Gwangju-Jeonnam KOTESOL May Chapter Meeting
Time: Saturday, May 18, 2013, 1:30 p.m.
Place: Chosun University (Gwangju) Main Building (본관), Room 5210, (5F)
Directions to Venue: http://koreatesol.org/content/chapter-meeting-venue-getting-chosun-unive...
Schedule
1:30 pm: Sign-in and Meet-and-Greet (Admission: No charge)
1:50 pm: Opening Announcements
2:00 pm: PRESENTATION 1
It’s All in the Technique: Giving Instructions in the EFL Classroom
Catherine Peck (Chonnam National University)
2:45 pm: Refreshment Break
3:00 pm: PRESENTATION 2
Ten Tech Tools Every Teacher Should Know About
Lindsay Herron (Gwangju National University of Education)
4:00 pm: Swap-Shop Session
Share your Teaching Ideas, Classroom Activities, and Language Games.
(Open to All Attendees. Handouts Welcomed.)
4:30 pm: Announcements / Drawing Prizes / Closing
(After-Meeting Dinner likely. "Dutch.")
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Presentation Abstracts and Presenter's Biographical Sketches
It’s All in the Technique: Giving Instructions in the EFL Classroom
By Catherine Peck
Trying something new in the classroom breaks routine, keeps learners engaged, energizes a class, and extends a teacher’s resource bank. Yet all too often, teachers return from a lesson incorporating “something different” feeling disappointed and laying blame; the students “didn’t get it” or “were confused” and the activity “didn’t work” or “was too hard.”
The success or failure of language learning tasks or games – especially those that are “new” and potentially more engaging for students than “routine” activities – depend first and foremost on a teacher establishing clear guidelines, rules, and procedures, and then checking that students know both what to do and how to do it before a task gets underway. Unfortunately, classroom instructions are the Achilles’ heel of many, otherwise talented, teachers. The demands of planning lessons, preparing materials, and correcting homework take precedence between classes, while during a class, our focus may be encouraging confidence, conveying meaning, or simply managing errant student behavior. Taking time out to plan task instructions before a class and systematically deliver them midway through a lesson all too often slips to the end of a long list of demands on teacher attention.
Lack of attention to this aspect of classroom practice is problematic, however, as poor instructions can undermine learner confidence and enjoyment (“I don’t understand what my teacher is saying”), task achievement (“I didn’t understand what to do or how to do it”), and teacher motivation to innovate (“I’m never trying that again”) or use English more often in the classroom (“It’s better to use Korean to explain this”).
This workshop identifies some common problems and “teacher errors” in giving instructions, and outlines simple techniques for improvement and success. It is “hands-on” and asks participants to actively identify and implement strategies for establishing a range of classroom tasks effectively.
A Note on Proficiency
In a period in which “Teaching English through English” is becoming increasingly common in EFL contexts such as Korea, an assumption is often made that our ability to give clear instructions is directly related to our language proficiency (and “native speakers” will thus have a natural advantage). In fact, native-like proficiency can often prove to be a handicap; “native” teachers are frequently guilty of speaking too quickly, using overly complex language, giving too much information, not sequencing instructions well, assuming knowledge, and neglecting to check their students’ understanding. Successful communication in EFL classrooms relies far more on technique than on proficiency, which is why established TESOL training programs for “native speakers” incorporate workshops on this theme.
THE PRESENTER
Catherine Peck is a TESOL trainer and Invited Professor in the Department of English Education at Chonnam National University, where she has worked since 2007. She studied, taught, and trained in Ireland and Spain before moving to Korea, and currently teaches ELT methodology and academic writing courses. She holds a TESOL certificate (RELSA Ireland), a Cambridge ESOL Diploma in teaching English to Adults (DELTA), and a Master of Applied Linguistics/TESOL (Macquarie), and is currently a PhD candidate in the Department of Linguistics (Intercultural Communication) at Macquarie University, Australia. She has previously presented at KOTESOL, KATE, and CamTESOL conferences.
----------
Ten Tech Tools Every Teacher Should Know About
By Lindsay Herron
The online world is a wild and wonderful place! It can be a little too wonderful, though. With vast numbers of websites and online tools available, it’s easy for an educator to get overwhelmed, and it’s time-consuming to separate the potentially useful from the attractive but useless. This presentation will introduce ten free online tools guaranteed to make an educator’s life easier, without any software installation.
- Google Drive (http://drive.google.com). Once you figure out how to use it, Google Drive is a flexible tool and an amazing time-saver. You can collect and organize student information; create, share, and grade quizzes; create polls and surveys with real-time results and data visualization options; collaborate with colleagues; initiate (and monitor) student collaborations; and more.
- Socrative (http://socrative.com). A simple way to create in-class self-checks or conduct basic polls, Socrative.com features live results and immediate feedback. (To run self-checks at home or integrate graphics, ProProfs.com is a solid alternative.)
- ClassDojo (http://www.classdojo.com). This fun, free, adorable behavior management system is perfect for kindergarten through university students. Also available as a mobile app.
- Today’s Meet (http://todaysmeet.com). Create a backchannel, sneakily incorporate writing into class, let students ask and answer questions while you talk, or check their grammar using this online chatroom.
- Puzzlemaker (http://puzzlemaker.com). For making crossword puzzles, word searches, cryptograms, and more, Discovery Education’s Puzzlemaker can’t be beat.
- QR Stuff (http://www.qrstuff.com). An easy way to generate QR codes that can be scanned to reveal secret messages, audio recordings, videos, websites.
- Padlet (http://padlet.com). A great way to share ideas via a collaborative online sticky-note board.
- Vocaroo (http://vocaroo.com/). Super-easy online voice recording.
- Amara (http://www.amara.org/en; formerly UniversalSubtitles.org). Find videos with subtitles, or add subtitles yourself. You can upload your own video or use one from YouTube.
- Readlists (http://readlists.com). Bundle online articles into a single ebook, then send it to your ebook reader or share it with others.
THE PRESENTER
Lindsay Herron has been a visiting professor at Gwangju Natl. University of Education in Gwangju since 2008. Prior to that, she taught English on a Fulbright grant at Seogwipo High School in Jeju-do. She has a master’s degree in Cinema Studies from New York Univ., bachelor’s degrees in English and Psychology from Swarth-more College, a CELTA, and the CELTA YL-Extension. She is currently working on a master’s in Literacy, Culture, and Language Ed. from Indiana University-Bloomington.
