November conference preview 8

GETTING PEOPLE TO LIKE YOU 

[Nick Michelioudakis / Saturday 16:45 ‘Thevenin’]

Think about some of the ELT-related theories you have studied / heard about so far. The ‘Natural Order’ hypothesis, Halliday’s theory of Lexical Cohesion, Transformational – Generative Grammar etc. etc… Q: What do they have in common? A: They are not much use outside the classroom. Now compare these with the following two principles for example: 1) ‘The more we see something/someone, the more we tend to like them’ (The ‘Mere Exposure Effect’) or 2) ‘People like you more if you are less than perfect!’ (The ‘Pratfall Effect’). The difference is that these two principles are useful both in class AND everywhere else! What is more, they are far more interesting for the average person, which means you can discuss them with people outside our field.

This talk / workshop draws on findings from the field of Social Psychology. It is meant to be useful, practical and enjoyable. It is based on the firm belief that we stand to gain enormously by looking at ideas from other fields and ‘importing’ the ones which are relevant to our work. To find out more about the rationale behind this presentation, just watch this short video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toW_BoNj230

To read some articles in the ‘Psychology and ELT’ series, just click on this link:

http://nic313.wix.com/nickmi#!articles

November conference preview 7

Literature strikes back! Teaching  literature with technology.


"Literature strikes back!" by Dimitris Primalis 17th November, Opale Room 6.p.m.

In the era of digital literacies, 21st century skills and social networking, the revival of literature seems to be more imperative and challenging than ever. Doukas school in Athens –  awarded twice for innovation and a Microsoft Mentor school for its innovative approaches -  introduced the 1:1 approach (one student to one computer)in 2009  in primary school starting from 4th graders. The students adored their netbooks but concerns were expressed by some parents that literature would become extinct because of technology. How can you acquaint the generation of computer whiz kids with fiction, science fiction and other genres? How can you stimulate students’ interest to start reading? How about using technology? Literature and technology need not be rivals. The split viewing/listening technique, Internet resources and free Web 2.0 tools can be powerful allies to attract learners’ attention.   A workshop for tech-lovers, bookworms and front line teachers, based on activities done with advanced (C2 CEFR) and primary school learners (A1-2 CEFR)

November conference preview 6

Surefire Activities to Get Your Students to Speak

Yeşim Çakır    Istanbul Technical University    Istanbul, Turkey

Saturday, November 17     11.15-12.15

Do you have students who are...

Join my workshop to find fun and creative activities to boost their speaking confidence! ...........

November conference preview 5

The Power of the Image

Paul Dummett Cenage / National Geographic Learning  Oxford,  UK

Friday, November 16     18.15-19.15 


How much do you make use of Images in your teaching?...



Join my workshop to find out how powerful and generative a teaching tool images can be.

IMPORTANT NEWS FOR AUTOENTREPRENEURS

It was announced yesterday that the French government wants to cancel the Autoentrepreneur status.

As most of us ELT teachers are AE, it means we will have to register as a company and probably pay higher tax and possibly at a fixed rate regardless of how much we earn. I'm no Economist but this is seriously bad news for the teaching industry. As French unis and schools are reliant on AE employees, well, they are going to have problems and we teachers will need to earn a lot more than we do now.

Check out the full story here:

http://www.survivefrance.com/forum/topics/2013-budget-includes-the-destruction-of-the-auto-entrepreneur?groupUrl=auto-entrepreneurs&xg_source=activity&groupId=3339392:Group:266893&id=3339392:Topic:381293&page=2

And sign the petition here:

http://www.federation-autoentrepreneur.fr/petition.php

4th preview

Struggles in higher ed reading averted through collaborative reading circles

Tyson Seburn (4C, University of Toronto) - Sunday November 18, 12:45 - 1:45, Room Estaunie

Look at this image. What is Superman doing?



Yes, that’s what I first thought too. I’m sure we’re not alone. Given what we know about Superman and his adventures, a second look enables us to realise he’s not trying to extinguish the light coming from that bad guy with his bodily fluids. We know that superhero cartoons don’t include that type of behaviour (at least ones with classic superheroes!). We know that it wouldn’t be befitting for the character of Superman even if they did. We search for other explanations for what is actually happening and (eventually) make more probable judgments based on our understanding of context.

Imagine, however, that you didn’t know anything about Superman. Or superhero cartoons.  Or hoses, for that matter.  If this were the case, our brains wouldn’t be able to connect this apparent situation with the hidden context. Our non-existent background knowledge wouldn’t fill in the gaps like it did above. What you see would be what you know. We would lose the cartoonist and writer’s intended meaning.

This same problem with context and background knowledge applies to our learners in their exposure to texts they encounter in their university classes, the news and even blogs. So often authors utilise references to key figures, events and places to demonstrate and strengthen their points. When our learners read texts they are assigned or even given for language practice, these contextual references are often missed or skipped over, leaving comprehension superficial and inadequate.

The “Contextualiser” role gives learners practice identifying and using contextual references in texts to help them better understand what they read.  It, along with five other specialised roles in the collaborative reading circles activity (I refer to as “academic reading circles” or “ARC”), have greatly contributed to improving my students’ reading abilities at higher levels.

If you attend this workshop, we will take a closer look at all six roles (Discussion Leader/Devil’s Advocate, Visualiser, Connector, Summariser, Highlighter & Contextualiser) and how they can help your students with their higher level reading too.

3rd preview

From Coach to Awakener, Bonnie Tsai Pilgrims Teacher Training Sat. at 11:15



This workshop will explore how coaching  is being used to involve learners in determining their own outcomes and to find the path that is best suited to their needs.

I will be representing Pilgrims Teacher Training and I look forward to welcoming you to this workshop.

