New Batteries to Cross ELT Boundaries
Challenges
& Motivation
The 13th
ELT Conference
May 8th, 2010
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Program of the Day 8:30 Reception 9:00 Opening Ceremony British Ambassador: H.M.A - Frances Guy 9:10 Welcoming Speech ATEL President: Micheal El
Hajj 9:20 British Council
Director: Ms Barbara Hewitt 9:30 Honouring
Ex-Committee Members 9:45 Keynote Speaker
1: George Pickering 10:05 Keynote Speaker
2: Sheelagh Deller 10:25 Instant
Competition 10:30 Break 11:00-2:00 Parallel
Presentations & Workshops (ABSTRACTS) |
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11:00 - 11:45 George Pickering Getting off to the best possible start: the importance of beginnings 11:50 - 12:50 Claire Ross Recording and remembering vocabulary 12:55 - 1:55 Al - Sadig
Yahya Abdallah Ezza Writing Pedagogy at
Tertiary Level in the Arab World: Challenges and
Solutions |
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11:00 - 11:45 Sheelagh Deller De
- stressing the Teacher and the Learners.Taking the
Boring out of Repetition Exercices 11:50 - 12:40 Jemma Barzey Using Visual Aids to Stimulate and Motivate Young Learners 12:45 - 1:35 Mary Whisenhunt
& Sarah Martin Using Social Networking Sites to Inspire 1:40 - 2:10 Gareth Dewar Teacher
Development Interactive – ACPD Online Course for 21st Century ELT
Professionals |
11:00 - 11:30 Laure Salem Intercultural
communicative competence in EL education: A small -scale quantitative study
in a Lebanese university context 11:35 - 12:35 Gareth Dewar Getting More out of Coursebook Grammar Exercises 12:40 - 1:10 Intisar Ibrahim
al - Samarrai Using
Effective Pedagogical Techniques to Help Learners of a Second Language Develop
Language Skills in Mastery of the Target Language 1:10 - 2:10 David Sallay Teaching Students to Enter University Academic Culture |
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Parallel Presentations &
Workshops
A B
S T R A C T S
11:00 - 11:45 George Pickering - Pearson
Getting
off to the best possible start:
the importance of beginnings (workshop)
Abstract
You never get a
second chance to make a good first impression or to capture the attention of
learners at the beginning of a lesson or a talk. Most ELT professionals would
agree that it is important to start effectively any learning experience – a
conference, a talk or a lesson. In this seminar we will explore some of the
psychological principles, structures and options that underlie effective
openings. We will discuss the importance
of such factors as rapport, welcomes, humour, personalisation, realia, warmers,
stories, environment, and attention grabbing devices. We will also consider the
extent to which language teachers should apply principles from psychology in
their teaching.
11:50 - 12:50 Claire Ross – British Council
Recording
and remembering vocabulary (workshop)
Abstract
Have you ever
looked at what your students write in their notebooks? How much do you encourage your students to
take notes of new vocabulary? Do you
ever show them different ways of doing this?
This session
explores the value of using vocabulary notebooks in class. You will examine sample notebooks and see
real examples of what students write.
Together you will share current practice on how you encourage your
students to record new vocabulary and evaluate some techniques that you could
introduce in class. In particular we
will look at how the decision-making process promotes memorisation
and the value of recording ‘chunks’ of language as opposed to single words.
Aims
By the end of the
workshop, teachers will have
This session is
aimed at teachers of Cycle Two and above, although Cycle One teachers
will find some sections relevant.
12:55 - 1:55 Al - Sadig
Yahya Abdallah Ezza – King Saud University
Writing
Pedagogy at Tertiary Level in the Arab World :
Challenges
and Solutions (workshop)
Abstract
Writing is a most difficult skill to practise for both professional writers and students. To substantiate this claim, consider the
following statements made by two scholars concerning their own writing
obsession and the difficulty experienced by their students respectively.
According to Widdowson (1983:35) ‘writing is an
irksome activity and an ordeal to be avoided whenever possible’. Raimes (1983:258), on the other hand, observes that when
writing, her ESL students "….chew their pencils, shuffle their feet, sigh,
groan, and stretch…." - all are symptoms of the difficulties they
experience when they are required to perform a writing assignment. Thus, even in academic institutions where English is
spoken natively writing has been considered a matter of great importance.
For instance, not only did these institutions include a good deal of
writing courses in their curriculum, they also established writing centres to prepare learners for all types of writing
needed for academic and non-academic assignments. It is unfortunate that
communication skills have generally been neglected by a number of tertiary institutions in the Arab world. Close
examination of the English syllabus in a many
universities would reveal that English departments concentrate more on
content or knowledge courses and less on the skills courses as if
curriculum developers are of the Chomskyan
view reported in Widdowson
(1979:44) that "… once competence is acquired, performance will take
care of itself", bearing in mind that “competence” might not be acquired.
