Dear all,

here are this week’s news:

1.Beyza held the first session of the ICT reading club. In the session, the first chapter of Horton’s book entitled “ Designing E-learning”  was discussed. The participants shared their reflections and the possible implications on Scola context.

If you are interested in e-learning and educational technology, it is still not too late. Beyza will be delivering this session again on November 10th between 15.00-16.15.

 

2. Please find the below e-mail we received from EAQUALS:

Our Associate Member, Pearson, is looking for Young Learner teachers who would be interested in taking part in a new research project. 
Please reply direct to rating@pearson.com.Dear colleagues, 

Get paid to rate the first set of global Young Learner learning objectives

 

Pearson has just launched an initial set of 410 Global Scale of English Learning Objectives for Young Learners that describe what learners age 6-14 should be able to do across each of the four skills.

 

We are now looking for teachers who have experience in teaching Young Learners (aged 6-14) and an interest in the CEFR to become part of our group of trained ‘Expert Raters’.


What does rating involve?

  • Attending a training webinar:  this takes approx. 60-90 minutes. Several sessions are scheduled to accommodate different time-zones.
  • Rating batches of around 120 new Learning Objectives: each batch takes about 2-3 hours and we allow 2 weeks to complete it in your own time. The rating is done in a spreadsheet.
  • For each batch of Learning Objectives rated, we provide a ‘thank you’ payment of £60 (or local equivalent) as an appreciation of your time. This is made as a bank-transfer.

Upcoming training session:

We have YL rater training sessions coming up on:

  • Wednesday November 30th
    • Morning 7:00-8:30 Eastern Standard time (EST)
    • Afternoon 15:00-16:30 EST
  • Friday December 2nd
    • Morning 7:00-8:30 Eastern Standard time (EST)
    • Afternoon 15:00-16:30 EST

(timings are given in US EST. To check local times, click here)

 

How do I get involved?

If you are interested in participating, please contact rating@pearson.com by and provide the following information:

  • In which country are you based
  • How you heard about becoming a rater (e.g. Eaquals email)
  • Which training session you would like to attend
  • Which of the following learner groups you have experience in teaching:
    • Young Learners aged 6-10
    • Young Learners aged 10-14
    • Adults – General English
    • Adults – Business English
    • Adults – Academic English

About GSE

The Global Scale of English (GSE) is a standardised, granular scale which measures English language proficiency. It is aligned to the Common European Framework (CEFR).
The project has so far involved thousands of experienced ELT teachers from over 50 countries who are helping us to establish the proficiency level of the new GSE Learning Objectives. This research project is ongoing as we continue to expand the Young Learner set.
You can download the GSE Learning Objectives for Young Learners here or find them in the GSE Teacher Toolkit.
Contact rating@pearson.com if you require further information.

3.

IATEFL Learner Autonomy  Special Interest Group (LASIG) invite you to participate in their webinar with David Nunan  this Saturday 12 Nov 2016 at 10am GMT. David will be speaking on Language learning beyond the classroom

The webinar is open to anyone who is interested. It will be recorded and available in the IATEFL members area after the event has aired.   You can access the webinar here: https://iatefl.adobeconnect.com/_a875541554/lasigwebinars/   To find out what time the webinar airs from your location please check out the world clock here

The two contexts for language learning and use are inside the classroom and outside the classroom. Until comparatively recently, the classroom world was where language was learned, and the world beyond the classroom was where language was used. This bifurcation between language learning and use began to break down with the advent of communicative language teaching which brought with it experiential learning and the notion that one could actually acquire a language by using it productively and communicatively inside the classroom. The fact is, however, that the context of language use outside the classroom makes it quite a different experience from language use inside the classroom.

Until relatively recently, opportunities for activating classroom learning in the world outside the classroom were limited in many parts of the world. All that has changed with technology, particularly the Internet, which provides learners with access to an astonishing variety of authentic and output. The proliferation of social networking sites provide learners with opportunities to communicate in speech and writing with other users of their chosen target language around the globe.

In this presentation, I will argue that learning through using language in authentic as well as pedagogically structured contexts outside the classroom can significantly enhance the language learning process. Practical illustrations and examples in the form of case studies will be presented to illustrate the rich variety of opportunities that exist for language learning and use outside the classroom.

 

David is Professor Emeritus of Applied Linguistics at the University of Hong Kong and Distinguished Research Professor at Anaheim University. He is a former president of TESOL, and is currently a trustee and executive committee member of The International Research Foundation for English Language Education (TIRF). He has published over 30 books on curriculum development, language teaching methodology, research methods, and teacher education.    http://lasig.iatefl.org/index.html

Have a great week,

Best,

TLDU