Can anyone help a fellow language teacher??

<b> Forum for teachers and administrators of IEP programs </b>

Moderators: Dimitris, maneki neko2, Lorikeet, Enrico Palazzo, superpeach, cecil2, Mr. Kalgukshi2

Post Reply
Liz in Oregon
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu Oct 14, 2004 3:38 am
Location: Eugene, Oregon

Can anyone help a fellow language teacher??

Post by Liz in Oregon » Wed Oct 20, 2004 2:35 am

Hello, Fellow EFL/ESL Instructors!
We are Josh Overcast and Liz Ekelund, both students in the new
Language Teaching Specialization Master&#8217;s Degree Program through the University of Oregon. We are preparing to give a presentation at our state's TESOL conference and are asking for assistance and feedback from the ESL/EFL instructor community to make this presentation as memorable as possible.
The title of our presentation is &#8220;10 pounds or less: an ultralight
resource kit for the outbound EFL instructor.&#8221; While English language
advertising and Internet access now reach many corners of the world,
we have heard EFL instructors continue to lament, &#8220;if I had just
brought that one book of real newspaper article activities with me&#8230;&#8221;
Our goal with this presentation is to develop a lightweight,
&#8220;ready-to-go&#8221; travel packet of authentic English language material
for those preparing to teach in more remote regions where such realia
might be scarce or even nonexistent. We also plan to develop a series
of activities for the authentic material included with the packet, so
that with the resource kit in hand even the most novice EFL
instructor can hit the ground running.
This is a noncommercial project which we believe will benefit new
teachers in the field. Again, any comments we receive from you will
be extremely helpful in developing the presentation. We are new to
teaching, as well, and need all the help we can get! Please take a
moment to answer the questions below and provide feedback on your
experiences teaching in areas where authentic English language
materials were at a premium. Also, if you know anyone who has taught
abroad and may be able to contribute some EFL wisdom for this
project, please forward them this email.
We look forward to being able to collate your responses by
Wednesday, October 13. We appreciate your help and thank you for the
contributions!


Sincerely, Liz Ekelund and Josh Overcast
University of Oregon Dept. of Linguistics
LTS MA Program

Please answer the following questions. Do feel free to elaborate as
much (or as little) as you like!

1. In which foreign country(ies) have you taught English? When?

2. Was English common/visible to the general populace (e.g., in
advertising)?

3. Was English language printed mass media available (newspapers,
magazines, etc.)? Was it expensive for the average citizen?

4. Was Internet access available? Was Internet access expensive for
the average citizen?

5. What other English language resources were available?

6. What activities did you use in the classroom that
utilized/required authentic material?

7. If you were returning to this same location to teach again, what
three items of English language realia would you take with you to use
in the classroom?

8. Any other comments or recommendations you may have.

Thank you for your time!

Post Reply