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Invited Session - International Conference 2015
Story Slam: The Potential of Performed Stories in ELT
A story slam is a live event in which participants tell short, autobiographical stories to the audience without the use of notes. These events are an outgrowth of the popularity in North America of poetry slams and other spoken word performances. Each event has a theme to which participants’ stories should connect. This session will explore the possible benefits of incorporating story slams into the language classroom.
Part presentation of the relevant academic literature and part performance, this session aims to provide the audience with a rationale for the inclusion of story slams in ELT research and practice, as well as a simulated experience of observing a story slam event. Of particular interest to the presenter is the power of story slams to capture and share the transformative moments in the lives of English language learners. To spark the audience’s interest in the story slam genre, the presenter will share several stories which speak to the themes of this year’s conference: creativity, critical thinking, and inquiry-based learning.
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Speaker Bio-Sketch
Steve Iams is an assistant professor at the SIT Graduate Institute in Vermont, USA, where he teaches linguistics and curriculum design courses in the MA-TESOL program. Over a fifteen-year career, he has worked with language students and teachers in the U.S., Korea, Nepal, China, and Japan. In Korea, Steve taught in the SMU-TESOL certificate program and at Ewha Womans University. As a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer, he taught English and trained teachers in Nepal and China. He holds an M.A. in TESOL from SIT and a B.A. in History from the University of Virginia.
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See the full list of Major Speakers at the KOTESOL International Conference and English Expo at http://koreatesol.org/ic2015/MajorSpeakers
