November 2008 - Forum

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English Teachers' Forum - 29 November, 2008

The English Teachers' Forum will host a three-hour workshop presented by Amy Sarkiss of Cambridge University Press. In this workshop, Amy Sarkiss will present different ways to exploit Cambridge University teaching materials and English language books in general in order to make learning more interesting and fun for learners. The workshop will provide teachers with exciting new ways to make the lessons more productive, memorable and rewarding.

Amy Sarkiss is a Teacher Trainer and Editorial Consultant for Cambridge University Press, Middle East-North Africa.  She holds a BA in English and Comparative Literature from the American University in Cairo and the RSA CTEFLA and DTEFLA from Cambridge University. She was an EFL teacher for fourteen years, the last nine of which were at the British Council in Cairo, Egypt.

Please join us!

Date:  Saturday, 29 November, 2008

Time:  10:00am (Time 3 hrs approx)

Location: Alshati Language and Training Center - map: http://www.altc-ly.com/contactus.html

Refreshments will be served. 

Please forward this message to others who may be interested in attending.

July's ETF workshop

Waha Training Centre hosted July's Teachers' Forum with a workshop of Motivating Games and Activities. 

Presented by Amina and Zainab Shabani, the workshop highlighted various way to use games and other activities to motivate students at different levels. The teachers who attended were able to try out different games as well as share their own ideas. 

Not only was the workshop fun and entertaining, it was also informative for all who attended.   

Thank you Waha Training Centre for hosting the English Teachers' Forum!

eMagazine for English Teacher Training

Phil Dexter, who is an active participant at English Teachers' Forum meetings, sent in a link to share: Humanising Language Teaching, an eMagazine for English Teacher Training.




This month's issue contains a range of major articles as well as some informative short articles, jokes, and lesson plans and other useful information:

Major Articles

1. Working with a Modified Sound / Color Chart
   Donald E. Cherry, US/Japan
2. Laughter Yoga in English Language Teaching
   Danny Singh, UK
3. Exploiting DVDs’ Extra Features: an Added Bonus in the EFL Class
   María Palmira Massi and Bettiana Andrea Blázquez, Argentina
4. Extensive Reading Programme in Japan: ‘Just studying English is boring... but reading is nice’
   Ian M. Robinson, Japan
5. Art and Artistry in ELT
   Alan Maley, UK

Short Articles

1. Language Learning Strategies
   Carmen Gloria Garrido Barra, Chile
2. Notes to the Theme of “Building a Community of Learners”
   Robert McNeer, Italy
3. The Roots of Improvisation
   Ken Wilson, UK
4. A New Type of Vocabulary Test for Early Language Learning – with a Child and Teacher Friendly Design
   Peter Edelenbos and Angelika Kubanek, Germany
5. Humanising your Staff Room
   Lindsay Clandfield and Duncan Foord, Spain
6. Literature on Language 3: Pronunciation
   Jonathan Marks, Poland
7. Teacher-training in the Dark: Ignorant Westerner Works with Top Quality EFL Teachers from China
   Mario Rinvolucri, UK and Simon Greenall, UK/China
8. The Heart of the Matter: Native Speaker Teachers of English and Non-Native Speaker Teachers of English
   Lou Spaventa, US
9. Off the Beaten Path: Memory Techniques
   Hall Houston, Hong Kong

Please visit the website for further details: Humanising Language Teaching Magazine

Thank You Phil!

