PRESENTATION ABSTRACTS AND PRESENTER BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES
*Conference details & schedule available at:
http://www.koreatesol.org/content/gwangju-jeonnam-kotesol-2013-annual-co...
10:00-11:30 PRE-CONFERENCE Reflective Practice WORKSHOP
Presenting Reflective Practice: A Sample RP-SIG Meeting
(Suzanne Bardasz, with Michael Griffin)
Recently, reflective teaching has been gaining importance in the TESOL community as a way for teachers to think about what they are doing in the classroom. To that end, in the past few years, the KOTESOL Reflective Practice SIG was created with “branch” groups in Seoul, Daejeon, Daegu, and Busan. Most of these groups have been active for over a year and are always looking for new members. This workshop will be a sample group meeting of what normally takes place in a RP-SIG meeting and will introduce reflective practice to those who are new to it. In this workshop, we will be reflecting on the structure of our lessons, including how we open, sequence, pace, and close a lesson. We believe that by reflecting on our basic actions in the classroom, we can improve the quality of lessons we deliver. This workshop is open to those who are both new and experienced to reflective practice.
* Target Group: EFL teachers at all levels
Presenter: Suzanne Bardasz currently teaches English at KAIST. She has been at KAIST and in Korea since 2008. Before coming to Korea, she taught ESL and EFL to students of all ages in the United States and Poland. Suzanne has an MA in TESOL from SIT Graduate Institute in Brattleboro, Vermont.
1:00 PLENARY SESSION
Becoming a Better Teacher Through Reflective Practice
(Michael Griffin, KOTESOL RP-SIG Co-Facilitator)
This plenary presentation aims at being an introduction to both Reflective Practice and KOTESOL’s Reflective Practice SIG (RP-SIG). The presenter will share his personal experiences both before and after becoming involved in Reflective Practice while highlighting its benefits. An additional focus will be on the “whys” and “hows” related to the creation of the SIG and ways for people to get involved with the SIG and Reflective Practice. Audience members can expect to walk away with some practical ideas about how to get started with Reflective Practice and, hopefully, a vision of how Reflective Practice and the RP-SIG can potentially help make them become better teachers.
Presenter: Michael Griffin has taught EFL for nearly 10,000 hours. Unfortunately (for both him and for his former students), most of those hours were before he got into Reflective Practice. Currently working in the Graduate School of International Studies at Chung-Ang University, Mike is also a licensed SIT/World Learning Best Practices in TESOL Teacher Trainer and teaches Curriculum Development on the New School MATESOL program. In KOTESOL, Mike is currently co-facilitator of the RP-SIG. He also rants and reflects on his blog at http://eltrantsreviewsreflections.wordpress.com/
CONCURRENT SESSIONS
Reflective Practice Sessions
2:00: The Challenge of Description
of Description: Strategies for Seeing Through the Cloud of Emotion
(John Pfordresher)
By reflecting on what we do, we better understand our students, ourselves, and interactions between the two. In order to effectively reflect through the Experiential Learning Cycle, we must first learn to objectively describe. To do so requires stepping away from the emotions surrounding teacher-student interaction and truly seeing what is happening in the classroom. This workshop will provide the necessary tools to successfully achieve this goal.
In addition to tackling issues that are common in all classrooms, we will discover ways in which we can objectively practice reflection-in-action. Successful reflection-in-action can help us not only better understand our classroom, but aid us in making the best real-time choices teachers need to make every day.
* Target Group: EFL teachers at all levels
Presenter: John Pfordresher is currently teaching in Busan. He regularly leads monthly Busan Reflective Practice Special Interest Group (RP-SIG) meetings. John has taught in Korea for two years and has a special interest in reflection. Prior to beginning work in Korea, John earned his TESOL certificate from the University of Maine’s Intensive English Institute (IEI), and thereafter, volunteer taught university students for nine months.
3:00: Explore Your Teaching Through Self-Observation
(Gemma Lunn)
Recording your class and analyzing what really goes on can be one of the most effective reflective tools to help explore your teaching; yet it is one teachers rarely use, usually due to fear or lack of time. The workshop will show you a variety of ways (that don’t demand too much of your time and will put your fears at ease) to record, transcribe and analyze parts of your class in order to see what really happens. Seeing and hearing your class can really help you understand your teaching and give you a better idea of how close your perception of what you do in the classroom is to the reality.
* Target Group: EFL teachers at all levels
Presenter: Gemma Lunn has been teaching for over four years in Spain, England, and Korea to a range of ages and abilities. She is currently teaching at a girls’ middle school in Busan and co-facilitates Busan’s monthly RP-SIG meetings. Gemma is currently completing her Trinity Diploma in TESOL and is due to start an MA in ELT in September 2013. Gemma blogs about her reflective journey at http://earlyreflections1.wordpress.com, and you can follow her on Twitter: @GemL1.