This paper, then is evaluative in nature. It attempts an assessment of the writing
syllabus in three universities in the Arab world in the light of
the findings of modern writing approaches/theories. The tertiary
institutions included in this survey are
11:00 - 11:45 Sheelagh Deller
– British Council
De -
stressing the Teacher and the
Learners.Taking the Boring out of
Repetition
Exercices (workshop)
Abstract
The sad truth is
that in order to learn and use new language we need a lot of repetition. The other sad truth is that this can be very
boring. This workshop will offer ways of
doing repetition exercises in a number of different ways to add variety and
overcome the boredom factor.
11:50 - 12:40 Jemma Barzey
– British Council
Using
Visual Aids to Stimulate and Motivate Young Learners (workshop)
Abstract
It has been scientifically demonstrated
that visual aids allow for greater learning in the Young Learner
classroom, and whilst school teachers are aware of the benefits, if time
and resources are scarce, visual aids may be a tool that they can
not or do not use to their best advantage.
Visuals help
to lead the learner in drawing out language from their own knowledge
and personal experiences. They encourage the learner to predict, infer, and
deduce information from a variety of sources and also help to bring the outside
world into the classroom, making the situation more realistic and therefore
easier for the learners to relate to. This will then lead to the learner using
appropriate language associated with the images and give them strategies to organise knowledge. Visual images can also be combined
with texts to make learners more likely to think about the process of
language.
The
workshop will look at how you can choose the right visual aid for your
learners, what should be taken into account when preparing visual aids and
some ideas on how to use them in the YL classroom.
12:45 - 1:35 Mary Whisenhunt
& Sarah Martin –
Using
Social Networking Sites to Inspire (workshop)
Abstract
Students and
teachers in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) programs are increasingly
interested in Computer-Mediated Instruction (CMI). However, incorporating
social networking sites into Arab classrooms, while being culturally sensitive,
is a challenge. In this workshop, the presenters will focus on demonstrating
clear methods and activities in which the cyber world can meet real world needs
resulting in heightened learning motivation.
CMI offers
modern, technologically engaged students the opportunity to produce authentic
language output in a familiar and non-threatening milieu. Using social
networking sites also offers teachers the opportunity to create a collaborative
community of learners by encouraging students to personalize the class
curriculum. Students are allowed to express themselves freely, with or without
teacher guidance, through a well-known medium. Furthermore, the popular CMI
tools of social networking sites provide students with a creative way to
practice language skills and themes included in the classroom curriculum.
Studies have suggested that the use of CMI tools and activities increases
participation of introverted students (Fotos & Iwabuchi, 1998) and enhances cross-cultural understanding (Kamhi-Stein & Browne-del Mar, 1997), in addition to
general improvement in English skills (Lam, 2000).
The presenters
will offer examples of activities using the four basic skills of reading,
writing, speaking, and listening. Classroom ready materials for specific
exercises regarding academic writing, critical text analysis, and real-world
oral communication will be provided. These lessons will integrate the academic
and non-academic English skills learned in the classroom with communication on
social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter.
Finally, assessment rubrics will be suggested that can be easily adapted to any
curriculum.
Workshop
attendees will also have the opportunity to generate activities and comment on
areas of concern regarding the implementation of social networking lessons in
their own student populations.
References
Fotos, S.,
& Iwabuchi, T. (1998, March). Using e-mail to build communicative
competence. Paper presented at the 32nd Annual TESOL
Convention,
Kamhi-Stein, L. D., &
Brown-del Mar, C. (1997). EFL teachers and e-mail instruction: Perceived language and
professional benefits. CAELL Journal,
7(4), 14-19.
Lam,
W.S.E. (2000). L2 literacy and the design of the self: A case study of a
teenager writing onthe in
ternet. TESOL
Quarter), 457-482.
1:40 - 2:10 Gareth Dewar
Teacher
Development Interactive – ACPD Online Course
for 21st Century ELT
Professionals (presentation)
Abstract
Teacher Development Interactive(TDI)
is a video-based, online teacher development program that gives new teachers
and teachers looking for a refresher a really strong foundation in teaching
methodology.
TDI has three study models:
1. Self Study: Online
working at the teacher’s own pace
2.
Online Facilitated: Online working with a cohort of teachers and a TDI Master
Instructor
3.
Blended: A longer course where the teacher works with a cohort of teachers and
a TDI Master Instructor both online and face to face in a classroom
and offers four specialised modules,
consisting of five lessons each:
Fundamentals of English Language Teaching
Listening
Speaking
A single module will generally take approximately
twenty hours to complete in the self study and online facilitated learning
models and approximately forty hours to complete in the blended learning model.
