SELECTING, EXPLAINING, PRACTICING, AND TESTING VOCABULARY

The past twenty years have seen a surge of research on second language (L2) vocabulary. By now, you've probably heard some of the results of this research:  (1) ESL students' vocabulary knowledge is consistently lower than their native speaker counterparts, (2) limited vocabulary knowledge impacts our students' reading, writing, listening, and speaking, and (3) most programs do not teach vocabulary in any consistent way. This workshops starts with the proverbial question of "So now what?"  Given that our learners face a debilitating lexical gap, how can teachers and curriculum planners provide more effective lexical instruction?  We know vocabulary is essential in learning any second language, but what are concrete steps that all teachers can take to help our learners? In this workshop, we will look very briefly at the research before spending the bulk of our time examining ways to select vocabulary, techniques to explain vocabulary, methods of practicing vocabulary, and formats for testing vocabulary.

Levels: All

Keith Folse is Professor of TESOL at the University of Central Florida where he teaches in the MA, Ph.D., and undergraduate certificate programs. He has taught ESL/EFL for thirty years in the U.S., Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Japan, and Kuwait. In addition, he has taught French in the US and Spanish in Japan. He is the author of more than 55 textbooks on a variety of subjects from writing to grammar to vocabulary. Dr. Folse is a frequent presenter at conferences worldwide, especially on the topic of best teaching practices for vocabulary and grammar.

WORKING WITH CORPORA: ACTIVITIES AND MATERIALS FOR THE CLASSROOM

Gena Bennett

This workshop will begin with a brief overview of the corpus approach (what is it, how it can be used, and why it’s beneficial in language learning) followed by an introduction to working with corpora in the classroom.  The majority of the workshop will be spent introducing and practicing a series of specific activities that instructors will want to use with their own students, including online and paper-based resources; activities for language skills, grammar, and vocabulary; noticing register distinctions; and data driven learning.  The workshop will prepare and equip instructors to work with corpora in the classroom to more effectively and efficiently help students to acquire a language.

Levels: All

Gena Bennett has been working with English language learners for over 10 years in a variety of settings -- including refugee youth, children in South Korea, EAP adults, community-based adults, parents of ELLs, M.A. candidates. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Birmingham, UK, with a focus on corpus linguistics and second language writing, and her research interests include using corpora in the classroom and understanding and describing student writing.  She is the author of "Using Corpora in the Language Learning Classroom: Corpus Linguistics for Teachers" (University of Michigan Press, 2010).  Currently, she teaches online M.A. courses for TESOL and applied linguistics and writing for international freshman at The George Washington University.

TEACHING GRAMMAR EFFECTIVELY TO ESL WRITERS

Janet Lane The University of California, Davis	Ellen Lange The University of California, Davis

Academic writing teachers face the challenge of guiding students to incorporate grammatical knowledge into their writing.  Related to this problem is understanding how difficult it is for students to move from studying grammar rules to developing grammatical competency in writing.  This workshop will focus on which grammar points to emphasize to maximize student writers’ progress in high-intermediate to advanced level classes; how to select which aspects of a grammar point need to be stressed; and how to develop activities specifically designed to move students towards using the grammar they have learned in their own writing. The workshop will be highly interactive and participants will leave with activities that they can immediately incorporate into their own classrooms.

Levels:  S, CC, C/U, IEP

Janet Lane is a lecturer in Linguistics at the University of California, Davis, where she teaches academic writing and speaking skills courses. She is co-author of Writing Clearly: Grammar for Editing, Third Edition, (Heinle Cengage, 2012). Her research interests include responding to ESL/multilingual writing and addressing the needs of nonnative English speaking teaching assistants.  She previously taught in the UC Davis intensive English program, in the corporate workplace, and overseas at the University of Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania.

BEST PRACTICES FOR TEACHERS OF ESL LISTENING: BACK TO BASICS

Steven Brown
Youngstown State University, Ohio

This workshop considers the basics of teaching ESL listening in two senses of the word “basic.” We will examine some basic assumptions that have been common in ESL teaching and materials and then explore a more balanced approach that takes into account the details of speech as well as the context of the encounter. We will also go back to teaching basics and look at various low-tech ways to present listening tasks.  There will be ample time to develop some take-away materials for classroom use.

Levels: All

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