4:00: Making Reflection Your Own
(Alex Walsh)
By owning our reflective practices, we can accelerate the development of our classroom practices. This can reap benefits not just in our classrooms, but also for our long-term and short-term career goals. In this presentation/workshop, we will work together to break down the benefits to reflecting and consider ways to record our reflections. Some theoretical background will be provided to create a link between our goals and our reflective choices. We will then take this theory and harness it to aid us in owning and developing our reflections in our own contexts so that when we leave, we will have concrete ideas on the reflective strategies that we can utilize in our place of work on Monday morning.
* Target Group: EFL teachers at all levels
Presenter: Alex Walsh has been teaching in South Korea for almost four years. He is now in his third year of teaching high school students in Seoul. Alex runs and jointly facilitates the Seoul Reflective Practice Special Interest Group (RP-SIG). He completed his CELTA certificate in 2010 and is due to complete his MATESOL with University of Nottingham in mid 2013. Alex records most of his reflective work on his homepage at www.alienteachers.com and can be found rambling away on Twitter: @AlexSWalsh
Young Learners & Teens Presentations
2:00: Finding the Hero in the Young Student Whilst Embracing the Dark Side
(Amanda Maitland)
This workshop aims at applying soft toy theory at the middle and high school levels although many of the underlying theory, themes, and activities could also support adult literacy events. 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 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.
* Target Group: Teens at any proficiency level
Presenter: Amanda Maitland is a professor at Chonbuk National University in Jeonju, where she is Director of TESOL Teacher-Training and Education. Before she came to Korea she was a senior professor at the University of East London where she taught linguistics, language studies, education theory, and TESOL courses. In addition, she is currently studying for a PhD in Criminal Psychology and has already obtained an MA ELT Applied Linguistics. Email: Maitland39@hotmail.co.uk
3:00: "Banjang-nim": Good for Students; Great for Teachers
(Jared Sandler, George Balarezo)
Appointing a Ban-Jang-Nim (class captain) is extremely helpful to EFL teachers and students alike. A class captain can be a communicative liaison between the non-Korean teacher and his/her Korean students. This presentation will focus upon the positive aspects of a class captain. We will discuss how the use of a BAN-JANG-NIM may benefit the instructor, the students, and, most importantly, the BAN-JANG-NIM himself/herself. In our experience, we have found the concept of a class captain to be a very effective way of communicating with our students on a deeper level.
* Target Group: Intermediate teens and young adults
Co-presenter: Jared Sandler is a professor in the Departments of Physical Therapy, English, and General Education at Gimcheon University. His primary EFL research interests are Content-Based Instruction and Collaborative Learning. Jared is a master's degree candidate at both St. Cloud State University and Woosong University.
Co-presenter: George Balarezo is an assistant professor in the College of Liberal Education at Chungang University. He is fluent in Korean, Spanish, and English and is passionate about independent travel. He has been living in Seoul for almost five years. George strongly believes in the value of a Ban-Jang-Nim.
4:00: Communicative EFL Activities that Encourage Spoken Production
(Ynell Lumantao)
There is no point learning a language if we can’t use it. Therefore, as language teachers, our goal is to create a classroom environment with more student talking time (STT) and less teacher talking time (TTT). To do this, we need to provide communicative activities that give students more opportunities to speak. But how can we put the learners in a safe, non-threatening environment where they are inspired and encouraged to speak?
This workshop will demonstrate several communicative activities that will make the learners feel less pressured, less worried about speaking, and less afraid to take risks. A range of activities in which students can apply relevant knowledge and experience, such as group discussions, picture difference tasks, role-plays, group planning tasks, and ranking tasks, will be modeled.
* Target Groups: Low Intermediate and up; Teens and up
Presenter: Maria Neliza “Ynell” Lumantao was born in the Philippines. She holds a BA in Political Science (minor, Education), and MAs in both Business Administration and Linguistics. She has a teaching license and has been an EFL teacher for eight years. Ynell is the Vice-President of Gwangju-Jeonnam Chapter and a member of the Korea TESOL International Conference last year. She is currently a teacher trainer with MBC-KGIC TESOL Academy and a PhD candidate in Linguistics at Chonnam National University.
General ELT Presentations 1
2:00: Approaches to Using Short Stories in the EFL Classroom
(Michael Rabbidge)
The use of short stories in class is still seen as a novelty in most English teaching contexts in Korea. Issues ranging from appropriate methodology to story selection mean that use of this valuable resource in the classroom is rare. This presentation explores how graded short stories can be used to teach and practice a range of integrated language skills. By presenting a series of sample activities and examples of how various short stories were used during an in-service regional teacher training program at Chonnam National University in Gwangju, the presenter will discuss how task-based extensive reading and more traditional teaching approaches can be used to teach short stories in the EFL classroom.
