THE 19TH ANNUAL IATEFL-H CONFERENCE, BUDAPEST, 2-4 OCTOBER 2009

The organizing committee of the 19th annual IATEFL Hungary Conference cordially invites the members of IATEFL-Hungary and all English teachers around the world to take part in their annual conference in Budapest, 2-4 October 2009.

The title of the conference is: ‘Global skills for global needs: facing challenges in 21st century classrooms’

In our globalised world English is the language which reaches across cultures. Thus, language educators cannot ignore the many various contexts in which English is used, taught and learned when thinking about the pedagogical implications that govern everyday practice. We invite you to think together with us and explore the ramifications of English as the world language and to find solutions for possible tensions between global and local issues. Are schools ready for the challenge? Find out yourself.

Plenary speakers:

• Éva Illés
• Tamás Kiss
• Gordon Lewis
• Herbert Puchta

For further details and pre-registration, please visit: http://iatefl.hu/content.php?id=017701

Language Learning in Computer Mediated Communities (LLCMC) Conference, October 11-13, 2009

Once, computers were seen as thinking machines or electronic tutors. Now the computer has become one of many devices that people use to form virtual communities of all kinds. In the field of language education, computer mediated communication (CMC) enables students to interact with one another free of space and time constraints and to participate in communities of learning with their counterparts in the target culture. The Language Learning in Computer Mediated Communities (LLCMC) Conference explores the use of computers as a medium of communication in language learning communities.

Conference highlights:

- Plenary talk by Dr. Gilberte Furstenberg (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

- Special panel showcasing online cultural exchanges based at the University of Hawai‘i

- Optional pre-conference event (free) – CULTURA: Web-based Intercultural Exchanges

Conference sponsors:

- National Foreign Language Resource Center (NFLRC)

- National Resource Center – East Asia (NRCEA)

- Center for Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS)

For further details and pre-registration, please visit: http://nflrc.hawaii.edu/llcmc/index.html

2009 ACTFL ANNUAL CONVENTION AND WORLD LANGUAGES EXPO, San Diego, California, November 20-22

Submission Deadline: January 9th

Theme: Speaking Up for Languages… The Power of Many Voices

The Annual Convention and World Languages Expo of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) will be held Friday, November 20 through Sunday, November 22, 2009 in San Diego, CA with Pre-Convention Workshops scheduled on Thursday, November 19. The ACTFL Convention features over 500 educational sessions and events covering the whole spectrum of the foreign language profession. The entire selection of sessions is designed to provide attendees with an exciting array of sessions and events to further their knowledge and help them be better teachers or administrators. We welcome you to submit a proposal for consideration. When you login, please read carefully the Submission Guidelines before proceeding to complete your online submission.

The convention draws approximately 6,000 attendees and is the only national event bringing together all languages, levels and assignments within the profession. Please note: Presenters whose proposals are selected for presentation MUST be available to present any day during the Convention.

For further details and pre-registration, please visit: http://convention3.allacademic.com/one/actfl/actfl09/index.php?cmd=actfl09&id

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The Cambridge Guide to Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages

By Ronald Carter and David Nunan

Review

‘The Cambridge Guide is to be welcomed and used wisely by all in the field. My graduate courses in TESOL will be considerably enhanced by this book. This is a must for your bookshelf.’ ESL Magazine, Brazil

‘Most chapters are reader-friendly, neither patronisingly simple nor pretentiously complicated, offering ideas to both the uninitiated and the experienced. By trying to forge links between theory and practice, research and classroom teaching, this volume does good service to the profession.’ ELT Journal

Book Description

This book is the first to present in one volume an up-to-date guide to the central areas of teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL). Edited by two leading figures in TESOL, it contains 30 chapters written by internationally recognised language teaching professionals and applied linguists. Current topics in TESOL are examined and future developments mapped out in an accessible but comprehensive way. The book includes: – 30 chapters looking at core areas of TESOL – a list of essential reading – a detailed glossary of terms This books helps define TESOL and provides an excellent introduction for future language teaching professionals and is essential reading for students on undergraduate and postgraduate courses.

More Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (March 5, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521805163
• ISBN-13: 978-0521805162
• Price: $24.76

A Garcia (Monterey, CA)

I found this book to be a great addition to my TESOL collection. Short, accurate chapters on all or most issues relevant to the TESOL world today are written by some of the field’s most distinguished scholars.

I read that some reviewers found the terms and writing style to be pretentious jargon, however, I don’t think these reviewers give the TESOL field its due. Academic language is part of being a scholar.

J Wilson (USA)

I wrote the first review of this book above, but after more consideration, I’m downgrading it to 2 stars.

This book is obviously an attempt to legitimize the TESOL field by the use of lofty language and faux-scholarly writing. TESOL instructors want to be taken seriously, as practitioners of a profession like law, medicine, etc., so they’re trying to puff themselves up in the eyes of potential TESOL teachers (like myself).

