MY WHITE BOARD

After I taught the nine English tenses (times) in five months, my ESL students requested me to show them all of those tenses in one picture!

                                          I have never seen them more motivated and excited!!! 

An incredibly creative way to inspire kids to engage in their learning!

Dave Eggers talks about how his 826 Valencia tutoring center inspired others around the world to open.

Five days a week, dozens of students of all skill levels and interests come to 826 for free, one-on-one tutoring. Most of these students are from the predominately Latino neighborhood, and few speak English at home. When their homework is finished, some children work on extracurricular writing projects; others prefer to grab a book off the shelves and do some quiet reading.

APPLY to be one of 2013's SLI Facilitators!

CYI's Summer Leadership Institute (SLI) is getting ready for its THIRTEENTH annual summer session and we're looking to assemble our strongest team yet! 

If you...
- are passionate about social issues,
- believe in community mobilization through youth empowerment,
- and want to be a part of a kickass for-youth-by-youth organization,

consider applying to be part of this summer's SLI staff!

The program consists of a series of weekly workshops, in which high school youth engage in exploratory activities and discussions. These workshops aim to facilitate identity and leadership development, as well as to enhance awareness of issues affecting underrepresented communities.

If this speaks to you, we encourage you to apply!

Applications can be downloaded here:
http://db.tt/XrXyyVnK

Please send us a cover letter and a resume to apply@cyinyc.org by Monday, February 25th, 11:59pm.

TO GET MORE INFORMATION, CLICK HERE

"Education needs to work by pull, not push.” (Charles Leadbeater)

A RIVETING TECHNIQUE TO TEACH/ REVIEW PRESENT PERFECT TENSE

                                                             

QUIERE SEMINAR SERIES

Anne Haas Dyson is coming to Teachers College on February 7th, 2013. 

Please come and bring your students and/or colleagues! 

HOW TO CREATE YOUR OWN WEBQUEST?

                                                                    www.zunal.com

Zunal Webquest Maker is a web based software for creating Webquests in a short time with no cost.    
Check my WebQuest "Writing to Show- Not to Tell": http://zunal.com/webquest.php?w=90917

WebQuests

Who developed WebQuest?

Why was WebQuest developed?

How can you use a WebQuest?

Click the link below to answer these questions

www.onlineuniversity.net/education/webquest-and-online-learning

NYS TESOL 34th Annual Applied Linguistics Winter Conference

 Click here for more information






The 34th Annual Applied Linguistics Winter Conference will be held on Saturday, March 2, 2013 at Teachers College with a focus on TESOL and Applied Linguistics & Technology .

What we're learning from online education!

The mind is not a vessel that needs filling, but wood that needs igniting. 
                                                                                                              Plutarch

 

Asians: Too Smart for Their Own Good?

At the end of this month, high school seniors will submit their college applications and begin waiting to hear where they will spend the next four years of their lives. More than they might realize, the outcome will depend on race. If you are Asian, your chances of getting into the most selective colleges and universities will almost certainly be lower than if you are white...

Please click here to read the rest of the article on NY Times

INTRODUCING TECHNOLOGY TO PUPILS

A Conversation with Betty Azar and her new co-author, Stacy Hagen

http://www.longmanhomeusa.com/professional_development.php?mid=180

ANOTHER STEP TO BE TAKEN

TCCRISLS 2012 - INTERLANGUAGE: 40 YEARS LATER

In her presentation, Larsen-Freeman suggested, “We should close the separation between learning and teaching and bring them back together.”

The topics on which she focused in the presentation

Part A

1- Definition of success

2- Attempted meaningful performance

3- Five processes

Second Language Learning; First Language transfer, second language learning, language transfer, transfer of training, and overgeneralization of TL rules

4- Fossilization

5- No necessary connection between units

The Ultimate Yardstick of Linguistic Success

Larsen-Freeman stated, “There is no ultimate homogeneous state to aspire to. The persistent instability of complex systems (Percival 1993) is due to the fact that a person’s use of language resources changes them, and I don’t just mean growth in the lexicon.”

Part B

Is it possible to reconcile the non-normativism of learning with the [apparent] need for normativism in language learning?

1-    Think in terms of capacity rather than competence.

2-    Think in terms of discourse domain.

3-    Think not in terms of telic conformity, but in terms of semiotic agility- the capacity for shifting “rapidly and fluently between and among semiotic words (Prior 2010, p. 233)

4-    Assess learning as a self referential way.