* Target Group: Intermediate-Advanced Teens to Adults
Presenter: Michael Rabbidge has taught and trained teachers in South Korea for the past twelve years. He is the head of the Intensive Teacher Training Program at Chonnam National University and holds an MA in Applied Linguistics/TESOL from Macquarie University. His main research interests are the use extensive reading materials in the EFL context and the code-switching practices of non-native speaker teachers of English. Email: mikemind@hotmail.com
3:00: Vocabulary Games: More than Words!
(Nico Lorenzutti)
Studies show that most teachers don’t pay enough attention to vocabulary instruction. New words are often taught as they are encountered in a course textbook, perhaps reviewed at the end of the unit and then possibly again before an exam. Yet language acquisition research suggests that we need to use a word at least seven times in different contexts before it becomes fixed in our long-term memory. We need to have our students review vocabulary more often, but how can we make recycling fun and challenging? This hands-on workshop will introduce participants to eight ready-to-go vocabulary activities that are easy to prepare, facilitate retention of new words and phrases, and are always a hit in EFL classrooms.
* Target Group: Teens to adults at all levels of proficiency
Presenter: Nico Lorenzutti has taught and trained teachers in Japan, Canada, and South Korea for over 15 years. He teaches in the Intensive Teacher Training Program at Chonnam National University where he has worked since 2008. He holds a CELTA and is currently a candidate for an MA in Applied Linguistics/English Language Teaching at the University of Nottingham. His main research interests are teacher cognition and the use of popular culture products in the language classroom. Email:zutti25@hotmail.com
4:00: Punctuating Punctuation
(Dr. David Shaffer)
Punctuation is a surprisingly little-explored area of ESL/EFL writing and learning. This presentation reports on a study of university students' attitudes toward English punctuation as a first step toward generating deeper understanding about Korean students' use of punctuation. The attitudinal statements in the survey were in the areas of ease of understanding rules, L1 transfer and interference in L2 punctuation use, ability to identify errors, confidence in using punctuation, focus on punctuation in essay drafts and less formal academic writing, and ease of using and importance of each type of punctuation.
The results suggest that students are generally somewhat positive about their use of English punctuation, varying their use of punctuation somewhat depending on the context of the writing, but this positive attitude is often at variance with actual production.
* Target Group: Intermediate-Advanced Young Adults
Presenter: David E. Shaffer (PhD Linguistics) is a long-time educator in Korea and long-time KOTESOL member. He is a professor at Chosun University, teaching in the graduate and undergraduate programs. His present academic interests include professional development, extensive reading, loanwords and effective teaching techniques. Dr. Shaffer is active in numerous ELT associations. Within KOTESOL, he is presently Gwangju-Jeonnam Chapter President, an editor of KOTESOL publications, and a member of the National and International Conference Committees. Email: disin@chosun.ac.kr
General ELT Presentations 2
2:00: Drawing Blanks II: Five Activities for When You Have Nothing or Technology Fails (Julien McNulty)
It’s your first day of classes, and you’ve been given no syllabus, no textbook, no attendance sheet. What can you do to save the day? You’ve planned an entire lesson on PowerPoint and YouTube videos, but the computer in your classroom has crashed? How can you save face and still make your class engaging, entertaining, and educative? Have no fear! A simple blank sheet of paper is near!
This workshop is part 2 of 2; it will model 5 of 10 activities that can be used with any class of any age – all with just a simple page of A4. These activities range from vocabulary exercises, to story writing boards; from listening games, to pronunciation drills. If you need a few quick tricks for your teacher toolbox, this workshop will fill the bill.
* Target Group: Intermediate Young Adults
Presenter: Julien McNulty has been teaching, training, facilitating, or instructing in some form for 20 years. He has taught French, Spanish, History, and Special Education in British Columbia, Canada. He has also worked as a corporate trainer, then as a bilingual training consultant in Toronto, developing an accent optimization program in India. Teaching English in Korea since 2008, Julien is a language skills instructor at Chosun University and was the Chair of the 19th Korea TESOL International Conference 2011. Most recently, he is the co-founder of EFL ProDev, a consulting company specializing in teacher training, camp creation, and executive presentation skills. Email: julien@eflpd.com
3:00: Comics in the Classroom
(Peadar Callaghan)
Comics are one of the most popular forms of reading on the planet. The way in which they are written is especially useful for teachers in an EFL context. They provide internal context markers which help students to understand the content language. They also provide authentic language that students can use in communication. Finally and possibly most importantly, they are fun, and students enjoy reading them.