2nd November conference preview

Getting students to think in CLIL classes

Amanda McLoughlin, British Council, Bilbao, Spain:

Saturday 14.00 - 15.00

November conference preview 1

This is the first preview of one of the talks at the upcoming November conference. If you are presenting and would like to give us a preview of your talk, please follow the instructions in the email I sent out yesterday.

Teachers can have their cake and eat it, too!

Gabriel Diaz Maggioli, THE NEW SCHOOL, New York

Saturday, November 17th - 1:00 - 2:00 pm - TEVENIN

Is this what you feel when asked to attend yet another mandated workshop?

What if your professional learning were rather like this?

:

Come to my presentation to explore over 10 strategies that will make your professional development (and that of your colleagues) not only effortless, but FUN!

Tiny Texts Lesson Plan

For your viewing and teaching pleasure here is a great lesson plan by the amazing Annette Porte, the teacher behind Tiny Texts. If you fancy using short and motivating texts with audio and vocab in your class have a look at her sight AND there's even an app too.

Annette has recently submitted an article to the Teaching Times to give teachers some ideas about using short texts but before that here's a lesson plan from Annette. Enjoy:

The preliminary programme

November conference info

Hot off the press!!

All the names, dates, times and topics of every talk at the upcoming TESOL France conference in November.

Teaching with films

I hope you enjoyed the last couple of lessons we've posted on the blog. If you read the last issue of Teaching Times you will have read about Kieran Donaghy's blog Film English and also Claudio Azevedo's Movie Segments to Assess Grammar Goals and Movie Segments for Warm-ups and Follow-ups. Both are worth a visit.

Another good website we mentioned was FILM EDUCATION and you can check out some of their lessons on The Language Point blog.

Busy Teacher also have quite a few lesson plans based on films.

For more on Kieran and his blog have a look at his latest interview at the great iasku: http://iasku.wordpress.com/2012/07/12/kieran-donaghy/

A Lesson by Kieran Donaghy

This week we are happy to post a guest lesson by the award-winning blogger behind Film English. None other than Kieran Donaghy. If you haven't seen his blog yet where have you been? Take a look now and see what all the praise is about: http://film-english.com/

Kieran will also be appearing in an upcoming issue of Teaching Times so keep an eye out for it. In the meantime enjoy this lesson:

30 days: Using English Outside the Classroom-A Lesson Plan by George Chilton

We will be publishing a great article soon by George Chilton of Designer Lessons about teaching with real issues. To give you a taster George has very kindly contributed a lesson plan to our blog. Here it is and don't forget to check out his great blog too at: http://designerlessons.org/.

Photos

Bethany has very kindly spent a lot of her weekend uploading photos of various events for everyone to enjoy.

Here are links to all the current photo albums. If you have photos of any past or recent events you would like to add PLEASE get in touch. Videos are also VERY welcome.

Main album
2012 Spring day in Strasbourg
2011 Spell Event
2011 Conference

Last weekend's BESIG event hosted by TESOL France and created by Jen Verschoor:

2012 Besig Summer Symposium in Paris on PhotoPeach

Here's Mike Hogan's Photostream of the event:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/irishmikeh/sets/72157630196871990/

IT English worksheet

This month Phil Wade won the One Stop English lesson share competition for his worksheet on the Raspberry Pi computer. You can view, download and print it here or from One Stop English at: http://tinyurl.com/cyjkr9e

New TESOL France magazine-only membership option

You may be interested to know that we now offer the chance to subscribe to the TESOL France magazine, Teaching Times, without needing to become a full member of the association. This is intended for people who find it hard to attend our events but would still like to stay up to date with us by receiving our latest news, articles and comments.

How much does it cost?


A year's "magazine only" membership costs 17 euros.
No. You will only receive the magazine, though you are, of course, welcome to attend events if you pay the "non-member" price - typically 8 euros for a workshop, more for longer events.You can become a full member of TESOL France at any time by joining in the normal way, and paying the membership fee (49 euros waged, 27 euros unwaged). Your full membership will be valid for 12 months from that point on, but any unused "magazine only" membership will be lost.1) Complete the online form here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?pli=1&formkey=dElrckVOMVRjZzlRUDJBMHlpRWVHT2c6MQ#gid=0

Does this entitle me to attend workshops and other events?

Can I "upgrade" to full membership?

How do I sign up?


2) Send a cheque for 17 euros to TESOL France, Télécom Paris Tech, 46 rue Barrault, 75634 Paris Cedex 13. Due to high bank charges, we can only accept cheques from French bank accounts.

Carpooling to the Strasbourg Spring Day

Are you planning on attending the Spring Day in Strasbourg on April 21st? Are you travelling by car? If so, TESOL France needs your help.

If you have a car and are able to give a lift to other members, please leave a comment below along with your email address so people can contact you. To prevent your address being harvested by spammers , write AT rather than @ and DOT rather than . when giving your email address, like this: yourname AT hotmail DOT com

If you would like to attend, and need a lift to Strasbourg, please directly contact people who comment below.

TESOL France's 30th Annual Colloquium Videos are now available for viewing!

Get a taste of what TESOL France has to offer!

Watch the November 2011 Closing Plenary Session by Geoff Tranter "That's a Funny Way to Learn a Language" and Mike Hogan's talk "Teaching Business English Online Using Clients' Virtual Meeting Software".

Once you click on the link, an Adobe page will come up. Wait at least 30 seconds for the video to appear.

Watch now! 
Geoff Tranter: "That's a Funny Way to Learn a Language"
Mike Hogan: Teaching Business English Online Using Clients' Virtual Meeting Software

Watch interviews conducted during the conference by checking out our TESOL France YouTube Channel!