Part C

How does this play out in practice, you ask…

1-    Engage learners in activities that are rich in affordances (for particular discourse domain)

2-    Activity should be psychologically authentic (where the learning/ use are aligned)- making meaning

3-    Activities that can be iterated.

4-    That teach adaptation

5-    Then, stand back and respond in the service of learning.

Closing

“Knowing how to negotiate our way through a world that is not fixed and pregiven, but that is continually shaped by the types of actions in which we engage,” is a challenge of being human. (Varela, Thomson & Rosch 1991)

INSTRUCTED SLA: 40 YEARS AFTER "INTERLANGUAGE"

TCCRISLS 2012 - INTERLANGUAGE: 40 YEARS LATER

Bill VanPatten, in his presentation today, stated, “… instruction has no direct effect on competence…” In other words, explicit teaching does not affect learning. He also remarked that explicit instruction does not accelerate learning.

A participant, the owner of an ESL school in New York, asked Van Patten, “Then what do you suggest me to do as a school owner to help students learn?” He suggested a curriculum based on implicit instruction through pure communicative and task-based language teaching.

Before Larsen-Freeman’s talk tomorrow, I have several comments on his claim and suggestion:

While I support that (pure) communicative and task-based language teaching have great benefits in language learning, yet they not be left alone as mere teaching tools in ESL classrooms.

I have not yet come across any cumulative empirical data supporting that instruction does not have direct effect on learning or accelerate learning. Although VanPatten stands behind his assertion based on individual case studies, I have to make it clear that there exist not all but many ESL learners who read in English and speak to native speakers of English to a great degree and still fail to produce TL structures accurately.

Is it because they do not have the competence even though they may have processed the input or they may not notice the TL structures in the input in spite of input flood?

My answer is a big “No.” My claim based on my teaching experience is that explicit teaching should include and start with noticing/consciousness raising following redundant meaningful not pure but constructed communicative activities, in which ESL learners gradually automatize TL structures in their speeches. When I answer the question above, I remember Hinkel and Foto’s book (2002) “New Perspectibes on Grammar Teaching in Second Language Classrooms as Gass, Mackey, & Pica (1998) stated that input and interaction alone does not guarantee learner acquisition (cited in Hinkel& Fotos, 2002, p. 305).

Reflection on VanPatten’s presentation

Possible reasons why SL learners fail to produce accurate usages of TL structures:

1- Interlanguage
2- Forcing early output instead of waiting for the silent period to naturally end
3- Adult learners’ cognitive development (Intelligence, attention, perception, memory etc.)
4- Psychological reasons (Anxiety, motivation etc.)
5- Too much information that SL learners can process at a time
6- Teaching TL structures in isolation

Hinkel, E. & Fotos, S. (2002). New perspectives on grammar teaching in second
language classrooms. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

INTERLANGUAGE: 40 YEARS LATER

TEACHERS COLLEGE IS CALLING(3)!

*Saturday, August 11 - Workshop on TEACHING ENGLISH to CHILDREN

This workshop is designed for English teachers who are not experienced in working with children in a foreign language context. The workshop covers approaches to teaching
foreign language to children; activity and materials design; and classroom management
techniques.

TEACHERS COLLEGE IS CALLING(2)!

*Saturday, August 4 - Workshop On GRAMMAR FOR ENGLISH TEACHERS

This new workshop was added to our schedule at the request of ESL and EFL teachers, who felt that their own grasp of English grammar needed improvement. Designed for both novice and experienced teachers, this workshop is designed to give participants an in-depth understanding of some of the more complex aspects of English grammar, such as tense & aspect, and reported speech.

TEACHERS COLLEGE IS CALLING!

Summer Saturday Workshops!

Boost your resume and gain new skills in teaching English with our
one-day workshops.


Every year, we offer special Saturday workshops on different TESOL topics that are open to both students and non-students in the TESOL Certificate Program. Click on the link above for more information and to sign up.

Teachers College has been at the forefront of teacher education for more than 100 years. We offer an intensive 8-week summer program in Teaching English as a Second- or Foreign- Language. The program runs from June 25 to August 17, 2012.

Our program balances practical, hands-on exposure to teaching with cross-cultural awareness and information on how English is structured, learned, and used.

ASKING QUESTIONS by Steve Darn & Funda Cetin

Asking questions is a natural feature of communication, but also one of the most important tools which teachers have at their disposal. Typically, teachers ask between 300-400 questions per day.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE.