Monthly Archives: November 2011

IATEFL Business English special interest group

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I have just returned from the IATEFL business English sig annual conference in Dubrovnik, Croatia. It was very useful, so I am sharing here two ideas of the many that were offered.

– I have decided to organize my own teacher workshop about teaching with technology. Something I have wanted to do for a long time, and at the conference, various conversations and presentations convinced me it is “doable.” the topic may be integrating online materials with f2f activities. Would anyone care to join me?

– it’s time to learn about DASHBOARDING ! If you know about it, would you please share? I am basically looking for a way to manage the huge flow of information from the Internet and learn new ways to teach well. At the conference, I attended a presentation by Valentina Dodge, who introduced
Diigo, the tool for bookmarking, collaborating, sharing content, and much more.

These are just two of many useful ideas. The real value of the conference, of course, was talking to people in the EFL profession and getting energized.

Joy and Pleasure

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The other day my DOS asked me, how do you teach advanced students?
I answered as honestly as I could. Then I started musing about it, and hopefully other colleagues will contribute to the topic here, too. 

First, I said to my DOS, go for pleasure, because most advanced students are passionate about English, finding real joy in their own understanding and power of communication, not to mention their feelings of gratification when they help colleagues with lesser language knowledge. They are “basking” in their success; the struggle of learning irregular verbs and infinitives and gerunds is behind them.

Naturally, advanced students come with a few gaps, some of which they stress over. Moreover, the vastness of the English language precludes their having learned every possible vocabulary word.

These two conditions misled me earlier, causing me to react with “bitty” lessons aimed at plugging the gaps in my advanced students’ knowledge, the result being a kind of cat-and-mouse lesson plan. “Do you know this word? You do? Oh, and how about this one? No? AHA!”

Time to think a lot about Joy and Pleasure. I think it is best with advanced students to bring in dense content related to some passion of theirs, whether profession-related or otherwise. It should be used as a springboard. On one hand, may be interesting idioms, expressions or terms. Likewise, a text may espouse views opposed to the students’ own. Or the student may debunk to his/her heart’s delight.  Pronunciation, especially intonation can well deserve attention at this level, since it may have been neglected earlier in the rush to master practical English .

Naturally the Internet and Web 2.0 based resources must play a role in lessons for advanced students. Likewise the majority of materials, if not all of them, will be authentic and not from course books.

Kindly don’t misunderstand; an advanced lesson must have its parts and phases. However, they should all contribute in some way to creating a pleasurable experience for the student.

Looking forward to other ideas on this topic.