Each TDI lesson includes:
Pre-recorded video
presentations by ELT experts, powerpoint
presentations, discussions, text and audio
A course narrator who introduces
the material, presents the lesson objectives, reviews key points and ties the
material together
Authentic classroom
video
Practical application tasks
Interactivity
On-going assessment
Practical writing task at the end
of each lesson which requires teachers to either reflect on the material and
how they would apply it in their classroom, design a lesson or observe a real
lesson and evaluate the results.
If the course is offered with an online facilitator, the
facilitator can comment directly on the students’ writing and send back the
comments electronically. The students’ writing is kept in an e-portfolio
and a student can make up to 10 revisions if necessary.
TDI is designed to have the students interact with the content
presented as often as possible through the use of a variety of interactive item
types. In the development of these lessons, we focused on “input-output”
which means whenever we present something to the users, we want to give them an
opportunity to produce some kind of output.
In addition, each interactive activity comes with explanations.
Teachers get immediate feedback of what is right
and wrong and then the explanations continue to “teach” the concept more
thoroughly.
Finally, at the end of the course, learners are granted
certification from one of the world’s leading qualification bodies (Edexcel) and a top university (
Above information submitted on behalf of Mr. Jarrod Hingston by Lara Khouri.
11:00 - 11:30 Laure Salem –
Intercultural
communicative competence in EL education:
A
small-scale quantitative study in a Lebanese university context (presentation)
Abstract
Following the
demands of the globalized world where people of
different cultural backgrounds increasingly depend on one another, an intercultural
communicative competence (ICC) approach
through language education has become a need in the Lebanese
context to help learners acquire the
intercultural competencies identified by Byram
(1997)- namely, knowledge, attitudes,
skills - that help learners become interculturally competent.
Being
intercultural mediators or facilitators, English language
teachers can play a crucial role in promoting ICC. However, few studies have been conducted in the
Lebanese context regarding the conceptions of teachers of ICC in English
language education (ELE). The aim of
this small-scale quantitative
study is to investigate instructors' conceptions of ICC to investigate whether they only promote linguistic knowledge along with
the ability to speak with native speakers or they believe that language and
culture can be taught in an integrated way. I adapt and use parts of Secru's survey (2005) i.e. closed question questionnaires to
answer my research questions. The participants who
agreed to answer the questionnaires consist of 15 Lebanese English language
teachers at the
11:35 - 12:35 Gareth Dewar - Pearson
Getting
More out of Coursebook
Grammar Exercises (workshop)
Abstract
Coursebooks and, as a result, English
classes, see a greater focus upon skills than some years ago. Yet, despite
this, coursebooks are still awash with traditional
grammar-practice exercises: gap-fill, question formation, sentence completion,
and so on. While the grammar taught through these exercises is of crucial
importance, the exercises themselves can be dull and repetitive for student and
teacher. In this interactive workshop we will look at some traditional (though
still current) grammar exercise types, and explore ways in which we can make
them more interesting and productive for both learner and teacher. Examples
will be taken from popular current primary and secondary-level coursebooks.
12:40 - 1:10 Intisar Ibrahim
al – Samarrai - Al Isra'
Using
Effective Pedagogical Techniques to Help Learners of a Second Language
Develop Language Skills in Mastery of the
Target Language (presentation)
Abstract
The paper is an attempt to investigate the
various means of developing learners capacity in language skills
.
It
consists of three sections .
The
first is introductory in that it gives an initial idea of the whole topic .
The
second elaborates the different strategies ,devices
and means of attaining that objective .
The third is
a conclusion summarizing the main items of the paper
, followed bya bibliography of the
references
1:10 - 2:10 David Sallay
–
Teaching Students to
Abstract
Incoming university students frequently
struggle to cross the boundary into university academic culture, especially
when having to enter that culture using the English language. They come to
class unprepared, frequently plagiarize, and generally do not meet academic
expectations. Those teaching English for Academic Purposes need to help their
students not just learn language, but academic culture as well, which similar to
learning a foreign culture, can also be taught in the classroom. This workshop
will consist of a literature review of how foreign culture is taught and apply
those ideas to teaching academic culture in an ELT context. The first section
will look at the many different ways culture is defined in foreign language
teaching, and then apply them to defining academic culture. Largely using the 3
P’s definition of culture, the following section will involve audience
participation and discussion where examples of different materials that can be
used to teach academic culture will be given, including realia,
literature, video, and pictures or slides. Some of these materials will be
designed specifically for academic purposes, whereas others will be originally
designed for other reasons, such as films or books for entertainment, but will
be applied to our purposes. Participants will walk away with a variety of
activities using different genres of materials that could then be applied to
meet their classroom needs and help their students cross the boundary into
university academic culture. Since this presentation is intended for those
teaching future university students, it will be of greatest interest to
teachers of secondary schools, academic bridge programs, or first-year
university courses.