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Featured Session - International Conference 2015
Bring the 21st Century into the English Language Classroom
The message being communicated across all areas of education is that there is a growing need to bring 21st century skills into the classroom. Without these skills, learners will be left unprepared for the challenges and opportunities that will arise throughout the course of their life. The essential question, however, is what skills should EFL teachers focus on, and how can we engage our learners, at every age, to build this skill?
Across sources, most identify the critical skills as building our learners ability in three key areas: creativity, collaboration, and critical thinking. These three key areas, combined with introducing content that promotes mastery of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) skills is the best way to prepare today’s learners for tomorrow. For language teachers, this opens unique opportunities to engage with our learners to not only improve language skills but also build holistic learners with a capacity for bringing to life surprising new innovations.
This interactive presentation will provide teachers with a solid understanding of the key aspects of 21st century skills with a clear roadmap for bringing those skills into the English language classroom.
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Invited Second Session
Assessment as a Motivator: The Global Scale of English Learning Objectives for Academic English
The Common European Framework for Languages (CEFR, Council of Europe 2001) was created with an adult and young adult audience in mind – focusing on the communicative acts likely to be performed by this group in the real world. Additionally, the CEFR covers six levels of proficiency – from A1 to C2. These descriptors were primarily designed for assessing general English use, but were not built to address the many challenges that arise when teaching English for Academic purposes. The CEFR also lacks when it comes to addressing English for Young Learners and English for Business Professionals. Building on the work of the CEFR – and following its principles – the Global Scale of English, developed by Pearson, aims to create a set of Can-Do statements to explore English in all domains, including academic, and professional and for young learners aged 6-14.
This workshop looks at how expanding the CEFR to allow for more granular insight into the levels will improve motivation and understanding of English language proficiency. All attendees will receive access to both the Global Scale of English for General English, as well as the now available Global Scale of English Learning Objectives for Academic English, a full collection of over 300 descriptors of language learning performance based on real life examples of communicative performance.
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Speaker Bio-Sketch
Sara Davila is a teacher, teacher trainer, and educational designer engrossed in language education, professional development, and curriculum construction. She has worked in the US and abroad as a language teacher and learning expert in the field of language acquisition. She has done extensive research on performance assessment, communicative-based instructional strategies, and learning theory with presentations, workshops, and articles around each topic. She is currently working with Pearson English as the Learning Expert in Higher Education for global English language products. Sara also continues to contribute to the field through her website, which contains presentations, free lesson plans, and free worksheets for teachers, which can be found at www.saradavila.com
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Introductory Video by Sara Davila
https://youtu.be/KavIU1YCuSU
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Speaker Online Materials
Website:
http://www.saradavila.com
Blog Entry: 21st Century Skills and the English-Language Classroom
http://koreatesol.org/content/21st-century-skills-and-english-language-c...
Sara Davila’s participation in the 2015 Korea TESOL International Conference and English Expo is sponsored by Pearson English.
See the full list of Major Speakers at the KOTESOL International Conference and English Expo at http://koreatesol.org/ic2015/MajorSpeakers