This presentation will provide a basis for choosing comics for both extensive reading and use inside the classroom. It will also focus on how to make comic book-based materials to be used within the classroom to support lessons covering all of the four skills.
* Target Group: Young Learners to Adults
Presenter: Peadar Callaghan graduated from the University of Limerick with an MA in English Language Teaching. His thesis was on “The perceived and actual value of comic books in second language acquisition.” He has been teaching in Korea since 2005 currently works for Daegu University as a Freshman English teacher. Peadar is also presently 1st Vice-President of KOTESOL. Email: peadarcallaghan@gmail.com
4:00: That's Konglish - Or Is It?
(Robert Dickey)
It’s easy for teachers to dismiss the utterances of learners as Konglish when they don’t match our expectations. Probably all of us have done so at one time or another. This workshop explores the various forms of language that have been described as Konglish and seeks alternate explanations. Based on a literature review and survey of teachers in Korea, we consider not less than seven types of language that have been labeled “Konglish.” Then workshop members will be invited to consider their own experiences and labels – all in the hope of better understanding what our learners are producing, and how we can help them meet more global expectations for English. Please come in with your own “list of Konglish,” and we’ll find alternate descriptions for these!
* Target Group: EFL teachers at all levels
Presenter: Rob Dickey is a past president of Korea TESOL who has been teaching and learning in Korea since 1994. He is also a presenter with KOTESOL Teacher Training (KTT). Professor Dickey teaches at Keimyung University in Daegu and is the incoming Chair-Elect for TESOL International’s Program Administration Interest Section as well as facilitator of KOTESOL’s new Professional Development SIG.
5:00 Pecha Kucha Session
Pecha Kucha 1: Pecha Kucha - What Is That? (Nate Kent)
This pecha kucha talk is about pecha kucha talks! What are they? Where did they come from? What defines one? And most importantly . . . how can you prepare for and give one in the near future? (and why would you want to?) This recent phenomenon has been appearing at KOTESOL gatherings in the last few years. The aim of this pecha kucha presentation is to (humorously?) answer any questions you have about these short presentations.
Presenter: Nate Kent has been in Korea for the last decade and has been loving it. Starting at a language academy (hakwon) long ago, he now works at the university level. Recently he has been doing some teacher training and as much presenting as possible.
Pecha Kucha 2: Professional Development SIG: Why? (Robert Dickey)
What is Professional Development, and why should you care? The KOTESOL Professional Development Special Interest Group (SIG) is back with a new name and new (and old) activities aiming to help you enhance both your skills and your resume. This pecha kucha session will encourage you to consider yourself and some of the things you could be doing that could generate better classroom experiences for both you and your learners, heightened employment prospects, and maybe even lead to a better paycheck!
Presenter: Rob Dickey is a past-president of KOTESOL and the facilitator of the Professional Development SIG who led its predecessor, the Teacher Development and Education SIG.
Pecha Kucha 3: Then and Now: 4 Korean Decades of English (Dr. David Shaffer)
This pecha kucha compares the present situation with respect to English language teaching in Korea with that of 40 years ago, when the presenter began his teaching career in Korea. The presentation touches on differences in EFL students, EFL teachers, native English-speaking teachers, English teaching materials, school facilities, teaching methodology used, and English use in general.
Presenter: David E. Shaffer, a long-time educator in Korea and long-time KOTESOL member, is a professor at Chosun University. His academic interests include SLA, ELT, and Cognitive Linguistics. Within KOTESOL, Dr. Shaffer is presently Gwangju-Jeonnam Chapter President, an editor of KOTESOL publications, and a member of the National and International Conference Committees. Email: disin@chosun.ac.kr
Pecha Kucha 4: Same, Putt Different: A Rook at Similar Fairs (Julien McNulty)
This pecha kucha presentation looks at a common pronunciation phenomenon among native speakers and L2 learners alike: similar pair variation. These differences can lead to confusion, for example light - right, lake - rake. These differences, while confusing, can often be humorous. In 6 min. 40 sec., we will ponder, examine, and take a fun approach to identifying and CORRECTING these “errors.” But are they really errors . . .
Presenter: Julien McNulty has been teaching English in Korea since 2008. He is a language skills instructor at Chosun University and was the Chair of the 19th Korea TESOL International Conference 2011. Most recently, he is the co-founder of EFL ProDev, a consulting company specializing in teacher training, camp creation, and executive presentation skills. Email: julien@eflpd.com
*Conference details & schedule available at:
http://www.koreatesol.org/content/gwangju-jeonnam-kotesol-2013-annual-co...
