Bradley Serl, from Pusan University of Foreign Studies, lead Jeju’s Kotesol Spring Workshop on "Syllabus and Lesson Creation." Those in attendance were educated on facts and statistics of proven effective ways to teach ESL learners. One recurring theme encouraged teachers to let their students do the majority of the talking in the classroom, as every opportunity should be given to students for them to utilize the English language. Mr. Serl also gave tips in fluency building. A few of which are; speed reading, skimming and scanning, repeated reading and repeated re-telling.
The workshop was intermittently broken up by activities designed to put lessons into action. The group was especially fond of the Dictowatch activity which had workshop participants pair off. One partner would describe to the other the details of a silent clip that was playing. The partner with paper was left to desperately scramble to write down what the other was saying. Once the defined period of time had elapsed, the partner would get together to create two separate versions of the clip. The catch was each version had to read exactly the same. This was a true eye opener for the teachers to realize how hard communication and listening could be for their students.
Jeju would like to again extend the sincerest of thanks to Mr. Bradley Serl for taking the time to come lead the workshop. Those in attendance certainly were left taking an honest look at their upcoming syllabi.
Written by: Alexis Oesterle (Membership & Publicity Officer, Jeju Chapter)
Photos by: Alister Martin (Events Co-ordinator, Jeju Chapter)
