IATEFL 2017 Day 1

Hi guys !
This is the opening day to the IATEFL conference !
Here are my notes from the talks I attended.
Remember, you can also follow the conference online
https://iatefl.britishcouncil.org/

The official hashtag is  #IATEFL2017  It's worth checking the Twitter feeds with highlights from the plenary, talks and workshops.




Opening Plenary

Empowering teachers through continued professional development : frameworks, practices and promises

Gabriel Diaz Maggioli

****************************************************************************************************

ENGAGING , ACHIEVABLE, SUSTAINABLE : ACTIVITIES FOR LOW LEVEL LITERACY in EAP Johanna Stirling (Cambridge University Press)


Photo (letters words sentences)

She shows the common mistakes her Arabic students have
Matching letters , circling
Words
From spelling to pronunciation
Some lggs are phonemically spelt, such as Finnish and Italian
About 50% of English words are spelt due to their sound
If we don’t teach spelling at a basic level, students fossilize mistakes
Cognitive strategies: making links between things
(photo)
There are many long words in EAP (English for Academic Purposes)
She suggests breaking down the words and uses flashcards so students can come up with the words according to the meanings she provides.
(video)
Questioning
  • Is it similar to another word?
  • How are you going to remember?
  • Why do you think we spell it like this ?
There’s the exercise of cover and complete
Suggested site for word shapes
Colours (subject + verb)
Make sentences with pieces of paper with words
(photo)
Taking away from the session:
*take sts back to basics
*adaptable to online teaching with drag and drop, chatbox
We have to move away from just testing to teaching

What we talk about when we talk about interaction
Lindsay Clandfield (Freelance) & Jill Hadfield (Unitec, New Zealand)

Interact = to communicate with or react to
Interactive = exchange of info while the computer is in operation
The rise of ‘interactive’ in education technology, usually used in education marketing
It became human to machine
Became a new way of learning
TED talks are excellent examples of teachers lectures, interacting
We want to rescue the idea of people interacting

Designing interactive tasks
5 principles:
*between human & human
*should have a reason for communication
*should have a purpose and closure in an end-point
* should involve two way participation
* should include a range of task types (factual, personal, fanciful (role play, imagination) critical (opinion) creative (poem or story)

Samples:
Challenge (teachers posts a pictures and students ask questions for guidance, yes/no)
The person who guesses posts their pictures and so on and so on
Sport shorts (via private messaging)
Write rules for the sport so the other person guesses, keep posting up to a certain date stablished by the teacher
Fanciful interaction ( post a superpower you’d like to have beginning with ‘I can’ . The other person makes a condition to the superpower. These activities can go on after class hours.
Clues: everyone posts a clue at a time, students try to guess using the target language:
Ex.: The window was open. Guess : ‘ The burglar might have come in by the window’
Critical interaction: ‘Yes, but…’
You’re going to discuss the advantages and disadvantages to climate change.Each group is in charge of something.
Then sts react with ‘Yes, but…’ posting a recommendation for each issue
Break out rooms
It’s important that teachers are inserted within the messaging exchanged between students.
Number plate stories
(photo)

Forum on Online Teaching Skills
Online teaching : talent or training ?  
Karen Heuert Galvao

Photo

Laureate Languages Online
How to observe online?
There are forums, teachers are guided on the type of feedback students expect
They have an e-moderating observation chat, with responses from 224 to 48 hours tops
Moderators drop in and students are used to that
Connecting to students on an emotional level, showing that you care works

Managing the diversity: Are we blind to our blindness ?
Vinicius Nobre

Talking about diversity is difficult and we oversimplify the issue
Diversity brings anxiety and conflict
It’s essential to acknowledge this
We need to understand that each individual is unique (photo) words
If we break this theme down it’s extremely difficult to handle
Book mentioned Ghana must go
Introducing people by lables is limited. There are variables that bring us together.
Everybody has restrictions of some sorts.
(photo in blue)
Diversity has to be acknowledged, tolerated , respected and celebrated
Teachers can make students work harder to get better results
It’s important to acommodate classroom practices to match them closer to students’ expectations.
Cultura Inglesa celebrates the diversity

Open Badges: a new way to prove skills
Roisin Vaughan & Andrew Cock-Starkey (Cambridge Language Assessment)

Badges are worth value in CVs
Recommended sites:


Webinar trial (there are six teachers can collect)
Open Badges support CPD
  • Measure awareness and understanding
  • Educate teachers
  • Assess value teachers place on Open Badges
What are the obstacles that prevent teachers from engaging ?
  • They were not aware of that and what to do with that
  • Employer recognition

Would badges increase motivation for teachers to attend the webinars ?
Only 2% of the teachers decided to collect all the badges
Some wanted to have professional evidence of their work

What about using badges for training courses, as evidence of learning ?


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