Often it becomes quite comic. Here’s a quote:

“Krashen (1982) claimed that ‘comprehensible input’ was a necessary condition for language learning…further development from the learner’s current stage of language knowledge can only be achieved by the learner ‘comprehending’ language that contains linguistic items…”

In other words, in order to learn a new language, you have to understand it, and in order to learn more, you have to understand more…

Words of wisdom from on high! Holy crap…talk about disguising the obvious in a cloak of jargon and didactic fog! The book is full of gems like the one I just quoted. Yes, there are some useful little pieces of information peppered throughout the book, but it’s so clear that the authors were in effect saying “please, please, take us seriously! We’re professionals! We want to be respected! We want you to look up to us! Teaching language is sooooooo amazingly complicated! Oh, you pathetic little potential teachers would be lost without our wisdom.”

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Developing Effective Writing Skills

By Prof (Dr) Shefali Bakshi

Writing is a complex skill because it requires the coordination of content, language, meaning and style. Handwriting demands attention at the earlier stages of learning to write. Initially, our focus on teaching writing is on accuracy, later the focus shifts to appropriacy. Cohesion (Structural) and coherence (meaning) are two factors necessary to make any piece of writing effective. At the early stages of writing, learners can write in imitation of a model text. Later learners should develop their own pieces of writing. A proficient Writer needs to know: Subject matter, Appropriate language, Mechanics of writing, A rich stock of words, Conventions of writing, Organizational skills, Thinking skills, Writing purposes, A feel of the ‘audience’ or reader(s), Values: global or national and An in-depth understanding of the writing process.

Teaching objectives of writing:

• Express ideas in clear and grammatically correct style
• Write in a style appropriate for communicative purposes
• Plan, organize and present ideas coherently by introducing, developing and concluding a topic
• Write a description of a place, a person, or a system etc.
• Write a clear account of an event, a process or a narrative
• Compare and contrast ideas and arrive at a conclusion
• Present an argument, supporting it with examples
• Use an appropriate style and format to write letters, notices, reports, articles, diary entries etc
• Monitor, check and revise written work
• Expand notes into a piece of writing
• Summarize or make notes from a given text
• Recode information from one text type to another

A writing task must be related to the daily activities of the learner, so that we can prepare our learners to handle situations outside the classroom. This can be followed by learners themselves getting an advertisement and then exchanging among other classmates and then attempting to solve it. In this way we are taking the language outside the classroom and adapting our learners to get used to it.

Here is a step-by-step way of drawing a cat. Match the instructions with the drawings. This activity is well suited for lower classes. It has been tested in classrooms as it is from Orient Blackswan’s Gul Mohar.

1. Draw three circles-one for the head and two small ones for the body.

2. Draw another circle to join the two small circles.

3. Make the neck by joining the head and the body.

4. Draw in some cat legs.

5. Draw two triangles for the ears.

6. Add a wriggly line for a tail.

7. Remove some of the lines you don’t need.

8. Draw the cat’s eyes and mouth.

9. Add the whiskers and a collar.

10. Colour your cat.

Thus in this way the most current and the most wide-ranging topics in the market for Writing lead pupils towards writing independently. There are variety of tasks, which involve a learner in different ways and develop the various cognitive skills of a learner. A poster was used to teach the reading skills in my last article. Reading being a receptive skill takes on to the productive skill of Writing, so learners can be trained to interpret posters and then to create one or write in detail about a poster. Learners will then be able to differentiate between the different kinds of posters.

These are the latest techniques of teaching all the skills which are related to the learners’ surroundings and situation, thus making learning more meaningful. Find below another example of poster writing and interpreting from one of the texts of Orient Blackswan. The self expression and creativity, both oral and written must be taught to the learners.

Prof (Dr) Shefali Bakshi is the Deputy Director at Amity School of Languages. She has done a Project on “A Study of Verbal Interaction in Waiting for Godot” for the M.A. degree and has ompleted her PhD thesis on “A Study of Verbal Interaction in the plays of Samuel Beckett” for the Degree of Ph.D. at University of Lucknow, India. She has conducted over 75 workshops on ELT in various parts of India for school teachers and principals.

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Bringing graded readers into the classroom

By Alex Case

Reading equals Speaking: Bringing Graded Readers into the Classroom

Most schools have at least a couple of graded readers lying around the school, if only freebies that were sent unsolicited by publishers, and if not it is easy enough to get hold of some. In too many schools, however, they lie around gathering dust on a shelf in the teachers’ room or the Self Access Centre. The obvious thing to do with them seems to be to take them into the classroom, to add a bit of variety to the class and to let the students see what is available, hopefully persuading students to take them home to read for themselves. Here, then, are some ideas on how to do so. I can’t absolutely guarantee they’ll all work with your classes, but they are all deliberately designed to avoid two potential hiccups- you don’t need class sets or for all the students to read the books for homework for the activities to work.

