Here is an interesting debate to come out of the recent IATEFL conference which does not involve Sugata Mitra.
Talks
Exploiting video in the language classroom: IATEFL Harrogate
I’ve just got back from my first IATEFL Conference, in Harrogate, still feeling elated from the buzz that such big conferences always produce. It’s been great to meet up with so many people I’ve only seen online before, and make new friends. It’s also been great to attend so many fantastic talks and workshops.
I’d like to thank everyone who came along to my session on exploiting video in the classroom. As promised, here is the link to the powerpoint of my presentation. The video clips used are in the same folder, just in case the links in the presentation don’t work. I hope you find it useful.
Write-ups for some of the activities included in the session can be found in the following posts:
Dubbing exercise (Armstrong and Miller RAF Pilots)
How to … use video in the classroom
TESOL Greece – Motivation in the 21st Century.
It’s been a hectic week, with TESOL Spain last week in Madrid and now TESOL Greece here in Athens. This is just a quick post to publish my powerpoint form this afternoon’s closing plenary. More to come soon.
An interview with Jeffrey Doonan & Julia Alivertis
1. Could you tell us a bit about yourself and your teaching background? (50 to 100 words)
JA: I come from Greece, where I live and work. I have worked both as a private and a stateschool ELT teacher for about 25 years teaching mainly teenagers. I have also worked as a part-time teacher trainer for state school teachers. I believe in education as a dynamic force and I have a passion for learning as well as teaching. In my opinion, learning as a lifelong process can be achieved in unlimited ways, inside and outside of a classroom; I really enjoy teaching and being taught by my students and my colleagues, either through observation, or interaction and collaboration. I find attending and presenting at conferences a wonderful opportunity to learn, reflect and share ideas, especially if you have the chance to present together with a colleague.
JD: I have been a teacher of English and the Social Sciences…
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An interview with Marisa Constantinides
1. Could you tell us a bit about yourself and your teaching background? (50 to 100 words)
I am an experienced teacher, teacher educator and conference presenter and run CELT Athens, a teacher development centre based in Athens and online that trains teachers from around the world. You can read all about me here and here and in all sorts of other places but here is my chance to say that I am even more passionate about my job now than when I started and I truly love to watch teachers develop and reach their true potential. These days, I do lot more work online, both training and presenting and I am very active in social networks where I volunteer a lot of my time for many ELT teachers’ free continuous professional development, both on Facebook as well as on Twitter.
2. Tell us a bit about your session…
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Introducing Charles Alderson, plenary speaker
Diagnosing strengths and weaknesses in reading in a foreign language
The ability to read in a second or foreign language (SFL) is increasingly important in the modern world and therefore diagnostic language testing is potentially an important area of language test development and research. However, relatively little attention has been paid in language testing to the need to diagnose strengths and weaknesses in these important skills. Proficiency tests dominate the testing world, and although attempts have been made to derive useful diagnostic information from proficiency tests, tests like TOEFL or IELTS are not designed to provide detailed, usable information for teaching.
This presentation is in two parts: first I explore how diagnosis is carried out in other fields in order to learn lessons from other professions and to derive principles and implications for diagnosis in second and foreign language learning. The second part reports on the design and results of a four-year (2010-2013) research project into the diagnosis of SFL…
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Introducing Bob Obee, plenary speaker
Webs of Words: Issues in vocabulary learning and teaching and mapping lexis to CEFR levels.
Webs of Words: Issues in vocabulary learning and teaching and mappinglexis to CEFR levels. This presentation will highlight some of the key issues identified in recent research and projects such as Cambridge English Profile relating to best practice in vocabulary teaching learning and testing. It will explore the notion of what it means to ‘know a word’ and consider practical implications of this notion for teachers in preparing a wholesome and balanced lexical diet for their charges and for learners in developing well- grounded lexical manners and a keen sense of lexical repartee to bring to table.
Bob Obee was formerly the Director of Studies of the British Council teaching centres in Athens and Kuala Lumpur. His publications with Express Publishing and Cambridge University Press include Upstream Upper-Intermediate (Express Publishing) and the Grammar Activity Book (CUP). He currently works as a Professional Support Leader for Cambridge English Language…
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Motivation in the 21st Century Classroom, a plenary by David Bradshaw
MOTIVATION IN THE 21ST CENTURY CLASSROOM.
ABSTRACT:
This talk addresses the possibilities for changes in methodology offered by technology which are aimed at improving the motivation of students and teachers alike. We will examine how multimedia can be given a greater role in the classroom, how we can make greater use of our students’ own interests and discuss how textbooks can be made more relevant. Finally we will explore new possibilities for CPD.
SUMMARY OF SESSION:
The aim of this talk is to discuss opportunities for changes in methodology which may lead to increased motivation in the classroom. The talk is based around three main concepts which are designed to bring greater motivation for students – Visualisation, Personalisation and Localisation. Visualisation addresses the growing role of multimedia and how we can incorporate this into the learning experience. Personalisation discusses how we can bring our students’ personal interests into the classroom. And Localisation addresses the need for materials which reflect…
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Upcoming event: TESOL Madrid Regional mini-conference
I have been confirmed as a speaker at the TESOL Madrid Regional Mini-conference, which takes place at the International Institute, c/ Miguel Ángel 7, Madrid on 14th February (very romantic). There will be two sessions of talks, one at 18:00 and another at 19:15, all given by speakers from Madrid who will be presenting at the National Convention in March here in Madrid. My talk will be at 19:15. The other confirmed speakers are Teresa Fleta, Catherine Morley, Katherine Holloway, Jo Steel, Shawn Redwood, Andrea Littlewood and Rebecca Pegg. There’s a wide range of topics to choose from, so all in all it should be a very interesting evening.
The event is open to TESOL Spain members. Hope to see some of you there.
TESOL Italy
I’ve just got back from Rome where I attended the 38th National TESOL Italy Conference. This was my first time in this conference, and I am very grateful to the organisers for allowing me to take part.
I’ll write in more detail about my impressions on the talks I attended later, but I wanted to get a link to my presentation here as soon as possible. You can access the powerpoint here, and I hope that the video clips work within the powerpoint in this version. If they don’t, a copy of each clip can be found in the accompanying folder. For written descriptions of the activities, you can visit my post ‘How to … exploit video in class‘, ‘Armstrong and Miller – RAF Pilots‘, ‘Video Listening Comprehension‘ or ‘Real Beauty‘.
I didn’t mention this in the presentation, but with younger students I use ‘The Curse of the Were-rabbit’ rather than the clip we saw from ‘Love Actually’. Students are asked to identify references to rabbits or to vegetables.
A big thank you to everyone who attended this talk (including to my youngest ever participant – thanks for your impeccable behaviour!). I hope you found the ideas useful.
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