Greetings from the Suwon-Gyeonggi KOTESOL chapter! We hope that you are enjoying the changing of the seasons as much as we are. We will be holding our second fall workshop on Saturday, 10/25. The workshop will feature two speakers:
- Robert M. Kim: Approaches for Developing Reading Skills in an EFL Classroom
- Leonie Overbeek: Listening Tests: A Guessing Game.
Event Details:
The workshop will be held from 10~12 at Gyeongin National University of Education's Gyeonggi Campus in the Teacher-Education Center, Room 101 (please see http://koreatesol.org/DirectionsGyeonginGyeonggi for more detailed travel instructions). Attendance is free, and refreshments are provided. So please stop on by, meet some new people, and engage in some professional development!
Following the speakers' presentations, there will be an optional hiking event up to the nearby Sammaksa Temple on beautiful Gwanak mountain. The fall colors should make for a lovely hike. It takes roughly 45 minutes to reach the temple and is a relatively easy trek. If you are interested in joining the hike, please remember to wear suitable footwear.
Furthermore, as mentioned in our last workshop, chapter leadership spots are open for the positions of president, vice-president, and treasurer. Should you be interested in holding one of these positions, please send a message to the contact email noted above for further information.
Presenters and Presentations:
Robert M. Kim: Approaches for Developing Reading Skills in an EFL Classroom
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Abstract: Reading in another language can be difficult for all EFL learners regardless of age. Being unfamiliar with pronunciation, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, and even prior knowledge can create anxiety for students to take part in reading activities. Through implementing a whole range of strategies and approaches, reading in another language can be less daunting. From personal experience, Robert has applied a range of methods to foster reading skills for various age groups, such as choral reading for listening and repeating sentences, fluency exercises with a buddy reader, timed reading activities, vocabulary activities, prior knowledge questions, and comprehension questions that can help learners develop their own pace for their reading skills to develop over time. Robert will provide a demonstration by having the audience apply these methods through a sample reading activity. This workshop can be useful for elementary, middle school, high school, university, and adult populations; it can also be useful for a winter or summer English camp when teaching reading!
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Bio: Robert M. Kim is a second generation Korean-American who is currently teaching at Kyonggi University (Suwon Campus). He has a range of experiences teaching both in EFL and ESL settings in Korea and the United States respectively. In addition, he is currently the president of the Gyeonggi-Yongin Chapter. Robert has an MS TESOL degree from Hofstra University and an MA Liberal Studies degree and a BA History degree from SUNY Stony Brook.
Leonie Overbeek: Listening Tests: A Guessing Game.
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Abstract: The process of listening is a complex one, and is not something we need to teach, as most of our students already use the process in L1. What we do is assess and test how well they use those skills in L2. However, most standardized tests are nothing more than guessing games for most students for a variety of reasons, not all of them related to what is tested or how. In this talk the physiological barriers to listening effectively, as well as the barriers placed by the format the test is delivered in are explored and discussed, and some suggestions are made about what to avoid. The results of a listening test conducted with 147 middle school students are also presented and discussed.
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Bio: Leonie Overbeek holds qualifications in Analytical Chemistry and Chemical Engineering from the University of Johannesburg, an M.Phil in Value and Policy Studies (organizational communication) from Stellenbosch University and a TESOL certificate from Boston Language College, where she also taught the TESOL certificate for two years. She has been teaching at the middle school level in South Korea for seven years and feels that she has learned as much from her students as they have learned from her. She believes you are never too old to learn, never too young to be denied an opportunity, and never above learning something new.
