Korean Job Discussion Forums

[ddeubel]

I went to the Korea TESOL Int. Conference and presented.

I'd like to know others opinions and I wrote about my own experiences in detail on EFL classroom 2.0 and Here on my public blog

As you know, I can be opinionated but this conference really gave me a lot to think about and say....

What is your opinion?

DD
http://eflclassroom.ning.com

[cdninkorea]

I very much enjoyed the presentation by Dr. Kelley on the brain and the importance of sleep. Very informative.

There was another guy (can't remember his name) who did a presentation on speaking skills that I've started applying in my discussion classes; stuff like how to politely change the subject and close a conversation. My students are eating it up!

The presentation by that guy from the British Council on the first day, on the future of ESL/EFL was good too. I especially enjoyed the part about how, in the future, most English will be spoken between two non-native speakers that need a common language, rather that a native speaker and a non-native or two native speakers. Especially in Korea, where many have a belief that if it's not from a native speaker, it's not as good. Why not?

[ddeubel]

I attended a very concise project about video projects for students in a Uni. in Japan. Very good detailing of how to do the project with students and then share them online... I love this kind of stuff, where students learn English by doing and creating. His site with lots of basic information on how to make video slideshows with students using cell phones is
http://www.deepmoat.com/moodle/

I forgot to add my blog address, where I add up The good, The bad and The ugly of the conference. http://ddeubel.edublogs.org

DD
http://eflclassroom.ning.com

[bassexpander]

[cdninkorea]

[ddeubel]

The conference chair replied to my applause and criticisms and it is only appropriate to share his commentary / response.

READ IT DIRECTLY HERE

I'll respond to some of the points tomorrow but I think that this kind of dialogue is fruitful.

DD
http://eflclassroom.ning.com

[Yu_Bum_suk]

It was an impressive conference. I learned a lot about the future of English, but not as much as I wish I could have learned about how I could be teaching English in the immediate future. What I really want from such a conference more than anything else are a few bang-up lesson ideas I can rotate into my usual array. To this date talking shop at the pub still remains my number one source of that.

The facility is not large enough. Everyone knows that, but there's little anyone can do. KOTESOL conferences function because of contacts a few higher-ups have at a few universities. Sook-dae is one of them, and that's why the conference is there. Such is life. For those of us down in the trenches in the public school setting, Monday morning will see us return to schools where the classrooms are sometimes too small, technology routinely fails, and we have to purchase our own materials. So perhaps it's not such a bad thing for the academics to know what it feels like. Tory Thorkelson did a great job of showing how to make a ridiculous situation work with a presentation to 75 people in a classroom designed for 30.

KOTESOL and PKETA remain the only organisations I know of where one can here presentations made by people who teach in the Korean public school system. For that they're invaluable. I can listen to the greatest SLA theorists in the world, but what they have to say won't make one bit of difference if their ideas are just unworkable in the Korean classroom contest. I thought Rose Senior showed a lot of common sense in this regard for someone who's never been to Korea before.

The plenary speeches were great, as usual, even if they offered little in the way of practical ideas. Keeping the big picture in mind always helps.

It's so encouraging to see the amount of Korean public school teachers who make it out to these things. In one presentation when the speaker asked what everyone taught, I was also surprised by how many foreign MS teachers there were (about 25% of the FTs in the audience). One of these decades the interest in something other government tests might actually trickle up.

All in all, despite the shortcomings, I still think this remains the best TEFL conference and organisation in Korea.

[gypsyfish]

I didn't get my conference bag. I went at 12.00 because I didn't want to deal with the registration crowds. It still took me 15 minutes to register and when I was given the book with the conference agenda and abstracts in it, I asked where the bag was. The kid giving them out said thay had run out. By noon Saturday. I have a bag from every conference for the past nine years, so I was disappointed.

On the other hand, the speakers I saw that day were interesting and I got (as I always have) some good information. (Even though the rooms were crowded and SRO at times.)

[matthews_world]

Didn't hear anything on this board about it this year.

[NoExplode]

Would have went if I knew of it.

[cubanlord]

[Draz]

[ddeubel]

I responded (finally, been busy!) to the comments of the conference chair.

They can be found HERE.

Thanks to everyone who left a comment, it does help build a better teaching world, in a small way.

DD
http://eflclassroom.ning.com