Curriculum and Instruction Commons^™

Movement, Rhythms, And Music: Active Curriculums For Teaching Foreign Languages To Beginning Learners, Patricia Guillemin Gregory

MA TESOL Collection

Our task as educators is to fit our teaching methods to our learners. Middle school students have specific characteristics that can seem to interfere with learning. Among these characteristics are a bounty of energy and restlessness. The key for the teacher is to channel this energy into learning activities.

To understand a class and develop a teaching strategy for that class, the teacher should analyze the learning styles of the students. From the results of this analysis, the teacher can build effective lesson plans which match the trends that appear in the class.

With this data in hand, the teacher …

Activities For Integrating Reading And Writing In The Language Classroom, Leslie Giesen

MA TESOL Collection

This project aims to provide teachers with a selection of practical activities for integrating reading and writing in the language classroom. It first looks at the connections between reading and writing and discusses how their integration enhances learning. A compilation of before-reading, during-reading and after-reading activities with detailed lesson plans follows.

“Making Teaching Lexis And Structures To Adult Efl Learners More Effective Through Creating A Learning Community And Fostering Some Specific Learning Skills.” (A Curriculum For A Short-Term Development Course For Non-Native Speaker Efl Teachers), Oleksandr Klyevanov

MA TESOL Collection

Nowadays, EFL teachers are exposed to a large number of different approaches to teaching English. All of them, no matter how much they differ, focus on the objectives shared by all teachers regardless of their theoretical background, namely teaching lexis and structures. However, some approaches ignore what I have come to believe are necessities: creating a learning community, teaching strategies for retention and recycling lexical and structural items. By learning community I mean a group of learners who are focused on learning the target subject of knowledge, who expend their energies on learning, who feel secure being together and working …

Internet-Based Efl University Course Design: Humanistic Considerations, Options And Approaches, Russell Garafalo

MA TESOL Collection

This paper focuses on the developing field of internet-based education as it pertains to the EFL learning environment within the university context. Guidelines and suggestions for approaching EFL course design at the university level are presented in universal terms, with details from one specific Korean university context serving as the experiential touchstone. Humanistic education is the underlying theme of this paper which outlines ways of adapting humanistic learning principles to internet-based classrooms. The learning potential afforded by the internet is weighed against its potential drawbacks. The paper attends to considerations that need to be taken into account at all stages …

Well Begun Is Half Done: Preparing For The Start Of A New Class, Stephanie C. Downey

MA TESOL Collection

This paper explores the critical learning moment that occurs on the first day in a new language class as the individual students, group and teacher interact for the first time. It states that the first day can influence the entire direction a course takes and asserts that the learner, the group, the teacher and the cultural context are key variables that determine how the first day turns out. It argues that by being aware of the impact each of these variables has on learning, the teacher can direct the emotional, mental and social energy of the group positively and create …

Helping Students To Learn: Addressing Student Affect And The Four Skills In An English Communication Skills Course For Students Of Health Sciences, Nicholas Dimakides

MA TESOL Collection

This study in two cycles describes the development of an English oral communication skills course for students of health sciences at a Finnish university. In the first cycle attempts were made to increase students' positive affect by developing community, increasing student security, and providing choice, which was expected to facilitate and enhance the students' learning. In the second cycle the focus was on providing access for students to tasks and activities, and more fully integrating all four skills into the syllabus. This was expected to increase and improve the amount and quality of students' language production. The findings of this …

Esl Curriculum Guide For Seoul Foreign School, Brian Brumsickle

MA TESOL Collection

The ESL Curriculum Guide for Seoul Foreign School (SFS) was written as a map for ESL teachers to follow in order to organize and prioritize curriculum in a sequential manner for students. The guide can also be used for parents as well as other faculty at SFS to inform them of materials and content taught during the academic year. The first document in the Guides relates “Best Practices” which encapsulate the vision for the subject area and serve as the anchor document from which the second, the “Standards” document, was developed. Throughout “Best Practices,” there is linkage with SFS’s expected …

Using A Story As A Basis For Working With Language And Culture, Marie Finnigan Miyashi