English Teachers' Forum, Tripoli, Libya - July 2008

Waha Training Centre will host July's English Teachers' Forum

A workshop of Motivating Games and Activities
~~~~~~
By Amina & Zaineb Shebani

Date: Saturday, July 26, 2008

Time: 10:00am – 12:00pm

Venue: Waha Training Centre - located in Fellah (please click on the map for an enlargement)

Highlights from June's Forum

June’s Forum was hosted by Elite International House, Tripoli. The topic chosen was ‘THROW OUT THE COURSEBOOK (well sometimes)’ and was divided into two different presentations given by the staff of Elite International House.

The First Presentation: One Text – Four Teaching Ideas

This presentation showed four different ideas on how to use an extract from a story, an article or any text of a suitable level for a class.

1 – Divided text – dividing up a text and giving different students in a group the pieces of text to read, explain vocabulary and put in the correct order

2 – Timeline – After eliciting a timeline, students are given a text and asked to make a timeline of the sequences of events that take place in the text.

3 – Vocabulary cards – Two different games using vocabulary words on cards. The first was a vocabulary game in which in groups of four or five, each student picks up a card and explains it’s meaning without showing the card. The other students try to guess the word. In the second game the cards are divided equally among the group, students make sentences using the words on their cards and then dictate their sentences to the other members of their group.

4 – Hot seat – a vocabulary game that uses two teams of students. One student from each team sits in chairs facing the class. The teacher writes a vocabulary word on the board and the team members try to explain the meaning of the word without saying it. The student in the ‘hot seat’ to say the word first wins the point for their team. More points can be awarded for spelling, word stress and using it correctly in a sentence.

The Second Presentation: Outside the Book, Two lesson demonstrations using Authentic Texts

The first part of this presentation involved using an article taken from the internet. First a photo was shown from the story and students asked to guess the story in one minute. This was followed by skimming the story for gist, answering questions and discussion, an exercise from words and phrases taken from the article, and a grammar point from the text.

A warmer for another text taken from the internet was to have the students write a caption for the picture. After everyone shared their ideas the real caption was revealed. Vocabulary was taken from the text and students were asked to put them into categories:

• Words I know and can give an example of
• Words I think I know but I’m not sure about
• Words I don’t know
  

Afterwards students were asked to share the meanings of the words with each other. When the meanings of all vocabulary were understood a gapped text was given to the students who were asked to creatively complete the missing sentences. A second gap fill exercise followed in which students were asked to choose the correct phrase for each gap from a list of phases given. Finally the complete text was given with comprehension questions.

The second part of this presentation was using the local English newspaper, The Tripoli Post, as a part of the lesson. For beginner students it was suggested that teachers have students find pictures of vocabulary written on the board. For students from Elementary and above it was recommended having them describe pictures and talk about events and articles in the paper. The last part of the presentation was showing ways that the classified ads can be used with more advanced students.

After the presentations the forum members discussed the future of the English Teachers’ Forum. Questions raised were:

• How to get more teachers and schools to participate in the monthly forums
• The possibility of having an IATEFL Libya
• Who would host future Forum meetings
• Having a meeting of the managers/directors of Libyan language schools and centres

Elite International House presented a scrumptious buffet following the meeting!

The English Teachers’ Forum would like to thank Elite International House for hosting June's meeting.

Attn: Language Schools in Libya

We are currently making a list of the websites for all language centres in Libya. If you would like to have your school's site listed on the sidebar please let us know the address.

Thank You

English Teacher's Forum - June 2008

The next meeting of The English Teacher's Forum:

Topic: THROW OUT THE COURSEBOOK (well sometimes)

Place: IHTripoli-Elite (see map below)

Date: Saturday, 28th of June, 2008

Time: 10am to 12pm

Click on the map to see it larger.

List of Events – 2008

Unless otherwise noted, the forums will be held on the last Saturday of the month from 10am to 12 noon.

This list will be updated - please check back frequently.

January
• Venue: ICOE
• Topic: Testing

February
• ELTEX

March
• Venue: Kortag English Language Training Center - Ayen Zara, in front of Nasser University
• Topic: English Language Teaching Methodology in Libya

April
• Venue: Jawabi Tech & Training
• Topic: Standardized Testing

May
• Venue: Communication Language Centre
• Topic: Concept Questions - Speaker: Abubaker Habib, from Success School in Benghazi


June
• Venue: IHTripoli-Elite
• Topic: Throw away the coursebook (well sometimes)

July
• Venue: Waha Training Centre
• Topic: Motivating Games & Activities

August
• No event scheduled

September
• Ramadan – No event scheduled

October
• No event scheduled


November
• Venue: Alshatti Training Centre
• Topic: Guest speaker, Amy Sarkiss, from Cambridge University Press

December
• Venue: Yethreb Institute for English and Vocational Studies
• Topic: Using Music in the Libyan EFL/ESL Classroom

Highlights from May's Forum

Communication was the host of the May 2008 English Teacher's Forum. They presented a well planned topic about issues related to lesson planning. The presentation included many activities such as role plays, kinesthetic activities, stories and open discussion. One of the questions discussed was: 'What might go wrong in a lesson plan?' Everyone joined in the discussion by eliciting possible answers and solutions.

Thanks Communication for hosting a very successful Forum!

EL Gazette

