co-authored several research articles and three textbooks. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 2009. He is also featured in "Who's Who around the World" and “Who’s Who in Asia." He is a doctoral candidate in Middlesex University’s Doctorate of Professional Studies program and his thesis work (ABD) compares ATEK and KOTESOL as ELT organisations in the Korean context.