MA TESOL Collection

The focus of this paper is the development of linguistic materials for adult ESL/EFL students based on the use of a story involving and ethical or moral dilemma. The story and follow-up activities which are presented can be utilized in a variety of settings. This paper will describe how this framework was originally used for intercultural seminars as well as how it can be used to teach linguistic aspects of language in the ESL/EFL classroom. I relate my personal history in learning to use stories with adult learners, and discuss my beliefs regarding their value in the classroom. A module …

University Students As Near Peer English Teachers In A Weekend English Camp For High School Students In Japan, Annie Marquez

MA TESOL Collection

This paper presents a way to use university students as near peer role models and student leaders for a weekend English camp experience for a small group of high school students. It explores the basic design for the project, and outlines the rationale for the syllabus for preparing the near peer role models in a semester conversation class at a Japanese university. It details each of the activities used during the English camp experience, and shares reflections from the participants on the community experience.

Dictation: What And How Students Learn From It, Marilyn C. Fisher

MA TESOL Collection

In the cycle of preferred English language teaching techniques, dictation is currently out of favor. Today, anything inviting the term “old-fashioned” is passed over without consideration as to what qualities made it popular in the past.

This paper reconsiders the merits of dictation use in the classroom, pedagogical theory, and supportive research, and the author’s experimental work with student group dynamics centered on dictation exercises.

My own classroom research shows interesting ways students catch or miss language clues and meaning in dictation exercises and how their minds are directed to analyze the incoming language both during the exercise and after, …

Error Analysis And Curriculum Development In An Efl Classroom In Taiwan, Meng Teh Wu

MA TESOL Collection

It is the premise of this paper that errors provide invaluable information for guiding teachers and learners in the process of language acquisition. They offer insights for the teacher in constructing curricula and help the students with their ingerlanguage development. Errors should not be regarded as negative indicators. They are significant guide posts in the learning process. When and how to correct errors and what errors to correct has been the focus of Error Analysis studies. In this respect this paper is no exception. Special emphasis has been laid, however, on how to translate theoretical concepts into the author’s classroom …

The Importance Of Community Building In The Efl Classroom, Svitlana Trofymenko

MA TESOL Collection

This paper argues that success in the EFL classroom depends less on techniques and materials, and more on the relationships between the class members and the educational climate. It asserts that, because the creation of a sense of community facilitates learning in different ways, the most important talk of a teacher is to foster a sense of community between students in the language classroom as well s to challenge them with linguistic tasks. A classroom community can increase student motivation and self-esteem. It can reduce extreme anxiety and maximize student-student interaction in the EFL classroom. It can also facilitate co-operation …

The Effect Of Educational Kinesiology On Second Language Acquisition, Tina Lynne Haverstick

MA TESOL Collection

This thesis is a summary of my experience working with the theory of Educational Kinesiology (Edu-K) in the foreign language classroom environment. It may serve as a guide for anyone who is interested in tapping into the full potential of students’ brains within a structured learning environment.

A case study is presented here examining the effects of educational kinesiology on two groups of kindergarten students I taught simultaneously in my EFL classroom in Taiwan.

I chose to assess their attitudes toward different classroom activities, including those geared toward improving listening, speaking, reading and writing, as well as the overall attitude …

Adapting The Current Chinese Textbooks To Meet The Requirements Of The National Standards, Gloria Feung

MA TESOL Collection

The ever-increasing diversity of the language classroom has become a trend in this pluralistic American society. The presence of large groups of students who have home backgrounds in Chinese has outnumbered the non-native speakers in my class at Enloe High School in recent years. Since Chinese is still a small program, the school cannot offer a separate track for non-native students. Furthermore, due to the limited number of classes, students officially registered in different levels cannot be placed in different classrooms. How to provide a feasible, sequenced, and integrated curriculum to a mixture of native-speakers and non-native speakers as well …

Drama Methodology And Its Usage In Removing Barriers To English Language Acquisition In Japanese University Students, C Malcom Barry Duff

MA TESOL Collection

This paper examines how drama methodology can be used to remove barriers to English acquisition and to encourage English language production in Japanese university students. The effect of the affective filter and Monitor use in language production will be covered. The use of drama methodology will be analyzed and its usage in the classroom evaluated. The use of drama techniques to create lessons will be demonstrated.