The EL Gazette is a monthly international ELT (English Language Teaching) newspaper that covers a range of articles and information for teachers. The journal is available in the traditional paper format and also available in digital format.

Registration for the digital service is free: EL Gazette

English Teacher's Forum, Tripoli - May 2008

The next meeting of The English Teacher's Forum:

Topic: Concept Questions

Speaker: Abubaker Habib, from Success School in Benghazi

Place: Communication (see map below)

Date: Saturday, 31st of May, 2008

Time: 10am to 12pm

Click on the image to see an enlargement

Click on the image to see an enlargement

IATEFL Teacher Training Sessions

The current up-to-date list of recordings available from the recent IATEFL Exeter online conference, to be found at:

http://exeteronline.britishcouncil.org/mod/resource/view.php?id=189

(You will need to register first, but that costs nothing.)

Recordings of sessions available

Find them in their respective Special Interest Areas or click on the titles to go directly there:

• Catherine Walter & Michael Swan - Teaching reading skills - mostly a waste of time? (Applied Linguistics)
  
• Robert Hill - Expansive reading: the text and beyond (Literature, Media & Cultural Studies, Materials Development)
  
• Margit Szesztay - Using visuals creatively (Teacher Development)
  
• Jennifer Uhler & Jeffrey Mattison - Interactive group blogging: teacher reflection, global connections (Teacher Training & Education, Teacher Development)
• Janice Bland - Choosing literary texts for critical literacy in language education (Young Learners, Literature, Media & Cultural Studies)
  
• Graham Stanley - Tales of mystery and imagination: teenage learners and second life (Learning Technologies, Learner Autonomy)
  
• Zarina Subhan-Brewer - From the language of colonialism to that of conflict mitigation? (Global Issues)
  
• John Wells & Gerald Kelly - Is it time to lay R.P. to rest? (Pronunciation)
  
• Susan Barduhn - What keeps teachers going? What keeps teachers developing? (Teacher Training & Education, Teacher Development)
  
• Gary Motteram - Sociocultural language teacher education (Teacher Training and Education, Teacher Development)
  
• Anna Gorevanova - Encouraging learner autonomy: the SOLC experience (Learner Autonomy)
  
• Ian McMaster - So who can't you understand and why? (Business English)
  
• Barry Tomalin - How to teach culture? (Literature, Media & Cultural Studies)
  
• Bev Davies - The real world? Taking ESOL support beyond academic survival (ESOL)
• Anne Burns - Currriculum research and practice in Australian ESOL (ESOL)
• Gavin Dudeney - Net advantage: marketing 2.0 (ELT Management, Learning Technologies)
• Hugh Dellar - ELF – and other fairy stories (Global Issues)
• Hyoshin Kim - Bringing debate into the classroom (Young Learners)

Discussion threads are available for all the above presentations, in their respective Special Interest Areas.

Recordings of sessions that were broadcast live

• The Pecha Kucha session
  
• Alastair Pennycook's plenary session - Changing global ELT practices
• British Council panel discussion - Debating frameworks for diversity and equal opportunity in ELT
• Closing plenary - Radmila Popovic - Forging peace through ELT: utopia or reality?
  

Others will be available soon.

Highlights from April's Forum

We thank Jawabi for hosting April's forum.

Our gracious hosts offered a huge buffet so that we could get acquainted over and then we proceeded on to the meeting.

The topic of discussion was:

" Do we teach what we test or do we test what we teach?"

Slips were given out for guidance to the grouped teachers. The discussion became quite intense but was always well controlled and monitored, nevertheless.

Also discussed was the need to standardise tests locally in Libyan language centres. We came to a conclusion that we test what we teach.

Again we thank Jawabi for hosting us and presenting a very successful workshop!

IATEFL - Exeter

You don't have to go to the IATEFL conference to be able to participate in the events because the IATEFL - Exeter website has many of the sessions available online in the form of videos. You have to register first, but this is free.

http://exeteronline.britishcouncil.org/login/index.php

English Teacher's Forum, Tripoli - April 2008

The next meeting of the English Teachers' Forum:

Host: Jawabi Tech & Training

Topic: Standardized Testing

Date: Saturday, April 26th, 2008

Time: 11:00 am to 1:00 pm

Click on the map below for a larger image.

The March 2008 Forum

The March 2008 English Teachers' Forum was graciously hosted by Kortag English Language & Training Center. Various problems that face Libyan English teachers were discussed and possible solutions and ideas were shared.
Six questions were posed for open discussion:

1. The Libyan English teachers are not familiar enough with the Course Book which they are supposed to tutor. Do you agree? What are possible solutions?

2. Teacher take the responsibility for meaning-understanding. There is little opportunity for students to develop the skills of understanding words or structures in context. Do you agree? What are possible solutions?

3. Students repeat words in isolation without evidence that they have understood the meaning. Do you agree? What are possible solutions?

4. All the classroom language pratice shows that although students are 'on task' they have few opportunities to demonstrate independent learning. Do you agree? What are possible solutions?

5. Procedures for receptive skills (listening, reading) do NOT orient the students to the subject matter before they are expected to read or listen to it. Responses are expected before students fully understand the texts. Do you agree? What are possible solutions?

6. Procedures for productive skills (writing, speaking) are very teacher-controlled which results in little opportunity in class for students to produce language of their own and they are in some cases insufficiently prepared to produce this language in follow-up or homework tasks. Do you agree? What are possible solutions?
Special thanks to Hamed Hritani for producing the material along with a powerpoint and to Laila Arif for helping to present the material for discussion.

English Teachers' Forum, Tripoli - March 2008

The next meeting of the English Teachers' Forum:

Host: Kortag English Language & Training Center
located near Nassar University, Ayen Zara, Tripoli

Topic: English Language Teaching Methodology in Libya

Date: Saturday, March 29th, 2008

Time: 10:00 am to 12:00 noon

English Teacher Forum Activities