Education Commons^™

Teaching Cultural Awareness Using The Four Skills, Alison Garza

MA TESOL Collection

The following project examines the validity of teaching cultural awareness in a language classroom and includes five readers’ theatre plays that help students explore five different countries from around the globe. The countries were determined by the nationalities of the students that participated in the project. The setting for this study was a pull out ESL program in a public school with a large multi-ethnic population. Besides the plays, there are lesson plans, activities sheets and a biography of multi cultural books for children. All activities are designed to incorporate the four skills: reading, writing, speaking and listening.

The paper …

Nate And The One Sixty-Eight, Michael S. Mcmillan

MA TESOL Collection

This paper explores the fate of 168 students who failed the Level 4 test at the American University Alumni (AUA) Language Center in Bangkok, Thailand. It examines enrollment trends of all Level 4 students during a one-year study period spanning 2006 and 2007, and reveals what happened to the students – who dropped out (and when), and who continued to study. It also examines why students might have dropped out. It then takes a critical look at certain aspects of the Level 4 test, explores what makes a test a “good” test, and recommends a series of improvements to AUA’s …

Motivating Students To Learn, Luz María Cueva Zepeda

MA TESOL Collection

This thesis presents four activities that motivated my students in a public High School in a small city in Mexico to learn by inviting them be active participants in their language learning process. Added to the regular classroom work, these activities encouraged everyone to make an extra effort. Students had the opportunity to shine and to comprehend that they each have a greater potential for learning. Students gained another perspective about learning English. They were given the opportunity to enrich their experience not only in speaking English, but in applying their efforts to new challenges. They did so by writing …

Visual Language: Using Color, Myth And Image To Present Grammar In The Spanish Language Classroom, April Miller Mcmurtry

MA TESOL Collection

Spanish grammar can be presented in a memorable way by using a system of color-coding and storytelling. This materials development project includes three stories written or adapted by the author to present the gender of nouns, noun/adjective agreement and verb inflection. Images of the sun and the moon, and the colors purple and orange are used to illustrate masculine and feminine gender of nouns. Chameleons and the color green exemplify adjectives. Additionally, patterns of verb conjugation charts are presented using color to show how verbs inflect to agree with the subject pronoun and tense. While learning Spanish grammar, these colors …

Attending To Your Needs As A Teacher: The Impact Of Being An Introvert When Teaching Foreign Languages, Gretchen B. Livingston

MA TESOL Collection

This paper explores the role that being an introvert plays in foreign language teaching. As a Spanish teacher and an introvert, I expend extraordinary energy to compensate for my natural tendency to recede. The profession I have chosen requires exceptional and constant effort.

I define introvert in the context that I understand it. I recognize the limitations of the label and try to look beyond those.

I share different pieces of my own life story and share different contexts to illuminate how I have become a successful introvert teacher.

I speak to the paradox that what I love most about …