Unleashing The Writer Within: A Workshop Based Writing Course Designed To Release Student Fears, Cultivate Creativity And Develop Editing Skills, Kimberly Sue Connelly

MA TESOL Collection

Establishing a community of learners in a language classroom produces a fertile environment in which to teach any and all language skills. Building community was the focus of the Writing Workshop that I designed and taught to large classes of high beginner to advanced immigrants, refugees, and international students in a college level ESL program. The activities I developed for the first weeks connect students to each other through creativity, music and art, authorize students to set their own goals, encourage them to examine their writing anxieties, and allow them to explore their identities as writers. By breaking down fears …

Using Innovative Language Learning Methods With Mombusho Textbooks, Janet Melinda Beane

MA TESOL Collection

This paper shows how chapters from two different textbooks at different levels might be taught using several different methods. The paper begins with a discussion of my reasons for choosing this topic and goes on to lay out what I feel a method needs to consider in order to be a good method. In the next section, I go on to introduce various innovative language teaching methods such as ALM, TPR and the Silent Way. For each method I include a short section of background information including the principles and techniques of each lesson. Then I contrast a typical lesson …

African Film: A Dynamic Medium For A High School French Class Cultural Curriculum, Denise Elizabeth Dunn Barstow-Girel

MA TESOL Collection

Culture can be an integral part of the French foreign language class when students learn French language and Francophone culture through a content-based approach using the medium of African films. Founded on the pedagogical value of a thematic study of issues aimed at raising linguistic, cultural, and global awareness in adolescent, fourth or fifth year high school French students, I developed this cultural curriculum focused on Francophone African culture. While learning the French language, students will gain knowledge of West African cultures including historical aspects, and the role of the French language in this region.

The Affect Of Writing On The Internet, Jane Hoelker

MA TESOL Collection

This paper is a description of the development, objectives, implementation and results of an advanced composition course conducted on the Internet with IWE (International Writing Exchange) of the Helsinki University of Technology. The purpose of the course was to motivate students of English who were discouraged during the difficult IMF era in Korea in 1998. During the 90's the majority of English Education majors at Pusan National University in Korea had studied and/or traveled overseas for extensive periods of time during their undergraduate career. But, in 1998 opportunities for overseas travel and study had been greatly curtailed due to IMF …

Serving Esol Recipients In A Welfare To Work Program, Dawn Elizabeth Jackman

MA TESOL Collection

Supported Work Program is a Welfare to Work program designed to serve “the hardest to serve” Welfare recipients. The primary goal of the program is to assist recipients in finding and retaining work.

This paper draws upon research done while I was a Basic Skills Instructor for a Supported Work Program in Charlestown, MA. Originally hired as a Reading/Writing teacher, my responsibilities included teaching basic brush up of English Grammar, Reading Comprehension Skills and Writing. I soon found that my classroom was comprised of a wide spectrum of people including many ESOL welfare recipients. The inclusion of ESOL participants was …

The Transition To A Project-Based Curriculum, Cheryl Hoffman

MA TESOL Collection

This paper examines the initial stages in transforming a grammar-based English as a Second Language curriculum into a project-based one that aims to develop learners’ communicative competence. Included is a definition of project-based learning and communicative competence. The background and setting of the curriculum project are described. The emergence of project-based courses and the transition to these courses is also discussed. Implications for future curriculum projects are considered in terms of managing change within an English language program.

Adapting The C-L/Cll Approach To A Conventional Textbook Setting: A Novice Teacher’S Reality, Laura Fleher

MA TESOL Collection

This paper is an analysis of the Counseling-Learning/Community Language Learning Approach’s adaptability in a conventional textbook setting. My second internship experience which takes place in a college summer ESL program is the testing ground for my development as a novice C-L/CLL teacher. Questions, doubts, and concerns about the value of a new and an old teaching method are discussed. The importance of distinguishing between approach, method, and technique is advocated. Utilizing the classic cycle of activities is necessary to a novice teacher’s internalization of the C-L philosophy. However, the conventional teaching method, the textbook, is familiar and valued by students …

Defining Humanistic Philosophy, Pedagogy And Teaching Practices In Relation To English Language Teaching, Robert G. Emigh

MA TESOL Collection

The intentions of this study was to arrive at a better understanding of how teachers define humanistic education, and how this understanding informs and influences their approaches to language teaching. The first section of this paper overviews the thoughts of three prominent humanistic educators. This is meant to serve as a grounding for the second part of the paper which reports and analyses the results of a study of eleven practicing EFL and ESL teachers. The teachers responded to a questionnaire and submitted to an interview regarding how they viewed humanistic education and how those views translated into teaching practices.

