ELC spearheads 3rd ELTPD Workshop

Dr. Said Masoud Ali Kashoob, Dean of Ibri College of Technology, together with Mr. Younus Mohammed Saif Al Zaabi and Ms. Nawal Al Sawafi, Assistant Deans for Academic Affairs and Student Affairs graced the said event.

Mr. Donald Sargeant, Regional Teacher Trainer and Adviser in Batinah North, delivered the keynote address and focused on “Engagement is More than Technology.” He explained that since humans first became thinking animals, the engagement of the learner with knowledge or skills presented, tasks, peers and possible teachers has been essential in any learning experience.  He also presented some of the ways teachers can engage students by using experiential learning and authentic materials in a collaborative atmosphere.

Lecturers from different universities and colleges shared their expertise through paper presentations and workshops during the afternoon concurrent sessions. Among the presenters were the following:

Dr. Joseph Decena Dayag, an EFL lecturer, teacher trainer and researcher, presented the significance of games in motivating and engaging students, particularly in grammar classes.

Dr. Rajan Philips, an ELT professional for 20 years, a regular presenter at language conferences and a freelance columnist, conducted a workshop that focused on jigsaw as a cooperative and effective learning strategy in a mixed-ability classroom.

Mr. Al-Mahanad Rashid Hamed Al-Badi, an English instructor at A’Sharqyiah University, discussed the staging of vocabulary and how to choose a set of words for a listening/reading lesson. He utilised practical activities for teaching vocabulary following a test-teach-test approach. Moreover, the workshop included practical recap activities that teachers can use in their lessons.

Ms. Noura Al-Azzani and Ms. Beena Thomas, both English lecturers at Al Buraimi College, shared some teaching strategies to make learning grammar easy through games.

Dr. Tony Waterman is currently an ESP course book writer and teacher trainer for the Royal Air Force of Oman in Muscat. He compared a UK-published grammar practice book with locally produced materials. He presented findings from an action research study examining learners’ reactions to both types of materials. Dr. Waterman highlighted key implications for selecting, adapting and replacing global with local materials.

Ms. Tatyana Brushko, an English lecturer at Higher College of Technology, highlighted the multipurpose use of modern technology devices such as Kahoot, Socrative and IWB in ELT classrooms. She said that regular use of these devices could help address concepts that students have failed to understand or skills they struggle with in real time as well as promote students’ engagement in the classroom.

Dr. Victoria Tuzlukova, Ms. Hranush Ginosyan and Mr. Mohammed G. Hadra are lecturers at the Centre for Preparatory Studies at Sultan Qaboos University. They explored lexical and content matching of the English language with IT foundation program course materials used to address the learning outcomes specified by the GFP standards. They also considered the implications of corpus-based alignment and fostering cross-disciplinary dialogue in material adaptation and development.

Dr. Victoria Tuzlukova and Ms. Katherine Usha Prabhukanth, both currently working at the Center of Preparatory Studies of Sultan Qaboos University, presented a study that addressed critical thinking and problem-solving teaching at Sultan Qaboos University. It explored foundation program students’ participation and responses to new pedagogical orientations and approaches that recognize the importance of 21st century skills as those of social empowerment and enhanced communication.

Prof. Reima Al-Jarf taught EFL and ESP for 26 years. She reviews articles for numerous international journals including some journals. Her first presentation focused on connecting technical terms with their pronunciation, part of speech, singular or plural forms, synonyms, antonyms, meaning, usage and other component parts. Categorization, association, visualization skills and mnemonic approaches were emphasized, whereas mind maps along with extensive reading and listening activities, were also encouraged for consolidation. Furthermore, she introduced reading products and process skills, test types, types of assessment, characteristics of a good test, test planning and preparation, table of specifications, passage selections, question format, test instructions, test format, answer keys, scoring answers and others. She also discussed various sample reading tests.

Mr. Wilson Kodamanchili has been teaching English Language in Ministry of Education, Sharqiya South, Sultanate of Oman since 2001.  He conducted a workshop exploiting e-tools like films or videos in ELT to develop linguistic competence and learner autonomy. This workshop engaged learners in activities that demanded their participation and empowered them to use the language independently.

Dr. Sultan Al Ghafri is the head of the English Language Programs Section, ELC at Ibri College of Technology. His presentation provided answers to why, what, and how learning experiences in the classroom help in engaging students in their own learning. The “why” section focused on relevance. The “what” portion addressed the involvement of students. The “how” aspect   considered the students’ way of learning.

Ms. Fazilat Jahan is an ESL instructor at Ibri College of Technology. She discussed in her presentation that English as an international lingua franca points to the fact that the learners are exposed to an array of accents inside and outside the classroom. She also expressed her concern that equipping our students to communicate in the real world is an overlooked learning outcome.

Mr. Joseph Vadakel and Mr. Jose Chandapillai both teach in the Post Foundation and Foundation Courses at Ibri College of Technology. According to their presentations, employing gadgets is a viable option for teachers to engage and motivate their students in an SCL environment.

After the concurrent sessions, a panel discussion was held in the Lecture Theatre, where participants raised questions that were answered by Prof. Reima Al Jarf, Mr. Jamil Al Manasrah, Mr. Younus Mohammed Saif Al Zaabi and Mr. Donald Sargeant as the members of the panel.

Mr. Faisal Al Shamali delivered the closing remarks.