Thursday, 3 December 2015
8:00 am–12:00 pm
PCI 1. Exploring Your Classroom: Reflecting Through Second Language Teacher Action Research
Workshop Leader: Anne Burns
Target audience: Teachers, teacher educators, beginning researchers
Are you interested in doing action research? This workshop will provide you with some steps to get you started. You will have opportunities to share your ideas about language teaching and learning with other teachers and develop some new ways to understand what goes on in your classroom.
In this workshop we will
- understand more about the processes involved in action research
- develop a focus and plan for doing action research
- discuss strategies for putting your plan into action
- identify relevant ways of collecting information about the effects of your plan
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Anne Burns is professor of TESOL at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, and professor emerita in language education at Aston University, Birmingham, England. She has worked with many teachers internationally and has published extensively. She is known for her work in teacher education and action research. |
PCI 2. Understanding the Role of Metacognition in Language Instruction and Learning
Workshop Leader: Christine C. M. Goh
Target audience: Teachers of adult and young learners who would like to plan age-appropriate metacognitive activities for scaffolding self-directed learning in a theoretically principled and practical manner
Language learners, in particular adult learners, have a great capacity for self-directed learning. This workshop examines the importance of metacognition for language learning. It invites you to consider how you can develop learners’ capacity for self-directed learning through a metacognitive approach by experiencing metacognitive activities that you can use with your own students.
In this workshop we will
- explain the construct of metacognition and its role in language instruction and learning
- identify principles for a metacognitive approach to language instruction
- adapt and design metacognitive activities for your students
- evaluate metacognitive activities for language learning
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Christine Goh is professor of linguistics and language education and holds a concurrent appointment as dean of graduate studies and professional learning at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. She is interested in the role of metacognition in language learning, as well as speaking and listening development and its relationship with language, literacy, and thinking development. She has published extensively in these areas. |
PCI 3. A Writing Workshop for Teachers
Workshop Leader: Paul Kei Matsuda
Target audience: High school and college English teachers who wish to implement effective writing projects
To teach writing well, the teacher must also be a writer. In this workshop, you will experience the process of writing while also reflecting on the nature of writing, writing instruction, and writing development.
In this workshop we will learn how to
- teach writing for communication
- create more situated and engaging writing assignments
- combine various teaching strategies in the context of a writing process
- integrate process- and genre-based approaches to writing instruction
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Paul Kei Matsuda is professor of English and director of second language writing at Arizona State University in Tuscon, and concurrent professor at Nanjing University, Nanjing, China. Founding chair of the Symposium on Second Language Writing, he currently serves as the first vice-President and president-elect of the American Association of Applied Linguistics. |
PCI 4. Language Testing: Issues and Concerns for Classroom Practices
Workshop Leader: Fuad Abdul Hamied
Target audience: Graduate students in TESOL/TEFL and school teachers
The workshop begins by asking fundamental questions about test purposes, specification, and elicitation techniques. Alternatives of assessment such as rubrics, portfolios, and journals are then considered, followed by a look into social factors that could contribute to test development. Finally, feasible ideas in assessment are explored for research purposes.
In this workshop you will learn
- steps in designing classroom tests
- nontest assessment: what and how
- grading and its reciprocal contexts
- doing research through language testing
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Fuad Abdul Hamied is a professor at Indonesia University of Education. He holds a master’s degree in TEFL and a doctorate from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. He is a member of AsiaTEFL EC and an immediate-past president of the Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language in Indonesia (TEFLIN). His latest publications include EFL Assessment in Indonesia; English in Multicultural and Multilingual Indonesian Education; Codeswitching in Universities in Vietnam and Indonesia; and Research Methods: A Guide for First-Time Researchers. |
PCI 5. Building Our Own Learning Culture: ASEAN Teachers as Reflective Learners
Workshop Leader: Stephen J. Hall
Target audience: Secondary /upper primary teachers, pre-university intensive English teachers , and teacher educators
Given classroom’s cultural and time constraints, reflective practice may yield little change. This workshop draws on data and extensive teacher education experience to suggest incremental techniques and reflective skills for change. We will reflect on classroom interaction and experience engagement that can transfer to classroom learning.
In this workshop you will
- acquire skills in building self-awareness of your own teaching practice through fostering positive change
- reflect on the links between your own identity and classroom management styles
- deconstruct aspects of transmission teaching frameworks to foster more effective peer-to-peer learning
- learn techniques for increasing the productive use of target language in a large class
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Stephen J Hall is head of the Centre for English Language Studies, Sunway University, Malaysia. He has managed national education projects, been a corporate trainer in Singapore, and trained ASEAN teachers. Stephen has taught at primary, secondary, and tertiary levels in the Asia Pacific region. His doctorate analyzed Malaysian in-service teacher interaction. |
PCI 6. Self-Directed Professional Development in the Digital Era
Workshop Leader: Suchada Nimmannit
Target audience: All educators interested in using information technology for professional development
Professional development programs (PDP) with lasting impact are context-driven and self-directed. Information technology (IT) can be used to create, manage, and sustain teachers’ self-directed PDPs. Additionally, technology supports extended learning through communities of practices (COP). This workshop provides a framework for conducting self-directed PDP in individual and collaborative learning with IT applications.
In this workshop you will gain
- insights into the application of technology in planning self-directed PD and COP
- first-hand experience in planning self-directed PD and COP, with the use of web folios and webinars
- conceptualizing self-directed PDPs by taking and individualized skills inventory and identifying skills gaps
- experience in creating your own self-directed PDP and COP blogs
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Suchada Nimmannit is associate professor at Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand, where she teaches business communication. Suchada also worked as project manager and counterpart of U.S. senior fellows in teaching and designing a webinar course for the Lower Mekong Initiative, English Support Projects I and II. Her interest includes integrating computer-mediated communication in English language learning. |