Folks, the Gyonggi-Yongin Chapter has a conference scheduled for November 9, 2013 from 12PM-6PM (not from 1PM to 6PM as originally advertised)at Kangnam University.The theme of the conference will focus on practical applications for the classroom.
Payment
5,000 won (Registered KOTESOL members)
10,000 won (Nonregistered KOTESOL members)
*** Students are admitted for free.
*** No need for pre-registration; you pay at the registartion desk.
*** As of now the rooms have not been placed for the plenary and presentations. As soon as
the rooms are anounced they will be posted on the website.
12:00PM-1:00PM:Registration and Professional Networking Time
Plenary (1:05-1:55)
Everyone on Task: A Multilevel, Humanistic Approach
Andrew Finch
Kyungpook National University
This presentation has two aims. The first of these is to offer access to a range of practical classroom activities, as in the title of this conference. These activities were designed for the Korean EFL context and culture and are applicable to students of all ages. Their focus is on student centered group work, with an emphasis on discovery learning. The second aim is to offer an autonomous perspective to classroom techniques, showing that cognitive, affective, social, and linguistic goals can be achieved through a facilitative, self-directed, non-threatening approach. In this context, it is not so much the activities that stimulate confidence, motivation, and independence, but the way in which they are approached. For this reason, Van Lier’s (2000) concept of learning affordances is appropriate. According to this idea, every student has unique learning needs. Even in streamed classes, there is typically a range of proficiencies and learning styles, so that any textbook or activity will be unable to meet the needs and preferences of everyone. However, if we see the activities as learning affordances (opportunities), we can allow students to take what they need out of the activities, instead of prescribing what they should learn. This approach makes teaching easier, and learning more autonomous and meaningful, though it means getting away from the idea that everyone should study the same thing at the same time. Rather, we allow the students to learn whatever is appropriate for their learning situation. This can involve designing multilevel, multitask learning activities on the one hand, but it can also mean allowing the students to work through a sequence of related activities at their own speed, learning whatever is appropriate for them at this stage. The presentation will explore some sequences of speaking/writing activities for university Freshman students, showing how this approach might be realized in practice.
2:00-2:50 Concurrent Presentations
Motivating Young Language Learners through Cooperative Learning
Karen Rooney
Jeong Sang Language School (JLS Private Academy)
As language learning is a social activity, it is essential for the teacher to create a comfortable environment for the students in which they are not afraid to communicate and strong group cohesion can occur (Nunan, 2010). Therefore, the cooperative learning (CL) approach, a teaching method described as one of the “greatest success stories in the history of educational research” (Slavin, Hurley and Chamberlain, 2003:177), would be an effective teaching method for creating and improving motivation levels in the Young English Language Learner (YELL) environment.
This presentation will look at various ways in which the YELL teacher can use the CL approach effectively. It will explore the different elements of CL such as grouping the students, group activities, and group rewards, which are all related to motivation levels in the classroom.
Creating a Classroom Blog
Doria Garms-Sotelo
Freelance writer
Why have a classroom blog?
The students feel like they are getting their own work published. Students will learn valuable skills such as researching, writing, and learning more about a hobby or discovering a new one. Students can also use this opportunity to write a journal and get feedback from other students or people around the world. Students can also use this as another way to get to know their classmates and post pictures of their hometown or an adventure they went on.
Before students blog
Before the blog is implemented, students must be trained on issues regarding access,
privacy, security, and free expression. Once you post something on the web, it is open for the world to see.
How this workshop would be set up
First, the participant will develop a “bare bone” website and then they will break off into groups. One participant will be the teacher and the others will be the “users”. Everyone will be able to take turns.
Goal at the end of this presentation
By the end of the presentation, each participant should have a bare boned blog with a couple of users.
Collaborative word documents for error correction
Simon Durrant
Gwacheon city government center (Adult teaching)
Sangmyung university (Lecturer)
The presentation will be split into 3 parts, the first will be a summary of the error correction method, a brief history of how it was developed and an examination into the types of lesson in which it can be incorporated.
The second part will detail the various structures and layouts that can be used within the method and an analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of each, with a particular emphasis on engaging the more reserved students and addressing the student/teacher talking time balance .
The third will be a hands on demonstration with direct audience participation through phones, tablets and laptop computers showing the error correction method applied to real life examples from students.
3:00-3:50 Concurrent Presentations
Teaching English Composition: Developing an Appropriate Curriculum for Korea
David Kim
Kangnam University
Are you on the verge of burning out from correcting the endless errors in your student writings? Writing is perceived as a singleunitary process. This is a misperceptio. Writing involved the recruitment of many discrete component processes. For example, selecting the right word (vocabulary); embedding the right words in the right order in a sentence (grammar); considering the inter-relation of ideas within larger units of the composition (e.g., paragraph, sub-sections, overall composition; coherence and continuity), even to some extent, formatting of documents, among others. In this presentation an outline of some of the component processes involved in writing will be examined. Also, examples of practice exercises for practicing the separate component processes will be provided.
Approaches For Developing Reading Skills in an EFL Classroom
Robert Kim
Kyonggi University (Suwon Campus)
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 can help learners develop their own pace for their reading skills to develop over time. He will provide a demonstration activity by having the audience apply these methods through a sample reading activity.
Journaling for Professional Growth: Justification and Potential Avenues
Christopher Miller
Busan Seo Joong Hakkyo (Middle School)
Various forms of reflective practice have a rich history in TESOL. In this presentation the presenter will briefly explain the logic and value of journaling, with an especial emphasis on the metacognitive benefits which often result from journaling. Additionally, the presenter will address Ferrell’s framework concerning “traits of reflective/analytical development.” Through a mixture of academic research and personal reflection participants will be encouraged to either begin journaling or extend upon pre-existing practice.
4:00-4:50 Concurrent Presentations
The Fallacy of Fun
Leonie Overbeek
Seosin & Hwado Middle Schools
There’s an idea out there, an idea that has respectable roots, but is nevertheless a total fallacy. The idea is that if students have fun in the classroom they'll learn more, be better behaved, and work harder at acquiring a new language.
In the name of this 'fun', teachers are given tips and tricks about how to achieve it, and in many cases are judged on how well they provided it. Curriculum books are produced with graphics designed to give a sense of 'fun'. Students, at least in Korea, and their parents, have come to expect 'fun' in the ESL/EFL classes, at least from the native teacher.
But 'fun' is not had when working. Nor is 'fun' had during planned activities in which people have to take part. Note the 'have to'. When someone is coerced into something, and has no choice in the matter, fun will never be present. By its very definition, fun is something you have when you have chosen to do something that you enjoy very much, that is unregulated by anyone else, and that is outside the normal routine.
In other words, when do students have fun in class? When they can annoy the teacher, when they can disrupt the lesson, when the extraordinary happens or is instigated by them. Yet we still believe we want them to have fun in class.
What we, as teachers and educators really want, is for them to engage with the material, to find enjoyment in a task well done, to be relaxed and receptive to new ideas and thoughts. And that depends much more on the content we present than the method we use to present it, since content is what keeps attention, engages the mind and stimulates creativity.
In this presentation the origins of the idea of 'fun' in class will be explored to determine what was really the intention of authors advocating this, the ideas for 'fun'-filled activities will be explored for content and amount of engagement for students, and finally some ideas about how to design activities, including games, for effective engagement in the ESL/EFL class will be discussed.
Increasing Students’ Spoken Language Production with Classroom English
Jessica Magnusson
Gwangju National University of Education
Many Language Instructors of young learners have a language focus in mind for each lesson that is determined by their teaching plans, textbooks, or their curriculum. The language focus of one class period could be colors, shapes, action verbs, animal names, etc. What about all the “other” language that students and teachers use during class time? This “other” language has been loosely referred to as “Classroom English”.
I listen to what my students say to me and to each other (in Korean) day after day, class after class. Questions (in Korean) such as “Can I have a ___________?”, “Can I borrow a___________? , and “May I go to the bathroom?” often come up. It is beneficial for students to learn how to ask these questions in English as well as other useful expressions. In addition, students need to be continually reminded and encouraged to use their “Classroom English” for real communication.
This presentation will discuss some ways to encourage students and teachers to use more “Classroom English” alongside the focus language in a natural communicative manner.
Finding the Hero in the Young Student While Embracing the Dark Side
Amanda Maitland
Chonbuk National University
This workshop aims at applying soft toy theory at the level of “Middle and High School” although many of the underlying theory, themes and activities could also support adult literacy events. The workshop will add a socio-psychological goal to the other goals that underlie communicative language teaching. The aim is to present the soft toy and psychological theories and connect them to popular themes: such as, “fantasy”, “superhero” “traumatic world events” and “monster”. The foundations for the workshop arise from: Literacy, Play therapy, and Counseling. The workshop will demonstrate how learning through play can develop a dialogue between the teacher and student that can fuel creative thought, whilst raising general literacy standards. The workshop will also demonstrate how applying the soft toy theory and the popular themes can raise students’ self-esteem, encourage a greater complexity of thought and trigger discussions of morality and the general level of communicative ability in the classroom and out. The workshop will also connect the popular themes and “soft toy play” to the notion of story sacks. Story sacks are a means of supporting extensive reading by developing student’s comprehension of stories and readers whilst encouraging communicative/soft toy play and language reviewing activities. The themes and theories allows for the use of a rich variety of multi-media, memorabilia and realia. The activities discussed will aim generally at the young adult finding his hero or finding hero that resides inside, whilst allowing the young adult to embrace his darker side and test boundaries, to feel empowered and learn how to deal with the feeling of power.
5:00-6:00 Closing Ceremony and More Professional Networking Time
