Post by Amy Wanmei HuangHi,
I would like to invite you to join me and my group, International ESL
Center (English as a Second Language). The International Professors
Project, in a collaborative project.
International ESL Center is a non-profit international center for
college students and professionals who learn English as a second
language ora foreign language. Our mission is CONNECTION and
COMMUNICATION. We aim to connect ESL learners around the world and to
provide them with opportunities to communicate in English. Please
visit our group athttp://groups.google.com/group/international-esl-ipp.
Click on English Corner, and you will see the discussions.
We are looking for individuals who are willing to share their
knowledge, theories and/or direct experience regarding ESL teaching
and ESL learning.
If you are interested in participating in this group, please contact
me for more detail.
To know more about IPP, please visithttp://www.internationalprofs.org/
Best,
--
Amy Wanmei Huang
ESL Center Founding Leader
International Professors Project
Thank you for the invitation. I'll check out.
Here's a survey for ESL teachers that I recently created from an ESL
conference in Los Angeles.
How democratic is your ESL classroom?
Who gets to speak in class? Whose ideas count? Who chooses the
assignments? How do students receive feedback? Do students have a
chance to conference with their instructors? Can YouTube be a valuable
source for homework assignment? Do you want your students to become
self-directed - or autotelic - in their studies?
Here’s a quick checklist for ESL teachers that I created for a recent
CATESOL (California Teachers of English to Speakers of Other
Languages) workshop called “Techniques for a More Democratic
Classroom”. My core assumption remains that giving students more
opportunities to literally speak, write, and share their insights
leads to a more engaging, dynamic, and valuable classroom experience.
1. Who do you currently teach? How would you describe the students?
2. What are some of their personal interests?
3. How can student interests be better incorporated into the
curriculum?
4. Which assignments do students currently choose? Which seems most
successful? Why?
5. What are some benefits of greater student participation?
6. What are some risks of greater student participation?
7. Do you want to increase the number of choices students make?
8. What critical language skills can be taught by tapping into their
interests?
9. How can you tweak current material to better individualize
instruction?
10. What internet resources can you use to augment the current
curriculum?
11. Which exercises or activities do you find most successful in your
classroom?
12. What decisions do you keep as your prerogative as the instructor?
13. Will your students become self-directed learners?
14. How can you encourage that possibility?
15. How can you create a more democratic classroom?
16. What are some obstacles to a more democratic classroom?
17. How does technology encourage a more democratic classroom?
“Education is a kind of continuing dialogue and a dialogue assumes, in
the nature of the case, different points of view.” Robert Hutchins
(1899-1977), former President of University of Chicago and educational
philosopher
Obviously, older and more self-aware students bring a larger set of
life experiences and deeper interests into the classroom. Therefore,
college and graduate students find it more comfortable to select their
own subjects for papers and presentations than K-12 students.
Yet a more democratic classroom also allows the teacher to coordinate
student work and even allow students to create course content. For
example, I had intermediate university students write concise reviews
of YouTube videos related to job interviews. Then I compiled and
slightly edited the reviews, and created a compelling list of
student’s favorite YouTube selections, and emailed the entire class
the list.
Many students, eager to watch what their classmates recommended –
humorous or serious – ended up watching over 2 hours of a diverse
material instead of a boring 30-minute in class educational video.
Students were more invested in the material, took longer to find,
watch, and review videos, and enjoyed commenting on each other’s video
recommendations. By the way, these students also performed better on
their mock interviews than in previous classes. English students
writing, speaking, reflecting, and sharing works better than just
being passive consumers of standardized materials. Choice counts!
Likewise, many adult educators and IEP instructors can - with
creativity and effort - develop more democratic classrooms. Small
class sizes, as ever, remain a tremendous advantage. Yet the basic
premise of giving students permission to have a larger voice in
classroom can work in many English language classrooms. After all,
should English language students speak English in a class devoted to
teaching them to speak English?
Do you agree? Disagree? Why? Feel free to let me know.
Ask more. Know more. Share more. Create Compelling Conversations.
Contact Eric Roth, the co-author of Compelling Conversations:
Questions and Quotations on Timeless Topics, at
***@compellingconversations.com or visit www.CompellingConversations.com
.