What makes an ‘easy reader’?

Most people think of this as just avoiding difficult vocabulary and this is certainly a major part, but there is more to it than that. To start with, ‘get’ and ‘around’ may seem like words you could include in even a beginner’s book, but if you put them together as the phrasal verb ‘get around’ the meaning is far from easy to deduce. As well as the vocabulary, the grammar has to be carefully graded, and the writer has to think about other factors such as the use of pictures and avoiding ‘dense’ texts with too much information, such as subplots and large lists of characters.

Read the remaining article here: http://www.tefl.net/alexcase

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English as medium of instruction

The English of Saudi university graduates is very poor. Since the labor market in the Kingdom largely depends on foreign manpower, English has necessarily become the language of business. Anyone who does not master English will be in a weak position when competing for a job. His or her chances for progressing in terms of career will be severely compromised.

Read the complere news: http://www.arabnews.com/?page=13&section=0&article=124214&d=2&m=7&y=2009

Neglecting English will be agreat loss to nation

After months of public debate the Ministry of Education is finally to make the all awaited decision whether to continue the teaching of mathematics and science in English. Meanwhile the debate of whether to carry on teaching these subjects in English or revert to Bahasa Malaysia continues to be a main issue in our mainstream media.

Read the complere news: http://blog.thestar.com.my/permalink.asp?id=24542

English tests need more English

Regarding the column “Leave language education to teachers” (June 26, 2009), the grab line used is “The country already has half a dozen perfectly good English tests. Why do we need another?

As a longtime English teacher in Korea, I have to strongly disagree that Korea has “perfectly good” English tests. My elementary school students have been entertained numerous times by the gross errors that they have found within some of the tests listed below.

Read the complere news: http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2906834

Entrance test for English language course for madrasa graduates on July 15

Mumbai: Markazul Ma’arif Education & Research Centre (MMERC), Mumbai has announced combined entrance test dates for Diploma in English Language and Literature (DELL) for batch 2009-2011. The written test will be held on 15th July at Public Girls Higher Secondary School, Deoband, Saharanpur.

The test will be held for a total of 65 seats — 25 in MMERC, Mumbai: 25 in Madrasa Sulemania Kandhla, UP: 10 in Markaz-e Islami Ankleshwar, Gujarat and 5 in Jamia Jalalia Hojai, Assam. Only the candidates who pass the written test will be eligible for the interview to be held on 17th July 2009.

Read the complere news: http://twocircles.net/2009jul01/entrance_test_english_language_course_madrasa_graduates_july_15.html

Teachers facing ‘classroom MOTs’

Teachers in England will need licences to work in the classroom which will have to be renewed every five years, under government plans.

The proposal, intended to weed out weak teachers, is included in an education White Paper announced by Children’s Secretary Ed Balls.

There is also a guarantee of personalised tuition for all pupils who have fallen behind in English or maths.

Read the complere news: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/8127085.stm

Mass Asian language program is not sensible

TO raise serious doubts about the mass Asian language scheme proposed by Kevin Rudd and Michael Wesley, I need demonstrate only two things: first, that the inherent difficulty of character-based languages at the heart of this vision – Chinese-Mandarin and Japanese – is a genuine barrier to broad-based linguistic competency; and, second, that the commercial case for these languages is much diminished by the extent of English language learning in our region. Let’s take the degree of difficulty question first.

The US Defence Language Institute in Monterey, California, estimates that it takes three times as many hours of instruction for a student of Mandarin, Japanese, Arabic and Korean to reach the same level of proficiency as students of Portuguese, Spanish, Italian and French with the same exposure; in other words, it is roughly three times more difficult.

Read the complere news: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25713098-7583,00.html

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Reading Loud and Clear: Reading Aloud in ELT

By Gabrielatos, Costas

Abstract:

This paper discusses whether there is a place for reading aloud (RA) in the modern foreign language classroom, and if so, when and how it should be used. It concentrates on English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) learners of elementary level and upward who have mastered the skill of assigning sounds to letter-combinations in English.

The article asserts that RA can be used to raise awareness of and provide practice in certain phonological aspects of English and certain strategies used to facilitate the production of spontaneous speech and communication.

The first section looks at the perceived utility of RA, focusing on RA as reading, speaking, and pronunciation practice and RA as a skill. The next section discusses the use of RA in planning, describing goals, text types, general guidelines, prerequisites, phonological features, and strategies facilitating spoken production and communication. The final section presents activities for using reading aloud.

The activities involve reading transcripts of items from radio and television news, pretending to be actors auditioning for a role with an unrealistic script that must be improved, and acting as storytellers and judges of storytellers. (Contains 31 references.) (SM)

Download the full paper in pdf format by visiting http://www.eric.ed.gov

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