Closure: A Forgotten Aspect Of English As A Second Language Teaching Pedagogy, Connie J. Douglass

MA TESOL Collection

I realized early in my teaching career, I didn’t know how to begin or end a class. I quickly learned how to build community in a classroom by using ice breaker activities to provide a sense of my adult learners needs, wants and dreams. When it was time for the class to end, I had no sense for what my adult multi-cultural students were thinking or feeling. Generally speaking we (my students and I) would plan to have a party or meet somewhere for drinks. No one would show up. Usually I would never see these students again. Not only …

Internet Users’ Manual For English Language Teaching Professionals: Enjoyable Internet Understanding, Jack Bailey

MA TESOL Collection

This paper serves as an overview of the Internet and its resources available to English Language Teaching professionals. The intended audience is both instructors new to Internet technologies as well as those well versed in the Net but looking for further resources. Initial sections give the reader a brief overview of the Internet, its history, and its most prominent component parts including e-mail, mailing lists, newsgroups and chat rooms. Primary emphasis is placed on the categorizing and description of key web sites most useful to English Language instructors and administrators. Each site listing contains addresses (URLs), general site descriptions and …

International Business And Culture Course Development And Teacher Growth, Deborah Lang Bainbridge

MA TESOL Collection

This paper describes the development process of an International Business and Culture Course for a new certificate program at the Colorado International Education and Training Institute (CIETI). I was hired for the specific purpose of designing this course. This paper is a compilation of some of the resources I’ve collected, experiences of what worked and what did not work, learning and teaching ideas I’ve incorporated from my course work at SIT, and my personal values and beliefs. My keen interest is in emotional intelligence and I have used it as a unifying theme to explain why I have chosen to …

Council In The Classroom: New Ways Of Knowing, Being And Interacting, Ximena Allub

MA TESOL Collection

This paper examines my learnings on Council, an ancient form of communication, currently being revisited and remolded to suit modern needs. In this vein I explored its application in a school environment. I describe here a year-long study of Council that took me to both Argentina and the United States. The focus is primarily on a different form of classroom management and its impact on students and their learning.

In chapter one, I give an introduction to Council, outlining its history, and providing a brief explanation of the philosophy behind it.

In chapter two, I look at my experience as …

Timed Conversation: One Routine For Engaging Large Classes Of Non-Motivated Learners In Meaningful Oral Communication, Bradley J. Deacon

MA TESOL Collection

This paper will explore an activity called “Timed Conversation” that I use in large classes of relatively unmotivated first and second year non-language majors in a Japanese university setting. Timed Conversation is designed to help students to communicate in native-like and incrementally longer sustained dialogues in the target language. In the activity, the students interact with many partners and practice conversations while practicing various language expressions. In every lesson over the course of a semester they speak in conversations about a number of topics for a set limit of time. The goal is to be able to speak more fluently …

Traditional Vs. Non-Traditional Blocks Of Time In Relationship To Teaching And Learning: An Independent Professional Project, Susan W. Chilson

MA TESOL Collection

This Independent Professional Project reflects a discussion about the use of traditional and non-traditional blocks in their relationship with teaching and learning. It reflects the ways in which teaching and learning might lead to a better outcome if the non-traditional blocks were implemented. It addresses the issues of learning styles and the perceptions that revolve around them.

An overview of visits to several schools across the country is included to offer insight into what the various movements in teaching and learning are in different schools. There are as many similarities throughout the schools in the country as there are differences. …

The Cartoon Cookbook – A Collection Of Stories For Teaching Esl, Carolyn Marie Manzi

MA TESOL Collection

This project is a collection of seven cartoon stories and follow-up exercises for teaching English As A Second Language. It is designed for intermediate and upper intermediate adult learners. Each cartoon has a specific grammatical or socio-linguistic focus. Communicative and written exercises follow each cartoon. The communicative activities are designed to engage students in conversation and creative group expression. The written exercises are of two types-: creative writing activities and traditional fill-in-the-blanks exercises. By engaging in these activities, ESL students may increase their competence in all the four skills areas. This collection of cartoon stories is not meant to be …